01 WDM OTN Basics

Cairo Local
Development Program
WDM/OTN basics
Selected topics
Contents
WDM/OTN Basics .................................................................................................................................................................. 5
1
Employees Development Program- 2021
What Is WDM? ...................................................................................................................................................................... 5
What Is OTN .......................................................................................................................................................................... 5
What Is MS-OTN .................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Universal Switching ............................................................................................................................................................... 7
Summary ........................................................................................................................................................................... 7
FEC ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
FEC Position in an OTUk Frame ......................................................................................................................................... 8
Error Correction Mode ...................................................................................................................................................... 8
Key Indicator: NCG ............................................................................................................................................................ 9
HDFEC vs. SDFEC................................................................................................................................................................ 9
Optical and Electrical Subracks ........................................................................................................................................... 10
Master-Slave Subrack Management ................................................................................................................................... 11
Master-Slave Subrack Cascading Mode .......................................................................................................................... 11
Tree-Topology Cascading ............................................................................................................................................ 11
Ring-Topology Cascading ............................................................................................................................................. 12
Capability of Master-Slave Subrack Management .......................................................................................................... 12
Connection Between Master and Slave Subracks of Different Types ............................................................................. 13
WDM Site Types .................................................................................................................................................................. 13
OTM ................................................................................................................................................................................. 13
OLA .................................................................................................................................................................................. 13
OADM .............................................................................................................................................................................. 14
ROADM Site Configuration Model .................................................................................................................................. 15
Configuration Example of a 4-dimensional ROADM Site ................................................................................................ 15
REG .................................................................................................................................................................................. 16
EDFA and Raman Amplifier ................................................................................................................................................. 17
Classification of EDFAs .................................................................................................................................................... 17
Classification of Raman Amplifiers .................................................................................................................................. 17
Comparison Between EDFA and Raman Amplifiers ........................................................................................................ 18
OSC ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Features ........................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Implementation Principle ................................................................................................................................................ 19
Channel Type ................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Electrical-Layer Grooming & Optical-Layer Grooming ........................................................................................................ 21
Electrical-Layer Grooming ............................................................................................................................................... 21
Optical-Layer Grooming .................................................................................................................................................. 22
Regeneration Mode of Line Boards..................................................................................................................................... 23
2 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Unidirectional Regeneration vs. Bidirectional Regeneration .......................................................................................... 23
Optical Regeneration vs. Electrical Regeneration ........................................................................................................... 24
Mapping Mode .................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Mapping Definition.......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Encapsulation Modes ...................................................................................................................................................... 25
Example of the Mapping Process .................................................................................................................................... 26
Selecting a Mapping Mode.............................................................................................................................................. 26
General Differences Between Ethernet Service Mapping Modes ................................................................................... 27
Special Differences Between Mapping Modes of 10GE Ethernet Services..................................................................... 27
Frame Structure of OTN Overhead ..................................................................................................................................... 29
OTUk/ODUk/OPUk Overheads ........................................................................................................................................ 29
OTUCn/ODUCn/OPUCn Overheads ................................................................................................................................. 30
OTUk Overheads.............................................................................................................................................................. 30
ODUk Overheads ............................................................................................................................................................. 31
OPUk Overheads ............................................................................................................................................................. 32
Frame Alignment Overheads........................................................................................................................................... 32
Service Mapping Paths ........................................................................................................................................................ 33
Why Encapsulation and Mapping Are Required? ........................................................................................................... 33
Encapsulation and Mapping Process............................................................................................................................... 33
Service Mapping Mode ....................................................................................................................................................... 34
Standard Mode ................................................................................................................................................................ 34
Timeslot Mode ................................................................................................................................................................ 34
OTN Service Mapping Paths ............................................................................................................................................ 34
OTUk/ODUk/OPUk Types and Bit Rates .............................................................................................................................. 35
OTU Types and Bit Rates ................................................................................................................................................. 36
ODU Types and Bit Rates ................................................................................................................................................. 37
OPU Types and Bit Rates ................................................................................................................................................. 38
Transponder & Muxponder................................................................................................................................................. 39
Transponder .................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Muxponder ...................................................................................................................................................................... 39
OTN Tributary Boards and Line Boards ............................................................................................................................... 40
OTN Tributary Boards ...................................................................................................................................................... 40
OTN Line Boards .............................................................................................................................................................. 40
1+1 Protection and 1:1 Protection ...................................................................................................................................... 42
1+1 protection ................................................................................................................................................................. 42
1:1 Protection .................................................................................................................................................................. 43

