Advanced Modulation For High

Data Rate Optical Transmission:

100G and Beyond
Leigh Wade, Infinera

The State of the Market Today

800G
More
channels

Higher
Data Rates

10Gb/s
NRZ
C-band

80 ch. @ 10G = 800G

More
Spectrum

I will propose that photonic integration

is an excellent solution to all three
capacity challenges

Lower Cost per Bit

Why do we need
more than 800G?

Higher Speed Services

More Capacity

Fiber Exhaust & Network Economics

Cost per Usable Bit

10G

40G
Excess
cost

You want to move

to 40G here

100G

but what if you hit

fiber exhaust here?
Time

Fiber exhaust can force uneconomic network decisions

Double Density Optics Mean Investment Protection

and Option Value
Conventional 80-96 WDM

Infinera Double Density WDM

1 per 50 GHz

1 per 25 GHz

800G in the C-band

1.6T in the C-band

At 40% bandwidth growth, double-density optics mean

two more years to select the lowest cost transmission.

Why doesnt everybody offer Double Density?

Two basic reasons:

WSS ROADMs
designed
around 50GHz
spacing
Operational challenge of 160 discrete
transponders on a single fiber!!

What are you going to see?

Adding a single PIC-

Gaps for
additional waves

Optical
Spectrum
Analyzer

based line card, with

10x10Gb/s waves
100Gb/s of capacity for
the same effort as one
10Gb/s transponder

Existing 10G waves

on the fiber

Stopwatch

PICs reduce operational burden by 10x

But the rest of the optical industry
does not have access to PICs so
They are under pressure to move to
40G and 100G as soon as possible
Not necessarily when its economical!

100G Technology Features

Differentiators

Core Switching & Grooming

Large Scale PICs

Photonic Integration
Fiber Capacity

Table
Stakes

Advanced
Modulation

Coherent
Detection

High Gain FEC

Complex modulation requires

complex optical circuits

Why do I need Complex Modulation?

Optical transmission is about:
Sending high data rates
Over very long distances
For very little money

If you stress any one of these variables, the

others will respond

Our biggest problem is optical fiber:

Loss
Dispersion
Modal dispersion
Chromatic dispersion
Polarization mode dispersion
Non-linear effects
Self phase modulation
Cross phase modulation
Four wave mixing

For a given modulation type, the

gross magnitude of these
impairments scales roughly with
the square of the symbol rate

Think of a light wave...

Oscillating wave
Wavelength

Electronics is about 20,000 times

too slow for direct detection of
wave properties

1550nm

Frequency
193.1 THz

State of the shelf

electronics can process at
~10GHz

So how do we encode and detect signals on

an optical carrier?
Historically, used amplitude modulation

Measures the strength of a large number of waves

On/Off Keying (OOK) may interpret the presence of a
signal as a 1, and the absence of a symbol as a 0

1 bit per symbol: NRZ Modulation

Tx
Laser Modulator

Rx
Detector

NRZ

Simple modulation technique

Easy to implement
Low power use
But very sensitive to fiber impairments
as bitrate increases
This is what were talking about with the square
relationship

Increasing power will trigger non-linear

effects

Phase Shift Keying

In-phase

Out of phase

Interference
patterns

Phase is fundamental property of waves

Two waves in-phase when the peaks & troughs line up
We say that such waves are coherent
If non-coherent waves combine we see:
Reinforcement, cancellation, interference

Interference can be used to extract a lower frequency

modulation from a high frequency carrier

Using Phase to Apply a Signal

The carriers travel
over different paths

Laser generates a
constant carrier

Tx

Rx

LD

MZI

The carrier is
split into 2

When the carriers

recombine they will
contain the data signal
encoded as a series of
phase changes

Can apply a data signal,

S, to vary the delay on
one of the arms

Q: How do we recover the data signal at the receiver?

Hold that thought!

