Optical Burst Switching (OBS):

Issues in the Physical Layer

A. E. Willner

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA
 Time Scale in OBS
Control
Packet O-E-O

Burst

Switch

Offset
Time

Generally, ….
• Offset time between control packet & burst is 1-5 microsecs
• Burst ranges in time from 1 microsec to 100 millisecs
• Control packet has a lower bit rate than the data payload
 Outline

1. Degradations Due to Physical-Layer

Impairments

2. Fast Monitoring of a Burst

3. Fiber-Loop Buffers for OBS Efficiency

Signal Degradation due to Chromatic Dispersion
Speed of Light in Vacuum
Photon Velocity (f) =
Index of Refraction(f)

• Information Bandwidth of Data

Vj
Vi
Fourier Vk
0 1 1 0 1 0
time fcarrier freq.

• Temporal Spreading → f (distance, (bit rate)2)→ (ps/nm)/km

time Fiber time

Chromatic Dispersion Effects on Payload and
Control Packet
• Control Packet (C.P.), not payload, is regenerated
at every node
• C.P. has lower bit-rate (CD effect∝ (bit-rate)2 )

There is higher chance for payload to be degraded

Payload C.P. t Node t

t Node
t
Node
Node
Offset Time Affected by Wavelength Skew:
Uncompensated Systems (2.5 Gbit/s Payload?)
C.P.
t
400 km of Fiber
30 nm
Payload (CD=17 ps/(nm.km))
t
Offset

C.P.

Skew t
Payload
t
Offset

Offset time change ~ 1 µ s

Value of Tunable Dispersion Compensation
(40 Gbit/s Payload)
No Compensation Fixed 80 km Compensator
Eye closure Penalty (dB)
5

4 OC-768
Tunable
Compensator
3 (500-2100 ps/nm)

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Distance (km)
A tunable dispersion compensator allows for a wide
range of transmission distances at 40 Gbit/s.
Polarization-related Impairments in High-
Performance Systems
Degradation based on Polarization state
non-catastrophic generally unknown
events and wanders

Polarization-mode-dispersion (PMD)
Polarization dependent loss (PDL)

Statistically Bit-rate and

varies with time Random polarization wavelength
coupling dependent
 Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD)
cross section side view

Elliptical Fiber Core

1st-order PMD = DGD
The 2 polarization modes propagate at different speeds.

Probability of Exceeding a Specific DGD (%)

50 10 1 0.1
• PMD induces
randomly changing
Maxwellian degradations.
Distribution
Probability distribution • Critical limitation at
tail
≥ 10 Gbit/s payload
data rates.
0 10 20 30 40 50
Differential Group Delay (ps)
 Time Rate of PMD Change
(a) Slow Fluctuation (b) Fast Fluctuation
PMD (ps)

2.5 Frequency of occurrence

induced by PMD

Occurrence
2.0 fluctuation

48.8 km buried cable

1.5 52 km fiber
Temp. (°C)

18
< ∆ τ >=2.8
ps
14
10
0 400 800
Time (min) Time Span (ms)
• PMD variations due to temperature • Mechanical vibrations: milliseconds
changes: hours to days to minutes
J. Cameron, et al., OFC 1998 H. Bulow, et al., OFC 1999

PMD temporal changes more rapidly with the fiber length and average DGD
 Fiber Nonlinearities
Refractive index depends on frequency and power

n(ω ,P) • Isolation of nonlinear

effects is very difficult
• It is also difficult to
Chromatic Dispersion Power
monitor and compensate
50ps Pulse (+)
50ps Pulse (0)
Chromatic dispersion changes the effects of nonlinearity
50ps Pulse (-)
wdm
-28
6
Power Penalty (dB)