Unidirectional Switching and Bidirectional ......................................................................................................................... 44
Unidirectional switching .................................................................................................................................................. 44
Bidirectional switching .................................................................................................................................................... 44
Physical Clocks ..................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Principles ......................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Application Scenario........................................................................................................................................................ 45
Optical Doctor (OD) ............................................................................................................................................................. 47
System Functions............................................................................................................................................................. 47
1. Online OSNR Monitoring ......................................................................................................................................... 47
2. E2E Optical-Layer Performance Maintenance ........................................................................................................ 48
System Composition ........................................................................................................................................................ 48
Common Concepts .............................................................................................................................................................. 50
dBm and mW ................................................................................................................................................................... 50
dBm and dB ..................................................................................................................................................................... 50
WSS Optical-Layer Loopback ........................................................................................................................................... 50
Mode 1.............................................................................................................................................................................. 51
Mode 2 ............................................................................................................................................................................. 52
WDM/OTN Latency ............................................................................................................................................................. 52
What Is Latency ............................................................................................................................................................... 52
WDM/OTN Latency Distribution ..................................................................................................................................... 53
WDM/OTN Latency Performance Optimization Technologies ....................................................................................... 54
WDM/OTN Latency Management Solution .................................................................................................................... 55
Measurable Latency ..................................................................................................................................................... 55
Optical Power Flatness ........................................................................................................................................................ 57
What Is Optical Power Flatness? ..................................................................................................................................... 57
Why Is the Optical Power Flatness Indicator Required? ................................................................................................. 57
Optical Power Equalization ............................................................................................................................................. 58
Incident Optical Power ........................................................................................................................................................ 58
Why Is Incident Optical Power required? ....................................................................................................................... 59
Incident Optical Power Specifications ............................................................................................................................. 59
Commissioning the Incident Optical Power .................................................................................................................... 59

WDM/OTN Basics
What Is WDM?
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM): The WDM technology multiplexes optical signals of different
wavelengths into one fiber for transmission (each wavelength carries one service signal). The WDM technology is
mainly used for transmission and multiplexing.
Before the WDM technology, all transmission technologies allow one fiber to transmit only one wavelength,
whereas WDM technologies allow one fiber to transmit multiple wavelengths. Currently, a common WDM system
includes 8 (coarse wavelength division multiplexing, CWDM), 40, 80, 96, or 120 wavelengths. Carrying more
wavelengths is one of the future evolution trends of WDM.
What Is OTN
The WDM technology solves the problem of insufficient fiber resources. However, it lacks OAM, flexible grooming,
and incomplete protection. Therefore, the optical transport network (OTN) is developed.
OTN: It is a network that uses optical fibers as transmission media to transmit information, in compliance with
ITU-T G.709, G.872, and G.798.
An OTN performs the following functions for client signals based on optical channels: transmission, multiplexing,
routing, management, monitoring, and protection.
Based on the traditional WDM, the OTN integrates some advantages of the SDH and supports flexible optical-
layer grooming and electrical-layer grooming, intensive OAM overheads, and comprehensive protection schemes.

What Is MS-OTN
The smallest cross-connect granularity of OTN is ODU0. The bandwidth utilization is low when small-granularity
services are carried. In addition, packet services cannot be carried. As MPLS-TP technology is maturing, the MS-
OTN era is coming.
Multi-service optical transport network (MS-OTN): The core concept is all-in-one. It integrates the technologies of
the OTN, TDM, and packet planes, enables L0/L1/L2 orchestration, and provides a transport network with larger
bandwidth, higher quality, and lower cost. The details are as follows:
• Multi-service access: 2M to 100GE Any rate

• Universal switch: λ/PKT/ODU/VC
• Unified transmission: mapping of various services to most appropriate channels and convergence to
wavelengths for unified transport
• Centralized maintenance: unified NMS for visualized O&M of L0/L1/L2 layers