Component Complexity

Tx
Part 1
The Transmitter

Rx

ODB Modulation (Optical Duo-Binary)

First generation 40G modulation scheme

Phase & Amplitude based modulation
Tx
Laser MZ Modulator

Rx
Detector

ODB

Requires MZ modulator
Can use simple, direct detection

Much more tolerant of dispersion

Limited reach
Widely used by 1st Gen 40G
Stratalight, Mintera

1 bit per symbol: DPSK

Re{Ex}

Most basic phase modulation technique

Differential technique allows phase slips to be ignored
Used by OpNext & Mintera, and their OEMs
AKA: BPSK, where local oscillator coherent detection is used

2 bits per symbol: Quadrature PSK

Advanced modulation, 4 phase states = 2 bits

More bits per symbol

2 bits per symbol: Quadrature PSK

1,1

1,0

0,1

0,0

Advanced modulation, 4 phase states = 2 bits

More bits per symbol

3 bits per symbol: 8-PSK

...And higher orders of modulation
0,1,0
0,1,1

1,1,0

1,1,1

0,0,1
0,0,0

1,0,1

1,0,0

8 phase states = 3 bits

Twice as complex, but only 50% more bits
For discrete implementations, 8-PSK seems to be too complex

The Law of Diminishing Returns

Phase States vs Component Complexity
Lets set a circuit complexity factor of 1, to be the
equivalent of a simple DPSK transponder
8

Bit/Hz

16x

Is there a better way to

get to more bit/Hz?

32x9

DPSK

(D)QPSK

8-PSK

16-QAM

32-QAM

64-QAM

Complexity Factor

PM-QPSK, 4 bits per symbol

Two Polarizations
Im{Ex}
Re{Ex}

X-Polarization

Im{Ex}
Re{Ex}
Im{Ey}

Re{Ey}

Y-Polarization

Implementing Phase Modulation Using Discrete

Optical Components...

Implementing Phase Modulation Using Discrete

Optical Components...

This is QPSK...
Im{Ex}

S1

Re{Ex}
S2

This structure called a Super Mach Zehnder

This is a PM-QPSK Transmitter

X Polarizations

LD

PBS

Y Polarizations

Component Complexity

Tx

Rx
Part 2
The Detector

Lets cut to the chase

The only practical, long haul 100G implementations will

be required to use Coherent Detection

What is it, and why is it useful?

What is coherent detection?

Physics definition
A detection technique that is based on the phase properties
of the carrier
If you are using a phase-based detector, you could claim to
be implementing coherent detection
however

Practical definition
The market has now come to expect a coherent detector to
make use of sophisticated, digital signal processing (DSP)
algorithms

Conventional WDM Detection

How do we select the

channel we want to detect?

PD

Mixture of waves on fiber

wideband detector

Conventional WDM Detection

Wavelength demux

PD

Mixture of waves on fiber

wideband detector

Conventional WDM Detection

Direct conversion
of photons into
electrons that
look like bits

Wavelength demux

PD

11010110

Summary of Conventional WDM Detection

Wideband Photodetector (PD) is used
To prevent inter-channel interference, a wavelength
demux is used to spatially separate channels
Modulation technique allows minimal Rx circuit
complexity essentially direct detection
No additional signal processing normally required

Coherent WDM Detection

We could take a mixed signal that uses a
phase-based modulation technique

LO

Use a local oscillator to choose the

color we want to detect

PD

ADC

DSP

Coherent WDM Detection

Convert the
photons to
electrons

LO

PD

Clean it all up!

ADC

Convert the
analog electrons
into digital
electrons

DSP

11010110

Why phase-based modulation?

If you need to detect 5 from 1n, then choose a

local oscillator tuned to 5

Local oscillator does not carry a signal simply a
continuous beam of light
But it is non-coherent with the received signal (ie. it is
out of phase)
Use an array of interferometers to measure the
interference patterns
Convert the interference patterns into an electronic
signal, and process it

The Detector Requires a Complex Optical Circuit

Example: For PM-QPSK Modulation

PD

PD
PM-QPSK Signal

PBS
PD

PD

LO

PBS

The signals that come

out of the PD array are
analog and dirty

Two very different functions in the detector

Separate the polarization components

Phase state
extraction

Create interference against a

reference laser (local oscillator)
Separate the phase components
PD & A/D conversion

Signal processing

Compensate for local oscillator

instability
Compensate for static CD
Compensate for dynamic PMD

How do we implement these functions?