-29 4× 10 Gb/s Link Dispersion

5
-30
0.4 ps/nm/km
4 0.08 ps/nm/km
-31
3 -0.2 ps/nm/km
-32
2
-33 Dispersion
1 50-ps RZ Pulses
-34 Variation
0
-35 ~ 4%
00 500
500 1000
1000 1500
1500 2000
2000
Distance (km)
 EDFA Gain
Deployed EDFA cross saturation causes gain transients
due to:
• Channel turn-on Time scale of
• Channel re-routing gain saturation
• Network reconfiguration and recovery is
• Link failures ~ µs to ms

EDFA
Input Output
Channels Channels
EDFA
Dropped
Channels
 Fiber Nonlinearity
10 Gb/s Penalties
Simulation Results
Power
Power
15
16 Chs of
added the surviving
Fluctuations
dropped
ch System channel Large
Hayee,
Single
15
15 Chs penalties
Chs OFCÕ99
Mode ThU2in surviving
Fiber
increases up to 14 dB
15 10
dropped
added
channel due to SPM
20 5 1 EDFA
30
10 25 15 Chs 10
2 15 Chs added dropped
1 20
20
5
er Excursion (dB) 15 (dB)
Q Factor
0 10
15 Chs dropped
5 15 Chs
-5 added
0 200 400 600 800 1000 00 200 400 600 800 1000
Time (usec) Time (usec)
 Time Response
1 dB power excursion for surviving channels
10 1.0
4 channels dropped

Reciprocal Time (µ s-1)

7.5 4 channels survive 0.75
Time (µ s)

5.0 0.5

2.5 0.25

0.0 0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
# of EDFAs
Zyskind, OFC’96 PD-31
 Outline

1. Degradations Due to Physical-Layer

Impairments

2. Fast Monitoring of a Burst

3. Fiber-Loop Buffers for OBS Efficiency

 Window of Operability in OBS
• Window of operability is shrinking as systems become more complex
• Ensuring a long-term stable and healthy network is tricky

bit rate
format

number of
channels power

nonlinearities

polarization
effects
dispersion
 Monitoring in OBS Systems
• Monitoring includes;
- Power
- Wavelength
- Optical signal-to-noise ratio
- Distortion: CD, PMD, nonlinearities

• Monitoring time scale corresponds to that of OBS (µ s ~ ms)

• Dynamic monitoring covers the wide range of both
multi-wavelength payloads and control packets
Impact of Monitoring on OBS Systems

• Need to find the non-catastrophic problems

in OBS systems
- Enable the functionality of error-free
assembly nodes combined with tunable
compensator
- Maintain the accurate offset time
- Locate and measure the distortion of payload
and control packets
- Support protocol-independent WDM transport
- Isolate different degrading effects
 Impairment- & Security-Aware Routing
• Present network : very few variables (i.e. # of hops)
are used to determine the routing table although there
are several variables on the physical state
• Future networks:
– Monitor the channel quality and link security
and update the routing look-up tables
continually
– In the routing decisions ensure that:
• Channels achieve acceptable BER
• Network achieves sufficient transmission and
protection capacity
• Highest priority data is transmitted on the strongest
and most secure links
Vestigial Sideband Optical Filtering
Optical Carrier

∆ f
VSB-L VSB-U

BW

fU f0 fL Frequency

• Filter BW = (0.8 ~ 1.2) × bit-rate (Rb)

• Filter detuning ∆ f = (0.4 ~ 0.8) × Rb
 Monitor Clock Phase
• Isolate CD from PMD effects 1.5
• Low cost Entire
channel 1.0
VSB-L Intensity
Filtered 0.5
spectrum
40-Gb/s 0.0
f 0 50 100 150
RZ Data Time (ps)
Dispersion O/E
1.5 ∆t
VSB-U
1.0
f Intensity
0.5

Filtered 0.0
spectrum 0 50 100 150
Time (ps)
• Time delay ( ∆ t ) between two VSB signals is a function of CD
• Bits can be recovered from either part of the spectrum

