Optical Power Adjustment

Contents

Knowledge Points

Preparation

Optical Power Debugging

Optical Power Debugging of SOAD Board

1
System Networking and Signal Flow

OMS
OTU OTU
O O
OTU OTU
M OBA OPA OBA OPA D
…

…
U U
OTU OTU

OCH

Basic Knowledge

Optical Power Unit
 mW

Common unit of measuring for optical power
 dBm

Facilitate to calculate the unit of measuring for introduced
optical power
 dB

Ratio of attenuation or gain for optical power

2
Basic Knowledge

Relationship of Three Parameters

p( mW )
p(dBm ) = 10 lg
1(mW )

p total (mW ) = p1(mW ) + p2 ( mW )

p1
p 'total ٛ(dBm ) = pٛtotal (dBm ) − ndB
p2
ndB

Contents

Knowledge Points

Preparation

Optical Power Debugging

Optical Power Debugging of SOAD Board

3
Single Site Commission

It is necessary to do the following preparation
before the optical power debugging:
 Check before the power up of the cabinet
 Check single board output optical power
 Test insertion loss of OMU and ODU
 Check on-site optical fiber

Insertion Loss of OMU

The OMU single board is common
passive single board. It is necessary to
test the insertion loss of the OMU single
board before using.
 Test the accessed single wavelength
optical power firstly, and then test the
output single wavelength optical power at
the out port of OMU.
 Subtract two measured values, and the
difference is the insertion loss value of
OMU for this wavelength.
 For there are several channels for the chn
OMU single board, we will generally test OTU O
several channels randomly. M out
U

If the difference between the measured
insertion loss values for various channels
doesn’t exceed 3dB, it is qualified.
Optical
Power
Meter

4
Insertion Loss of ODU

The same as OMU, ODU is of the passive single
board. The test method of the insertion loss is
basically the same as OMU. However, ODU is
used for the receiving terminal. The common test
method is shown in the figure below:

chn chn
O OTU O
in D in
OTU D
U Or U

Optical Optical
Power Power
Meter Meter

Network Management Monitoring

If the on-site optical fiber connection is correct
and the line optical fiber cable is normal after the
equipment powers on and is connected to the
optical fiber cable, the optical monitoring channel
of the system SOSC shall be connected.

At this time, you can monitor various network
elements by the network management.

T3 or E300

5
Contents

Knowledge Points

Preparation

Optical Power Debugging

Optical Power Debugging of SOAD Board

Purpose of Optical Power Adjustment

Optical Power Balance of Various Single Waves in
Wavelength Multiplexing Signal
 The optical amplification unit requires balance various single
wavelength optical powers in the input wavelength multiplexing
signal. Otherwise, the gain power will focus on several single
wavelengths after the cascade amplification.

Proper Optical Fiber Input Optical Power
 If the optical power of the wavelength multiplexing signal exceeds
the threshold of the optical fiber, it will generate the non-linear
effect.

Proper Receiving Optical Power
 The photoelectric device of the receiver shall operate normally
within the nominal operating range.

The OSNR complies with the requirement
of receiving.

6
Direction of Optical Power Adjustment

OTU OTU
O O
OTU OTU
M OBA OPA OBA OPA D
…

…
U U
OTU OTU

The direction of the optical power debugging is

to debug along the signal transmission direction,
and then debug another direction after one
direction is adjusted.

OTU Debugging at Transmitting Terminal

The OTU at the Transmitting Terminal is used to access to the signal
at the client side and send the single wavelength signal at the line
side.

The input part of OTU at the Transmitting Terminal is used for the
photoelectric conversion of the client signal, and the main device is
the photoelectric transducer.
 The common photoelectric transducer at the Transmitting Terminal OTU
is the PIN diode.
 Operating Range of PIN Diode

2.5G: 0 ~ -21dBm

10G: 0 ~ -14dBm
 The engineering specification of ZTE usually adjusts the input optical
power about -4dBm.

in out
OTU

7
OTU Debugging at Transmitting Terminal

The output part of the OTU at the Transmitting Terminal is used for
the electronic-to-optical transduction of the wavelength division
signal, and the main device is the semiconductor laser.
 The common laser for OTU at the Transmitting Terminal is the electro-
absorption laser with the refrigeration.