Universal Switching
OTN, SDH, and packet services are carried over the same wavelength, with bandwidth allocated flexibly.
For packet services, priority-specific QoS guarantee is provided.
Summary
The optical transmission networks have undergone development and innovation of WDM, OTN, and MS-OTN
technologies. The characteristics of each phase are as follows:

FEC
During signal transmission, signal degradation and bit errors are inevitable. The forward error correction (FEC)
technology ensures error-free transmission in a communication system despite the impairment factors such as
noise.
• Scenario: long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems
• Implementation: signal coding at the transmit end, and identification and correction at the receive end
• Measurement indicator: overhead percentage and net coding gain (NCG)
• FEC type: hard decision forward error correction (HDFEC) and soft decision forward error correction
(SDFEC)
FEC Position in an OTUk Frame
Error Correction Mode

The FEC-based system uses redundant coding to correct possible error bits to ensure bit error-free transmission.

Key Indicator: NCG

When FEC is not used, the system bit error rate (BER) on the 1e-15 level requires a 22 dB OSNR. When FEC is
used, the system BER on the 1e-15 level requires only an 11 dB OSNR. Using FEC, an 11 dB OSNR can be reduced.
The decrease in the required OSNR is NCG of the FEC. NCG is an important indicator to measure the FEC
performance of each vendor.
HDFEC vs. SDFEC

The difference between HDFEC and SDFEC lies in the number of bits used to quantify a signal.
HDFEC uses only one bit, 0 or 1. SDFEC uses multiple bits and corresponding algorithms to improve the decision
accuracy.
Compared with HDFEC, SDFEC has more complex hardware and larger processing delay and power
consumption. Therefore, you need to select a proper FEC type to suit your situation and requirements.
With the algorithm improvement and application of ASIC chips with more advanced techniques, higher
integration, and lower power consumption, SDFEC has greatly optimized performance indicators such as delay
and power consumption.

Type Implementation Overhead NCG

HDFEC Simple (1-bit quantification) 7% Low
SDFEC Difficult (N-bit quantification) 15% Relatively high

SDFEC2 Difficult (N-bit quantification) 25% High
Optical and Electrical Subracks

Electrical Subrack
An electrical subrack houses only cross- connect boards, OTU boards, tributary boards, line boards, or protection
boards.
Electrical subracks include universal platform subracks that house only OTU boards in non-regeneration mode,
and optical/electrical hybrid subracks.
An electrical subrack converts client- side signals into standard-wavelength optical signals for grooming
implemented by an optical subrack.

Optical Subrack
An optical subrack houses only OADM boards, multiplexer boards, demultiplexer boards, optical amplifier boards,
OSC boards, optical spectrum analyzer boards, OLP boards used for optical line protection, regeneration boards,
or OTU boards in regeneration mode.
A subrack equipped with only protection boards is an optical subrack.
An optical subrack grooms and manages optical signals on an OTN.
An NE consisting of only optical subracks or electrical subracks is called an optical or electrical NE,
respectively. A hybrid NE is composed of both optical and electrical subracks.
Currently, optical and electrical NEs are separated for site deployment to achieve centralized
grooming, low power consumption, and easy management.
Master-Slave Subrack Management

In master-slave subrack mode, multiple physical subracks can be managed as one NE on the NMS, saving IP
resources and management overheads while facilitating maintenance.
Master-Slave Subrack Cascading Mode

In master-slave subrack mode, only the master subrack is connected to the NMS. The resident NE of the master
subrack functions as the gateway NE. The master and slave subracks can be cascaded in a tree or ring topology.
Tree-Topology Cascading
In the tree-topology cascading, the master and slave subracks do not have protection functions. This mode is
mainly used to implement unified management of multiple subracks.