Separate the polarization components

Sophisticated
optical circuit
(PIC)

Create interference against a

reference laser (local oscillator)

Sophisticated digital
signal processing
(DSP)

Compensate for local oscillator

instability

Separate the phase components

PD & A/D conversion

Compensate for static CD

Compensate for dynamic PMD

A Coherent Detector Schematic

(For one wavelength only)
Optical Circuit

Incoming carrier
(2 polarizations, each
with 4 phase states)

Electronic Circuit

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

DSP

PBS

LO
ADC
AMZ
DSP
LO
PD
PS

A/D Converter
Adjustable Mach Zehnder
Digital Signal Processor
Local Oscillator
Photo Detector
Polarization Splitter

PBS

A Coherent Detector Schematic

(For one wavelength only)
Optical Circuit

Incoming carrier
(2 polarizations, each
with 4 phase states)

Electronic Circuit

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

DSP

PBS

1
LO
ADC
AMZ
DSP
LO
PD
PS

A/D Converter
Adjustable Mach Zehnder
Digital Signal Processor
Local Oscillator
Photo Detector
Polarization Splitter

PBS

Step 1: Take the two optical sources signal and local oscillator

A Coherent Detector Schematic

(For one wavelength only)
Optical Circuit

Incoming carrier
(2 polarizations, each
with 4 phase states)

Electronic Circuit

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

DSP

PBS

2
LO
ADC
AMZ
DSP
LO
PD
PS

A/D Converter
Adjustable Mach Zehnder
Digital Signal Processor
Local Oscillator
Photo Detector
Polarization Splitter

PBS

Step 2: Separate the X and Y polarizations

A Coherent Detector Schematic

(For one wavelength only)
Optical Circuit

Incoming carrier
(2 polarizations, each
with 4 phase states)

Electronic Circuit

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

DSP

PBS

3
LO
ADC
AMZ
DSP
LO
PD
PS

A/D Converter
Adjustable Mach Zehnder
Digital Signal Processor
Local Oscillator
Photo Detector
Polarization Splitter

PBS

Step 3: Generate a set of interference patterns in the SMZ array

A Coherent Detector Schematic

(For one wavelength only)
Optical Circuit

Incoming carrier
(2 polarizations, each
with 4 phase states)

Electronic Circuit

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC
DSP

PBS

4
LO
ADC
AMZ
DSP
LO
PD
PS

A/D Converter
Adjustable Mach Zehnder
Digital Signal Processor
Local Oscillator
Photo Detector
Polarization Splitter

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

PBS

Step 4: Convert optical signals to analog electronic signals

A Coherent Detector Schematic

(For one wavelength only)
Optical Circuit

Incoming carrier
(2 polarizations, each
with 4 phase states)

Electronic Circuit

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

5
LO
ADC
AMZ
DSP
LO
PD
PS

A/D Converter
Adjustable Mach Zehnder
Digital Signal Processor
Local Oscillator
Photo Detector
Polarization Splitter

AMZ

PD

ADC

AMZ

PD

ADC

PBS

Step 5: Convert analog to digital and process

DSP

PBS

Coherent Detection Pros and Cons

Pros:
Operates over the existing fiber plant and amp chains
Outstanding reach performance
Closest thing to achieving 40G and 100G with same reach as 10G NRZ
Significant pilot test results indicate it really does work!

Cons:
Potential non-linear interaction with 10G NRZ in same fiber
The cure is managing launch power
Probably represents the practical complexity limit for discretes
State of the shelf DSP technology draws too much power to allow for large
scale implementations (ie. multiple waves in one modules)
Solution is to use emerging 40m DSP technology
DSP operation probably eliminates the chance of future line side interop

So remember

Complex modulation requires

complex optical circuits

Where have we seen this problem before?