For there is some difference for the output power of the laser, the
power difference among various single wavelengths is referred to as
the Channel Power Difference. Of which, the difference between the
maximum power for the wavelengths and the minimum power for the
wavelengths is referred to as the Maximum Channel Power
Difference.
 It is necessary to control that the maximum channel power difference is
less than 3dB for the output port debugging at the OTU at the
Transmitting Terminal.
 Ensuring enough low of the channel power difference among the
channels is the foundation that the wavelength division system operates
normally. Furthermore, the maximum channel power difference shall be
low as much as possible.
 Controlling the channel power difference is actually to debug the optical
power balance.

OTU Debugging at Transmitting Terminal

The output optical power for the OTU at the Transmitting
Terminal is usually about -3dBm. We usually take -3dBm
as the reference point to debug the output optical power
of OTU, and the tolerable output power range is within
-3dBm±1.5dB.
 You can add optical attenuators at the output port of OTU if it is
out of the upper limit, and replace the single board if it is out of
the lower limit.
 To control the maximum channel power difference,
it shall be close to -3dBm as much as possible.

in out
OTU

8
OMU Debugging

The function of OMU is mainly to multiplex the output
single wavelength signal of various OTUs.

For the next debugging, we shall test the wavelength
multiplexing signal of OMU.
OTU
O Optical
OTU
M Power

…
U Meter
OTU

To carry out the optical power budget, we can use the

following formula to estimate the wavelength multiplexing
output optical power of OMU.

Wavelength multiplexing output optical power =
Single wavelength input optical power＋10㏒N－Insertion
Loss

Optical Power Calculation of OA

The function of the light amplification unit is to supplement the energy for the
wavelength multiplexing signal and implement the all-optical amplification.

For the gain of the light amplification unit is rather large, the output optical
power is high. To prevent the system from the non-linear effect of the
wavelength multiplexing signal that inputs into the optical fiber cable for the
full configuration, we shall control the input optical power of the wavelength
multiplexing signal for the optical amplification unit by the calculation.

The optical amplification single board of the ZTE wavelength division
equipments are noted with the operating parameters of the single board in
the panel.
 For example, OBA 2520 means the fixed gain of the amplification board is 25dB,
and the maximum output power for the full configuration is 20dBm.

2520

OBA

 In general, the system is not of the full configuration. We shall control the output
of the amplification board by the calculation of the optical power.

9
Optical Power Calculation of OA

Assume the power of various single wavelength signals
for the input wavelength multiplexing signal is balance,
we can get the following relational expression:
PMulti-wave＝PSingle wave＋10㏒N
(N is the quantity of multiplexing wavelengths)

The actual working output can be calculated by above
relational expression.

2520

PMulti-wave
OBA

PSingle wave

Optical Power Calculation of OA

For example, the 40 wavelengths system uses 3 wavelengths
currently, and the parameters for the optical amplification board is
2520, then:
＝ ＋ ㏒
P40 P1 10 40
＝
P40 20dBm
＝ － ㏒ ＝ － ＝
P1 P40 10 40 20dBm 16 4dBm
＝ ＋ ㏒＝ ＋＝
P3 P1 10 3 4dBm 5 9dBm

Namely, the maximum saturated optical power is 9dBm for the 3
wavelengths output. For the optical amplification board is the fixed
gain, we can implement it by controlling the input of the optical
amplification board.
Gain25dB
9dBm

OBA

－16dBm

10
 Exercise

Assume that there is a system with 32
wavelengths, 5 wavelengths are used currently,
and the parameter of the optical amplification
board is 2217, then:
 What is the maximum output of 5 wavelengths?
 Which value shall be controlled for the input of
the optical amplification board?

Optical Power Calculation of OA

For the optical power calculation of the optical
amplification board, the thinking and method for
OBA, OPA and OLA are identical. Namely, they
will cause the output of OA is in the saturated
status by controlling the input optical power of
OA, to control the optical power of the line.