Ring-Topology Cascading
In the ring-topology cascading, inter-subrack communication protection can be achieved. The slave subrack
mainly performs fault detection and switching request processing. In addition to all functions that can be provided
by a slave subrack, the master subrack implements loop detection, loop removal (for fault recovery), and
switching execution.
Capability of Master-Slave Subrack Management

The total number of the subracks supported on an NE varies depending on the subrack types and the system
control boards. If the number of subracks on an NE is beyond the management capability of this NE, you need to
divide the NE into two NEs to ensure normal subrack management. The number of electrical subracks that can be
managed by an NE is less than that of optical subracks. After electrical-layer ASON is enabled, the number of

supported slave subracks is reduced due to CPU resource occupancy. However, whether optical-layer ASON is
enabled does not affect the master-slave subrack management capability.
Connection Between Master and Slave Subracks of Different Types

WDM/OTN supports the master-slave mode for some subracks of different types. For details about the
master/slave subrack relationship, see Feature Description > Master-Slave Subrack Management in the product
documentation.
WDM Site Types

OTM
OTM: optical terminal multiplexer
An OTM site adds service signals to the lines of the WDM system through the multiplexer unit. It also drops the
service signals from the lines of the WDM system through the demultiplexer unit.
OLA
OLA: Optical Line Amplifier
An OLA site amplifies bidirectionally transmitted optical signals to extend the transmission distance.

OADM
OADM: Optical ADD/Drop Multiplexer
The main function of an OADM site is to add or drop one or more wavelengths from a multi-wavelength
channel during transmission.
There are two OADM sites available: fixed OADM (FOADM) and reconfigurable OADM (ROADM).
• A FOADM site drops optical signals with a specific wavelength from multiplexed signals. It transmits the
signals to an OTU or line board, and multiplexes the optical signals over an ITU-T-compliant WDM
wavelength transmitted by the OTU or line board into the multiplexed signals.

• A ROADM site adds or drops single-wavelength or multi-wavelength signals to achieve dynamic

wavelength grooming in multiple directions. It can also perform the reverse process.
ROADM is the mainstream OADM site type. A ROADM site can add or drop any wavelength, and wavelength
pass-through at a ROADM site does not require manual fiber connections.
ROADM Site Configuration Model
Configuration Example of a 4-dimensional ROADM Site

REG
REG: Regeneration Station
In long-haul transmission, if one or more factors such as dispersion, optical power, noise, and nonlinear
effects limit line extension, an REG site can be configured to regenerate electrical signals, improving signal
quality.
Example
Service signals A and B are transmitted from city A to cities E and D respectively.
1. The signals are added to a line at the OTM site.
2. The signals reach city B. Since the optical power weakens, the signals need to be amplified at the OLA site.
3. The signals reach city C. The signal quality seriously downgrades, and the signals need to be regenerated
at the REG site.
4. The signals reach city D. Signal B reaches its destination and is dropped at the OADM site.
5. Signal A reaches city E and is dropped at the OTM site.

EDFA and Raman Amplifier

An optical fiber amplifier (OFA) is a component for improving optical signal strength, which can be classified into
a rare-earth-dope OFA and a non-linear OFA.
In a rare-earth-dope OFA, doped ions in fibers transit to a sub-stable high-excitation state after being excited by
pump light. In this way, stimulated radiation is generated and coherent amplification is performed on the signal
light. An erbium-doped optical fiber amplifier (EDFA) is a typical rare-earth-dope OFA.
A non-linear OFA is a laser amplifier that amplifies signal light by using the non-linear effect of optical fibers.
When the optical power density in the fiber reaches a certain threshold, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) or
stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is generated to achieve coherent amplification of signal light. A Raman
amplifier is a typical non-linear OFA.
Classification of EDFAs
• Common power amplifiers and high power amplifiers (HPAs) based on the power
Type Description
Common power The single-wavelength optical power is 1 dBm, and the total optical power is about 20
amplifier dBm.
The single-wavelength optical power is 4–7 dBm, and the total optical power is
High power amplifier
generally greater than 23 dBm.
• Single-level amplifiers and multi-level amplifiers by the number of cascaded EDFAs
Type Description
Single-level EDFA amplifiers are fixed gain amplifiers. The gain range of a single-level
Single-level
EDFA amplifier is small, usually a specific value in the range of 15–23 dB, for example, a
amplifier
single-level amplifier with a gain of 23 dB.
Multi-level EDFA amplifiers are generally formed by two levels of EDFAs connected in
Multi-level series. The gain range can cover a certain range of 16 dB to 40 dB. For example, if the
amplifier gain range of the most commonly used multi-level amplifier is 20–31 dB, the 2-level
EDFA structure is used.
Classification of Raman Amplifiers

• Based on the position of the Raman amplifier on the fiber line, Raman amplifiers are classified into forward
Raman amplifiers and backward Raman amplifiers.

