Method and apparatus for determining a maximum transmission capacity within an optical network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10707958-B2
Application number	US-201816119531-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2018
Priority date	Aug 31, 2018
Publication date	Jul 7, 2020
Grant date	Jul 7, 2020

Abstract

A method for determining a maximum transmission capacity, TCAP MAX -OL, of an optical link, OL, within an optical network includes loading an optical transmission spectrum of the optical link, OL, being partially occupied by at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, with amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise spectrally shaped such that the transmission performance of the optical transmission spectrum fully occupied with data traffic carrying channels, CHs, is matched. The method further includes determining the maximum transmission capacity, TCAP MAX -OL, of the optical link, OL, on the basis of measured link data transported through the optical link, OL, via the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining a maximum transmission capacity, TCAP MAX -OL, of an optical link, OL, within an optical transmission network, OTN, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) loading an optical transmission spectrum of the optical link, OL, being partially occupied by at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, with amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise spectrally shaped such that a transmission performance of the optical transmission spectrum fully occupied with data traffic carrying channels, CHs, is matched; and
(b) determining the maximum transmission capacity, TCAP MAX -OL, of the optical link, OL, on the basis of measured link data transported through the optical link, OL, via the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH,
wherein a power spectral density, PSD, of the amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise is shaped to match a linear and nonlinear crosstalk performance of the optical transmission spectrum, OPT-SPEC, fully occupied with data traffic channels, CH,
wherein the maximum transmission capacity, TCAP MAX -OL, of the optical link, OL, is determined as an aggregated data rate, DR, provided by the optical link, OL, on the basis of a data rate, DR, provided by the measured link data transported via the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, and on the basis of an aggregated bandwidth, BW-CH, occupied by the respective data traffic carrying channels, CHs, and a total bandwidth, BW-OPT-SPEC, of the optical transmission spectrum, OPT-SPEC, of said optical link, OL.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein if an additional data traffic carrying channel, CH, is added to the optical link, OL, by means of an optical multiplexing structure, the amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise is blocked across a bandwidth, BW-CH, occupied by said added data traffic carrying channel, CH, including or not including an optional guard frequency band.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the data traffic carrying channels, CHs, are provided by transponders connected by means of an optical multiplexing structure to a near-end side of the optical link, OL.

4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise is generated and spectrally shaped by an ASE noise module, SSASE, connected to the near-end side of the optical link, OL, by means of the optical multiplexing structure.

5. The method according to claim 4 wherein the amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise is generated by an ASE source of the ASE module, SSASE, and spectrally shaped by a flexible-grid capable wavelength selective switch, WSS, of the ASE noise module, SSASE, controlled by a controller of the ASE noise module, SSASE, according to parameters received by the controller or determined by the controller from input data carrying information about existing data traffic carrying channels, CHs, said parameters comprising power levels, spectral bandwidths of the data traffic carrying channels, CHs, and channel spacings between neighboring data traffic carrying channels, CHs.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein a transmission performance, TPER, of the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, is measured on a far-end side of the optical link, OL, and comprises as performance metrics in particular a bit error ratio, BER, a signal to noise ratio, SNR, a Q-factor, an error vector magnitude, EVM, and/or a generalized optical signal to noise ratio, GOSNR.

7. The method according to claim 1 wherein an optical signal to noise ratio, OSNR, of the optical link, OL, is measured on a far-end side of the optical link, OL, in frequency bands occupied by the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, and/or within ASE loaded frequency bands.

8. The method according to claim 1 wherein one or more optical amplifiers and/or a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer, ROADM, of the optical link, OL, are tuned to achieve a target optimum launch power spectral density, PSD, of an optical signal launched into a near-end side of the optical link, OL, using measured link data transported through the optical link, OL, via the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH.

9. The method according to claim 1 wherein an operation margin, OM, of the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, is determined as a difference calculated between a transmission performance, TPER, of the data traffic carrying channel, CH, measured on a far-end side of the optical link, OL, and a predetermined transmission performance threshold, TPER-TH, for error-free transmission provided by a model.

10. The method according to claim 9 wherein a data rate DR, of the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, is adjusted depending on the determined operation margin, OM, of the data traffic carrying channel, CH, to maximize a transmission capacity, TCAP-CH, of the respective data traffic carrying channel, CH.

11. The method according to claim 10 wherein the data rate, DR, of the at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, is adjusted through a change of a symbol rate and/or through a change of a modulation format provided by transponders connected to a near-end side of the optical link, OL.

12. The method according to claim 1 wherein after a transmission capacity, TCAP-CH, of the data traffic carrying channels, CHs, has been maximized, a maximum transmission capacity, TCAP MAX -OL, of the optical link, OL, is determined as an aggregated data rate, DR, provided by the optical link, OL.

13. The method according to claim 1 wherein the optical transmission network, OTN, comprises a wavelength division multiplexed, WDM, network comprising data traffic carrying channels, CHs, having allocated carrier frequencies.

14. A system of an optical transmission network, said system comprising:
an amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise module, SSASE, adapted to provide an amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise spectrally shaped such that a transmission performance of an optical transmission spectrum, OPT-SPEC, provided by an optical link, OL, of said optical transmission network fully occupied with data traffic carrying channels, CHs, is matched;
an optical multiplexing structure adapted to combine the spectrally shaped amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise provided by the amplified spontaneous emission noise, ASE, noise module, SSASE, of the network node with wavelengths of data traffic carrying channels,
wherein the amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise module, SSASE, is further adapted to shape a power spectral density, PSD, of the amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise to match a linear and nonlinear crosstalk performance of the optical transmission spectrum, OPT-SPEC, fully occupied with data traffic channels, CH; and
means for determining a maximum transmission capacity, TCAP MAX -OL, of the optical link, OL, as an aggregated data rate, DR, provided by the optical link, OL, on the basis of a data rate, DR, provided by a measured link data transported via at least one data traffic carrying channel, CH, and on the basis of an aggregated bandwidth, BW-CH, occupied by the respective data traffic carrying channels, CHs, and a total bandwidth, BW-OPT-SPEC, of the optical transmission spectrum, OPT-SPEC, of said optical link, OL.

15. The system according to claim 14 wherein the optical multiplexing structure comprises a reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer, ROADM.

16. The system according to claim 14 wherein the amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise module, SSASE, comprises:
an amplified spontaneous emission, ASE, noise source adapted to generat

Assignees

• Adva Optical Networking Se

Inventors

• Searcy Steven
• Tibuleac Sorin
• Pan Jie
• Richter Thomas

Classifications

• H04J14/02216

  by gain equalization · CPC title

• H04J14/02122

  Colourless, directionless or contentionless [CDC] arrangements · CPC title

• H04J14/02

  Wavelength-division multiplex systems · CPC title

• H04J14/026

  using WDM channels of different transmission rates · CPC title

• H04B10/07953 Primary

  Monitoring or measuring OSNR, BER or Q · CPC title