In the 1950s computers were made from individual
transistors, resistors and capacitors...

today?

The electronics industry controlled component

complexity with large scale integration
We know the same thing works for optical
components we did it 5 years ago!

Small Scale vs Large Scale Photonic Integration

Small Scale
Operates on a single wavelength
Primarily used to address manufacturing cost

If it works for one wave, why not

CPUs with 2-8 cores

GPUs with 200-800 cores!!

Infinera 100G Transmission Differentiators

500G, Large Scale, Monolithic PIC Implementation
COST
SIZE

CAPACITY
RELIABILITY

500G
Tx PIC

500G
Rx PIC

Number of channels
Monolithic InP Chips

Optical elements
Gold Box Replacements

Fiber Replacements
54 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

POWER

5 x 100G
2
> 600
> 100
> 400

Fat Pipes Are Not Enough

How much capacity can

actually be used?

Infinera 100G Transmission Differentiators

PICs Enable Pervasive Digital Switching
100 Gb/s Transmit

Photonic
Integration

PICs enable
cost-effective OEO

100Gb/s to 1Tb/s WDM

system on a chip

Affordable access to
digital domain
100 Gb/s Receive

56 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Infinera 100G Transmission Differentiators

PICs Enable Pervasive Digital Switching
Optical (O)

100101011101010000101011
100101010101101011010101
110101000010101110010101
001010111011010110010101

Integrated
Switching + WDM

57 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Optical (O)
Integrated Photonics

Integrated Photonics

Photonic
Integration

Electrical (E)

1001
0101
Trib
0101
1010
1101
0101
0101
1010
1101
0101

Enables digital functionality

Integrated switching at every node
High functionality Digital ROADM
Dramatic network simplification

Infinera 100G Transmission Differentiators

PICs Enable Pervasive Digital Switching
10010101110101010000

Integrated
Switching + WDM

Pervasive Digital
Switching

58 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Integrated Photonics

Photonic
Integration

Integrated Photonics

end-end service
10010101010110101011

100101011101010000101011
100101010101101011010101
110101000010101110010101
001010111011010110010101
1001
0101
0101
1010
10010101110101010000
1101
10010101010110101011
0101
0101
1010
1101
0101

Software-based Ease-of-Use
Digital OTN switching at every node
Unconstrained bandwidth everywhere
Lowest cost per switched Gb/s

Solving The 100G Muxponder Tax

The Problem:
Backbone waves move to 100G, but service demands still 10G or lower
All-optical ROADMs have no inter-wavelength, or sub-wavelength
grooming capability 100G muxponders!
Service Demands:
Require Extra,
A C
Partially Filled
A D
Muxponder Pairs

B C

B D
10GbE

Muxponder

10GbE

ROADM Network

All services must go A B

59 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Muxponder

10GbE

10GbE

How big is the

Muxponder Tax
in a real 100G
network?

Infinera National Network Model Summary

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

66%

92%
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10

Revenue Generating (%)

Deployed Capacity (%)

50%

100G
40G
Infinera Digital
Muxponder Muxponder
ROADM
Large N. Am. Network Model: 33,084 route km, 47 core WDM links
About 10 Tb/s of customer service demands (network traffic volume)
60 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Summary of Network Efficiency

A Perfect Storm is emerging in terms of network
bandwidth efficiency:
Wavelength speeds moving to 100Gbit/s
Majority of services demands remaining at 10Gbit/s or less for near-term
All-optical ROADMs have no effective way to offer contentionless
wavelength conversion and sub-wavelength grooming in the core
Muxponders are simply point-point aggregators and do not do grooming

The result is that a Service Provider may need to

purchase 2X Network Capacity for 1X Service Revenue
The solution is an Integrated Digital OTN Network with:
End to End, Any to Any service capability
Bandwidth
Integrated OTN switching and grooming in the core
Virtualization
End to End intelligent optical control plane

Beyond 8Tb/s?