Type Description
Forward Raman amplifiers are placed at the transmit end of the line side and behind a
Forward Raman
high power EDFA.
Backward Backward Raman amplifiers are placed at the receive end of the line side and must be
Raman followed by an EDFA.
• According to the composition of Raman amplifiers, Raman amplifiers can be classified into independent
Raman amplifiers and hybrid Raman amplifiers.
Type Description
Early forward Raman amplifiers and backward Raman amplifiers are generally
Independent
independent Raman amplifiers. Typically, an independent Raman amplifier installed in
Raman amplifier
an independent subrack. The gain is about 10 dB to 20 dB.
The Raman amplifier and the EDFA form a hybrid amplifier, which is integrated in a
Hybrid Raman
board. The gain range of the hybrid amplifier can cover each range from 20 dB to 50
amplifier
dB.
• As technology develops, independent Raman amplifiers have been gradually replaced by the integrated
hybrid Raman amplifiers.
Comparison Between EDFA and Raman Amplifiers

Both the EDFA and Raman amplifiers feature high gain, low noise figure, and high output power. The following
table lists the differences between the two types.
Item EDFA Raman Amplifier
Gain exists in any fiber regardless of the fiber type. The

Gain Fixed range. The operating wavelength is gain wavelength is determined by the pump
wavelength within the 1550 nm window. wavelength. Theoretically, signals of any wavelength
can be amplified.
Stable. The EDFA is insensitive to

Unstable and strong polarization-dependent gain. The
temperature. The gain has little correlation
Stability orthogonal pump mode, transient gain, and backward
with polarization and is irrelevant to the
pump mode are used.
system bit rate and data format.
Gain
Unflatness Flatness within the gain bandwidth range
bandwidth
Cost Moderate Relatively high

Item EDFA Raman Amplifier
The optical surge problem of the EDFA is The output optical power of the Raman amplifier is
severe. The peak optical power may reach high. During maintenance, do not look into the optical
several watts, which may damage O/E port without eye protection. The laser of the Raman
Precautions
converters and optical connectors. amplifier must be shut down before the board with
Therefore, it is not recommended EDFAs be fibers is removed. Otherwise, the maintenance
cascaded. personnel may be injured by strong light.
OSC
An optical supervisory channel (OSC) board provides private optical supervisory channels for WDM devices to
transmit OAM information.
Features
OSC has the following features:
• Occupies a private wavelength to transmit OAM information.
• Ensures ultra-long transmission without signal amplification.
• Uses CMI line encoding and ensures a receiver sensitivity of greater than -48 dBm.
Implementation Principle
As shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, OSC signals are transmitted in a chain network consisting of three stations.
OSC signals and service signals are separated from each other. OSC signals are not amplified but are terminated
and regenerated at each station.
Figure 1 OSC signal flow in a chain network consisting of three stations
The following describes the OSC communication between OTM1 and the optical line amplifier (OLA).
• In the direction of west to east, the OSC board on OTM1 receives overhead data frames from the
system control board. After performing E/O conversion for the frames using its optical-electrical
conversion module, the OSC board modulates the supervisory data frames to the OSC wavelength
(1510 nm). Then, the FIU board multiplexes the OSC wavelength with the service wavelength and

