ITU Frequency Bands and Grids in WDM Fiber Optic Communication Systems

To provide a very high capacity for optical transmission systems, it is desirable to allow as wide a range as possible for the system operating wavelengths.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has divided the telecom wavelengths into a ITU frequency grid; the grid is divided into bands.

 ITU Frequency Bands in WDM Fiber Optic Communication Systems
 Channel Spacing in DWDM, CWDM and WWDM Fiber Optic Systems

Channel Spacing in DWDM, CWDM and WWDM Fiber Optic Systems

 The channel spacing is defined to be the nominal difference in frequency or wavelength between two adjacent optical channels.

The ultimate capacity of a WDM fiber system depends on how closely optical channels can be packed in the wavelength domain.

“Grids” are used for location of nominal central frequencies in WDM systems. ITU defines a set of frequency grids for WDM applications. 

In a given spectrum band, the number of channels in DWDM and CWDM Systems depend upon the particular channel spacing of the grid.

 Number of Channels in DWDM and CWDM Systems
 Unidirectional and Bidirectional WDM Systems

Unidirectional and Bidirectional WDM Systems

Unidirectional, as the name implies, only allowing transmission in one direction, while bidirectional allow transmission in two opposite directions. 

Here shows the typical optical transmission of unidirectional and bidirectional WDM systems.

This artitle provides the linear and ring link configurations for single-channel interfaces of DWDM multichannel optical systems in physical point-to-point and ring applications.

Lfiber offers flexible linear and ring link configurations in WDM systems. Ring with or without optical add drop multiplexing (OADM) is available.

 Linear and Ring Link Configurations in WDM Systems

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