Q. Yu, JLT, Dec., 2002

 PMD Monitoring Techniques
A. B. C.
Eye opening RF spectrum Degree of
measurement analysis polarization (DOP)
measurement
– Requires high- speed
+ Simple
devices (demonstrated + No high speed electronics
– Affected by other
for 160 Gb/s RZ signal) + Depends only on PMD
distortion sources
– Affected by other + Bit-rate independent
– Sensitivity and
distortion sources + Unaffected by other
DGD range depends
+ Can be integrated distortion sources
on monitored
with electronic – Pulse-width dependent
frequency
equalization
 Outline

1. Degradations Due to Physical-Layer

Impairments

2. Fast Monitoring of a Burst

3. Fiber-Loop Buffers for OBS Efficiency

 Research Goals
(Generously Supported by Intel)
Control Line Control Unit
Control Packet
Burst

(N+M) x (N+M)
Data Burst
Lines
N Switch
N+M=8
Delay Lines Optical Fiber
M Delay Lines

• Simulate an 8 X 8 switch with feedback buffering

• Determine the optimal number of input/output ports and delay lines
• Simulate delay lines having recirculation capability
• Investigate the effect of random burst size
 Optimal Number of Input Ports and
Delay Lines
Buffered
(4,4) (N,M)  (N input data lines
(5,3)
M delay lines)
Throughput Efficiency

(7,1)
(4,0) (6,2)
Buffer Size
# of 1st Buffer 2nd 3rd Buffer 4th Buffer
input Kbytes Buffer Kbytes Kbytes
(5,0) ports Kbytes
4 3 5.5 8 10
(6,0) (7,0)
5 5.5 8 10 -
6 5.5 10 - -
Bufferless 7 10 - - -

Load

• (5,3) setup gives a higher throughput than a (4,4) and (6,2) setup
• Is this scalable to a switch with more number to ports ?
 Throughput Efficiency vs. Load for
Different Maximum Burst Sizes

Maximum = 2 Kbytes
burst size
Throughput Efficiency

Maximum = 10 Kbytes
burst size

Maximum = 14 Kbytes
burst size

Maximum = 20 Kbytes
burst size

Load
• The throughput efficiency decreases with increase in burst size.
• Buffer size = max. burst size, 3 buffers for 5,3 case.
 Effect of Adding Buffers on
Throughput Efficiency
(4, 4) Switch

Throughput Efficiency
4 Buffers
3 Buffers
Increase in
2 Buffers

1 Buffer

Bufferless

Load
• Throughput efficiency does not increases with the number
of delay lines
• For an 8 x 8 switch, it is beneficial to have 2 or 3 delay lines
 Throughput Efficiency for Recirculation
Throughput Efficiency

(5, 3) Switch
Bufferless
1 Round Trip
2 Recirculations
3 Recirculations
5 Recirculations
10 Recirculations

Load

• With 3 recirculations the throughput efficiency of approximately

86% can be achieved.
• 5th recirculation increases the throughput by only ~1%.
 Increase in Throughput Efficiency
with Buffers and Recirculation
Throughput Efficiency

Bufferless
Increase in

1 Buffer
2 Buffers
3 Buffers
3 Buffers with 2
recirculations
3 Buffers with 3
recirculations

Load
• 3 Buffers and 3 recirculations increase the throughput efficiency
by 27 %
• Throughput efficiency does not increase linearly with number of
delay lines
 Key Buffer Results for 8X8 Switch
• (5,3) configuration provides higher throughput than
other configurations.

• ~25% increase in throughput efficiency is obtained with

3 buffers and recirculations.

• Number of delay lines should be limited to 2 or 3, as the

throughput does not increase much with an increase in
number of delay lines.

•BUT, …, the fiber delay line has loss, …, optical amplifiers

add noise, and, … recirculations can degrade the payload.
 Summary

• Degradation effects including CD, PMD,

nonlinearities should be addressed in OBS.

• Fast monitoring can help the long-term stability

and robustness of a OBS network.

• Optical buffers enable enhanced OBS

functionality.