sends the multiplexed wavelength to the OLA. The FIU on the OLA demultiplexes the wavelength into
a service wavelength and an OSC wavelength. The service wavelength is transmitted to the east
direction after being amplified by an optical amplifier unit (OAU)
• In the direction of east to west, the OSC wavelength is sent to the OSC board on the OLA. The OSC
board performs O/E conversion on the OSC signals, restores and processes the supervisory data
frames, and sends the frames to the system control board on the OLA to exchange overhead data.
The system control board on the OLA transmits overhead data to the system control board on OTM1
in a similar process.
The OSC communication process between the OLA and OTM2 is the reverse of that between OTM1 and the
OLA.
Figure 2 OSC signal flow in a chain network consisting of three stations
As shown in Figure 2, two OSC channels exist. Each OSC channel is an east-west independent bidirectional
channel, which transmits supervisory and management information between NEs. Taking one OSC channel as an
example, the OSC communication between OTM1 and the OLA is as follows:
• In the direction of west to east, the OSC board on OTM1 receives overhead data frames from the
system control board. After performing E/O conversion for the frames using its optical-electrical
conversion module, the OSC board modulates the supervisory data frames to the OSC wavelength
(1510 nm). Then, the DAPXF board multiplexes the OSC wavelength and the service wavelength
using a multiplexer and sends the multiplexed wavelength to the optical regeneration device OLA.
The demultiplexer of the DAPXF board on the OLA demultiplexes the wavelength into a service
wavelength and an OSC wavelength. The service wavelength is transmitted to the east direction after
being amplified by an OA board.
• In the direction of east to west, the OSC wavelength is sent to the OSC board on the OLA. The OSC
board then performs O/E conversion on the OSC signal using the optical receiving module, restores
and processes the supervisory data frames, and sends the frames to the system control board on the
OLA to exchange overhead data. The system control board on the OLA uses the same method to
transmit data to the system control board on OTM1 for processing.
Channel Type
An optical supervisory channel is section-specific, and the OSC communication between the OLA and
OTM2 is the reverse of that between OTM1 and the OLA in the same OSC channel

Channel Type Description Bandwidth Applicable Board
D1-D3, D4-D12 The OSC board maps the supervisory 12 x 64 AST2

information from the system control kbit/s ON32, ON32P, ON20, ON20P
board into frames in a Huawei
proprietary frame structure for further
transmission.
FE_DCN FE_DCN is an extended DCN channel. 5.12 AST2

Mbit/s ON32, ON32P, ON20, ON20P
FE_DCN_ASON FE_DCN_ASON is an ASON channel. 5.12 AST2

Mbit/s ON32, ON32P, ON20, ON20P
Electrical-Layer Grooming & Optical-Layer Grooming

In a traditional WDM system, if want to change a fixed signal transmission path, maintenance personnel have to
visit the site to install related hardware and connect optical fibers, which are time- and labor-consuming. The OTN
network uses electrical-layer grooming and optical-layer grooming to address these issues. With the help of the
two grooming technologies, maintenance personnel can remotely adjust the transmission paths of signals from
the control center.
Electrical-Layer Grooming
To achieve cross-scheduling of electrical signals, the core unit of scheduling is the cross-board, grooms electrical
signals at a granularity of ODUk(k =1, 2(e), 3, 4, or flex).
Services are transmitted to tributary boards and groomed to line boards through the cross-connect board,
encapsulated and mapped to OTU signals on the line boards, and then transmitted to the WDM side.
Through electrical-layer grooming, services of different granularities are groomed and encapsulated into one
wavelength and output to the WDM side. This enables multiple services to share the bandwidth, greatly improving
bandwidth utilization.

Optical-Layer Grooming
Grooms optical signals at a granularity of wavelength (λ) by flexibly selecting transmission paths. The core unit for
optical-layer grooming is the ROADM board.
After receiving OTU optical signals, the ROADM board creates optical cross-connection paths internally and
outputs the signals to specified egresses. Each egress corresponds to a specific path.
Operation personnel can remotely control the transmission paths of optical signals by creating and adjusting
cross-connection paths on the NMS.
Optical-layer grooming used together with the ASON technology can implement automatic fault detection and
line adjustment to ensure normal transmission of services.
Electrical-layer grooming and optical-layer grooming form the grooming center of an OTN, so that the
transmission paths of signals can be controlled remotely, realizing flexible grooming of signals.

Regeneration Mode of Line Boards
On an OTN network, line boards can be set to the regeneration mode (Relay mode) to increase the transmission
distance.
Currently, the equipment supports two regeneration modes: bidirectional regeneration and unidirectional
regeneration, either of which is supported by different line boards. In the unidirectional regeneration and
bidirectional regeneration modes, optical regeneration or electrical regeneration is supported.
Unidirectional Regeneration vs. Bidirectional Regeneration

The major difference between unidirectional regeneration and bidirectional regeneration lies in the fiber
connection mode.
• Fiber connections in bidirectional regeneration mode are the same as those in line mode. When
provisioning services, you only need to select the line mode or regeneration mode on the NMS, without
need for any onsite physical fiber connection modifications.
• Bidirectional regeneration supports optical port loopback, which helps locate fiber line and board faults.
In addition, when a single-port line board functions as a regeneration board and ESC communication is used, a
pair of boards must be installed in adjacent paired slots.