8Tb/s
More
channels

Gridless SuperChannels

Higher
Data Rates

Even more complex

modulation!

More
Spectrum

L-Band
S-Band
E-Band
O-Band

Outside the scope of this discussion

Whats changed so far

Since the advent of DWDM

Intensity Modulation

Phase Modulation

Direct Detection

Coherent Detection

ITU Frequency Grid

ITU Frequency Grid

now
63 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

What Comes Next For Terabit Transport?

Since the advent of DWDM

Intensity Modulation

Quadrature Amplitude
Phase
Modulation
Modulation
(QAM)

Direct Detection

Coherent Wave Combining

Coherent
Detection
and Separation

ITU Frequency Grid

ITU Frequency
Grid-less
FlexChannels
Grid
so what has to change

64 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Advanced Modulation Formats

Capacity * Reach Product

Pol-Mux
QPSK

Pol-Mux
8-QAM

PMBPSK

1.2

Pol-Mux
16-QAM

1
0.8

0.6
0.4
IM-DD

0.2
0
1.6

12

16

C-Band Capacity (Tb/s)

65 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

24

What Comes Next For Terabit Transport?

Since the advent of DWDM

On-Off Keyed Modulation

Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation

Direct Detection

Coherent Wave Separation

ITU Frequency Grid

Grid-less FlexChannels
so what has to change

66 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Single Carrier vs Multi-Carrier

Goal: Create a 1Tb/s unit of transmission capacity

How?
Option 1:
Build a singlecarrier 1Tb/s
channel
67 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Option 2:
Build a multicarrier 1Tb/s
super-channel

1Tb/s Single Carrier: The A/D Converter Problem

10
9
8
OSNR Penalty (dB)

PM-64QAM

By 2014 commercial ADCs are

expected to operate at ~64GBaud

105GBaud

7
PM-32QAM

128GBaud

PM-16QAM

160GBaud

PM-8QAM

210GBaud

1
68 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

PM-BPSK

PM-QPSK

640GBaud

320GBaud

4
6
Number of bits per symbol

10 12

DWDM Direct Detection

Spatially separate the
channels using a
wavelength demux

Spacing on the fiber

needed between waves:
Guard Bands

PD

wavelength
demux

69 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

DWDM Coherent Detection

Spatially separate the
channels using a
wavelength demux

Spacing on the fiber

needed between waves:
Guard Bands

LO

wavelength
demux

70 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

PD

Use a local oscillator to

choose the color we want
to detect to match the
demux port color

ADC

DSP

How 1Tb/s Might Look

Conventional WDM vs FlexChannels
Conventional Per-Channel
WDM Filtering

Guard bands to allow for

1Tb/s

individual wavelength demux

Multi-Carrier FlexChannel

1Tb/s

Fewer guard-bands
25% increase in useable
amplifier spectrum

71 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

What Comes Next For Terabit Transport?

Since the advent of DWDM

On-Off Keyed Modulation

Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation

Direct Detection

Coherent Wave Separation

ITU Frequency Grid

Grid-less FlexChannels
so what has to change

72 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

FlexChannels Increase Total Fiber Capacity

More complex modulation more capacity per fiber
PM-QPSK

12 Tb/s

8-QAM

18 Tb/s
16-QAM

25 Tb/s
73 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

1Tb/s

Reach, Spectral Efficiency, and Co-Existence

A
D

1Tb/s PM-QPSK
FlexChannel

10x100G PM-QPSK

or

74 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

1Tb/s PM-8QAM
FlexChannel

1Tb/s PM-16QAM
FlexChannel

Summary:
The Key Technologies For 1Tb/s Are Well Understood
But the implementation of those technologies will be
critical to allowing service providers to differentiate their
products and services

Differentiators

Pervasive, Switched DWDM

FlexCoherent Modulation

Large Scale PICs

Foundation
Features
75 2011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary

Advanced
Modulation

Coherent
Processing

Advanced
FEC

Thank You!
lwade@infinera.com

762011 Infinera Corporation Confidential & Proprietary