OBA OPA OBA OPA

11
ODU Debugging

The function of ODU is mainly to split various optical carriers in the
wavelength multiplexing signal and output them to corresponding
OTU, namely, the wavelength division. We can measure the optical
power of various single waves at various channel port of ODU.
OTU
O
OTU
D

…
U
OTU

Optical Power Meter

Assumption: The power of various single wavelength signals in the

wavelength multiplexing signals before the de-multiplexing is
balanced, we can approximately consider that in the optical power
budget:
㏒
Wavelength multiplexing input optical power - 10 N - Insertion loss
= Single wavelength output optical power

OTU Debugging at Receiving Terminal

The OTU at the receiving terminal is used to
access to the single wavelength signal at the line
side and send the service signal at the customer
side.

The input part of OTU at the receiving terminal is
used for the photoelectric conversion of the line
signal, and the main device is the photoelectric
transducer.
 The common photoelectric transducer for OTU at the
receiving terminal is the APD photodiode.
 Operating range of the APD photodiode:

2.5G: -9 ~ -28dBm

10G: -9 ~ -21dBm

12
OTU Debugging at Receiving Terminal

The receiving sensitivity of APD is excellent than the PIN diode.
However, the overload point is lower than that of the PIN diode.
 If the optical power is higher than the overload point during the receiving,
it is possible to break down the device, which will cause the service
interruption.

The ZTE engineering specification usually adjusts the input optical
power about -14dBm according to the empirical value.

For various single wavelength optical powers de-multiplexed from
ODU are basically identical, we usually add the required optical
attenuators to the input port of ODU uniformly.

OTU
O
OTU
D

…
U
OTU

－14dBm

Content

Knowledge Points

Preparation

Optical Power Debugging

Optical Power Debugging of SOAD Board

13
SOAD Single Board Function

The SOAD board is used to add and drop the signal with fixed
wavelength (the concrete wavelength of the add and drop signal is
customized according to the requirement of users), and other
wavelength signals multiplex with the local loaded signal, to
implement the ADM function of the fixed wavelength.

O O
T …… T
U U

D1 Dn M1

in out
SOAD

A1 An M2
O O
T
…… T
U U

SOAD Single Board Function

The insertion loss of the single board is shown
as follows:
 4 add/drop:

Drop insertion loss (IN-DROP): ≤4dB

Add insertion loss (ADD-OUT): ≤4dB

Direct through (IN-OUT): ≤2.4dB
 8 add/drop:

Drop insertion loss (IN-DROP): ≤6dB

Add insertion loss (ADD-OUT): ≤6dB

Direct through (IN-OUT): ≤6.5dB

The internal insertion loss of the SOAD board is
not even. Hence, there is some difference for the
debugging of SOAD.

14
SOAD Wavelength Multiplexing Debugging

The wavelength multiplexing signal input from the SOAD input port
includes both the local drop signal and the direct through signal.
Hence, it can not affect the direct through wave during the
wavelength multiplexing debugging.

The debugging standard is to control the output optical power about -
14dBm of the single wavelength signal as much as possible.

O O
T …… T
U U
－14dBm

D1 Dn M1

in out
SOAD

A1 An M2

SOAD Wavelength Multiplexing Debugging

The wavelength multiplexing signal output from the
SOAD output port includes both the local add signal and
the direct through signal.

The purpose of the SOAD wavelength multiplexing
debugging is to control the channel power difference
among various single wavelength signals.

The insertion loss from various single wavelengths to the
output port is not consistent. Hence, the debugging point
of the balance is transferred to the output port of the
wavelength multiplexing for SOAD.

The engineering specification of ZTE usually adjusts the
single wavelength output optical power about
-6dBm.

15
SOAD Wavelength Multiplexing Debugging

Disconnect all access signals of SOAD during
the debugging, and access to various single
wavelengths for the debugging in turn.

D1 Dn M1
Optical
in out
SOAD Power
Meter
A1 M2
…… An

O O
－6dBm
T T
U U

Summary

It is important for the SOAD debugging to
control the channel power difference between
the local add wavelength and the direct
through wavelength.

Thinking:
 If the direct through signal from M1 to M2 is the
wavelength multiplexing signal, how to debug this
signal?

16
17