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Everything is cloud Native from 5G core to RAN, transport and orchestration. Either you know about it or Nothing about Cloud. In this “FREE” one page infographic poster, I have made it a QUICK and EASY reference for Cloud Native main concepts which are otherwise very complex to understand. Plus get notified when important blogs are published.

Cloud Native Infographic

Don’t Miss the “Cloud Native Infographic” !

Everything is cloud Native from 5G core to RAN, transport and orchestration. Either you know about it or Nothing about Cloud. In this “FREE” one page infographic poster, I have made it a QUICK and EASY reference for Cloud Native main concepts which are otherwise very complex to understand. Plus get notified when important blogs are published.

Need for OSNR Testers for Pol Mux Modulations

OSNR ( Optical Signal to Noise Ratio)  is a critical and important parameter in high speed DWDM links. If OSNR is not good it will seriously affect the distance reachability in DWDM systems before regeneration is required. OSNR testing is typically done with OSA (Optical Spectrum Analyzer).  There are standard test sets available to test OSNR of 10G lambdas; However when it comes to testing on high speed links at 40G and 100G based on Pol Mux-QPSK modulation techniques, OSNR testing in field leaves a lot to be desired. In fact there is no automated tool available today that can do OSNR testing for Pol Mux modulation.

A POLMUX-QPSK transmitter consists of two quadrature (e.g. QPSK) modulators and a polarization beam splitter (PBS) to multiplex the two outputs on orthogonal projections. This is significantly different than conventional modulation schemes based on single polarized signal. An OSA is simply not designed to test OSNR on such dual polarized signals. There have been ways around methods suggested by leading T&M ( Test and Measurement)  vendors using manual methods of testing on existing OSA. But these methods are less accurate, complex and not repeatable. They are simply not aimed for field engineers and are very prone to human mistakes.

The T&M vendors have plans to bring out OSA to test OSNR on Pol Mux signals; they are working on developing those solutions. However the progress has been very slow. It’s been a while now that we have been hearing of these plans. It is need of the hour to expedite these solutions since the industry need them badly today and without them accurate testing of OSNR would not be possible.

6 thoughts on “Need for OSNR Testers for Pol Mux Modulations”

  1. Hi Faisal, a measurement tool for OSNR in 40G and 100G are we field-testing this summer. The OSA with WDM Investigator from EXFO for a go/ no go of:
    – Pol mux signal identification
    – Carved noise identification
    – PMD pulse spreading diagnostic
    – Nonlinear depolarization diagnostic
    – Interchannel cross-talk diagnostic
    – Carrier leakage diagnostic
    kind regards, Rene

  2. Hi Rene,

    Thanks for your inputs. An EXFO rep did tell me earlier that they will have the Auto OSNR tester for Pol Mux in few months. Is this something you will be testing this summer ?
    regards,
    faisal

  3. Hi Faisal,

    I´m reading about EXFO OSA FTB-5240S/BP. I´m confused, because EXFO page says that this equipment “is perfect for Pol-Mux OSNR measurements during turn-up”. I want to know if this equipment is OK for OSNR Pol-Mux measurement in DWDM networks with operational 100G coherente channels.

    Regards,

    Alex

    1. Hi Alex,

      Warm welcome.

      I have come to know that EXFO is the first one to launch Pol Mux OSNR tester. Just make sure that this is the model which can do these measurements automatically with NO manual calculations ( as they told the customers to do earlier). cheers.
      FAISAL

  4. Hi Faisal,
    I am working for service provider company and want to know manual methods of testing /calculating OSNR for coherent 40G/100G lambda on tradition OSA.

    Thanks,
    Ashish

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