Network performance analysis of a PIC-based reconfigurable add-drop multiplexer for multiband applications

Abstract

To reduce costs and simplify operations, network operators are deploying the latest network devices that are power efficient and compact. In this paper, a detailed comparison is made between the design of a reconfigurable add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) based on an integrated circuit (PIC) and the state-of-the-art ROADM devices. In particular, the performance of the device in terms of frequency response parameters is presented in the paper in comparison with the state-of-the-art ROADMs. The proposed PIC based ROADM can operate in a multi-band scenario, including C+L+S bands, and is potentially scalable to many output fibers and routed channels while maintaining a small footprint. A detailed network performance analysis is performed with the proposed PIC-based ROADM device and its impact on the network. Due to increasing traffic demand, the current optical transport infrastructure is experiencing capacity problems: two possible solutions are Spatial Division Multiplexing (SDM) and Bandwidth Division Multiplexing (BDM), which both allow capacity expansion of the existing infrastructure. We have studied the network performance of the proposed ROADM device on the Spain-E network and performed a detailed comparison for the SDM and BDM scenarios. Compared to the SDM approach, which requires the deployment of additional fiber, the cost-effective BDM scenario can better utilize capacity without installing new fiber infrastructure or using dark fibers.