Optical Regeneration vs. Electrical Regeneration
The major difference between the electrical regeneration and optical regeneration lies in the trail management
mode on the NMS.
• In electrical regeneration mode, ODUk cross-connections are created on the regeneration board on the
NMS. As a result, OCh trails on the NMS cannot pass through and multiple OCh trails are formed.
• In optical regeneration mode, OCh cross-connections are created on the regeneration board on the NMS
to form a complete OCh trail, facilitating configuration and maintenance.
Mapping Mode
Mapping Definition
Mapping refers to the process of service packaging and encoding for transmission in the OTN frame structure.
A standard process is as follows: A client signal or an Optical channel Data unit Tributary Unit Group (ODTUGk) is
mapped into the OPUk. The OPUk is mapped into an ODUk and the ODUk is mapped into an OTUk[V]. The
OTUk[V] is mapped into an OCh[r] and the OCh[r] is then modulated onto an OCC[r]. (ODTUGk<--> OPUk <-->
ODUk <--> OTUk[V] <--> OCh[r] <--> OCC[r].) The OTUk may also be mapped to n x OTLk.n, and then modulated
to the OTLC.
This document describes the mapping modes of Ethernet services.
The mapping modes of Ethernet services are classified into bit transparent mapping and MAC transparent
mapping. Bit transparent transmission is pipe-level transparent transmission and does not parse specific services
and clocks. In MAC transparent transmission mode, the idle frame and preamble are removed and the ETH frame
is parsed.
The following table lists the mapping relationships between Ethernet service mapping modes, encapsulation
modes, and service rates.

Encapsulation
Mapping Mode Service Rate
Mode
Bit transparent mapping TTT+GMP GE and 40GE
Bit transparent mapping IMP+BMP 10GE LAN
Bit transparent mapping GFP-T GE
Bit transparent mapping BMP 10GE LAN, 25GE, and 50GE
Bit transparent mapping GMP 100GE
Bit transparent mapping IMP 200GE and 400GE
MAC transparent GE, 10GE LAN, 25GE, 50GE, 100GE, and

GFP-F
transmission 200GE
MAC transparent
MAC (IMP) 200GE
transmission
Encapsulation Modes
Timing transparent transcoding (TTT)
Generic Mapping Procedure (GMP)
Transparent generic framing procedure (GFP-T): The entire MAC layer data is transmitted, and the link status is
transmitted to the downstream.
Bit-synchronous Mapping Procedure (BMP)
Generic Mapping Procedure (GMP)
Idle mapping procedure (IMP)
Frame-Mapped Framing Generic Procedure (GFP-F): After Ethernet services are encapsulated, MAC-layer data is
discarded.

Example of the Mapping Process

The following uses the mapping from 40GE (TTT+GMP) to OPU3 as an example. The encapsulation process is as
follows:
Because the rate of the 40GE signal is higher than that of the OPU3 signal, the 40GE signal cannot be directly
mapped into the OPU3 signal. Therefore, the 40GE signal needs to be transcoded to reduce the rate to a value
lower than that of the OPU3 signal.
• Locks and decodes 64B/66B blocks, and sorts and deskews four lanes.
• TTT transcoding: converts eight 66B into 513B and two 513B into 1027B.
• Maps 1027B into OPU3 through GMP.
Transcoding rate calculation is as follows: 41. 250 000 Gbit/s × 64/66 × 1027/1024 = 40. 117 187 Gbit/s < 40.
150 519 Gbit/s
Selecting a Mapping Mode

When a client-side service supports multiple mapping modes, you can select a mapping mode based on the
following factors and actual application scenarios:

• Set a mapping mode based on the interconnection principle. That is, the port service mapping paths of the
upstream and downstream interconnected boards must be the same. In special cases, 10GE LAN<-
>ODU2e(IMP+BMP) and 10GE LAN<->ODU2(BMP) support service interconnection.
• Set a mapping mode based on the difference of encapsulation modes. For example, the idle frame is
removed from the MAC transparent mapping. Therefore, compact bandwidth is supported. The bit
transparent mapping supports transparent transmission of service clocks.
General Differences Between Ethernet Service Mapping Modes

MAC
Bit Transparent
Feature/NMS Parameter Transparent
Mapping
Mapping
Synchronous Ethernet processing Supported Not supported
ITU-T G.8275.1/ITU-T G.8273.2 Supported Not supported
IEEE 1588v2 Supported Not supported
Setting Insert Code Type to Delayed insert Supported Not supported
Setting the transparent transmission insertion mode for fault information Supported Not supported
Transparent transmission of LLDP packets Not supported Supported
Transparent transmission of service clocks Not supported Supported
Compact bandwidth Supported Not supported
Special Differences Between Mapping Modes of 10GE Ethernet Services

The encapsulation modes of specific services are different. For example, the 10GE service supports four mapping
modes, which vary with the supported FEC correction capability and line rate.

Service Mapping Mode Description Line Mode
Maps the 10GE LAN signals received on the client side into OTU2e
signals by increasing the OTU frame rate. This ensures the FEC
10GE Bit transparent Speed-up
coding gain and error correction capability. The line-side signal
LAN mapping (11.1G) mode
rate is 11.1 Gbit/s, which is higher than the standard OTU2 signal
rate.
Performs GFP-F encapsulation for the 10GE LAN signals received

MAC on the client side, and maps the signals into OTU2 signals through
10GE transparent 10GE MAC frames. This ensures the FEC coding gain and error Common
LAN mapping correction capability, and supports the same FEC/AFEC coding as mode
(10.7G) 10G SDH services. The standard OTU2 frame structure is used,
and the line-side signal rate is 10.71 Gbit/s.
Maps 10GE LAN signals received on the client side into OTU2
signals by occupying some FEC areas of standard OTU frames.
Bit transparent
10GE Because some FEC areas are occupied to transmit signals, the Common
mapping
LAN FEC/AFEC coding gain and error correction capability of the mode
(10.7G)
corresponding signals are reduced. The line-side signal rate is
10.71 Gbit/s.
When 4 x 10GE LAN fan-out services are received on the client

side, only this mapping mode is applicable. This mapping mode
Bit transparent
10GE does not support synchronous Ethernet processing or Speed-up
mapping (11.1G
LAN synchronous Ethernet transparent transmission. The line-side mode
IMP+BMP)
signal rate is 11.1 Gbit/s, which is higher than the standard OTU2
signal rate.

Frame Structure of OTN Overhead
Overheads are bytes used for operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) to ensure proper and flexible
transmission of payloads.
OTN electrical-layer overheads consist of OTUk, ODUk, OPUk, OTUCn, ODUCn, OPUCn, and frame alignment
overheads.
• SM overhead belongs to the OTU overhead and occupies three bytes.
• PM overhead belongs to the ODU overhead and occupies three bytes.
• TCM overhead belongs to the ODU overhead. The TCM overhead has six levels (TCMn, n = 1...6) with each
TCMn occupying three bytes.
OTUk/ODUk/OPUk Overheads
The following figure shows the OTN overhead frame structure when the service rate is lower than or equal to 100
Gbit/s.
Note: OTUk (k = 1, 2, 3, 4, X5, X10); ODUk (k = 0, 1, 2, 2e, 3, 4, flex, X5, X10); OPUk (k = 0, 1, 2, 2e, 3, 4, flex, X5, X10).

OTUCn/ODUCn/OPUCn Overheads
The structure of an OTN overhead frame with a service rate greater than 100 Gbit/s is different from that of an
OTN overhead frame with a service rate lower than 100 Gbit/s. For details, see the following figure.
Note: OTUCn (n=2, 4); ODUCn (n=2, 4); OPUCn (n=2, 4)
OTUk Overheads
Optical channel transport unit - k (OTUk): supports transport and operation of one or more optical channel
connections.

OTUk overheads consist of SM, GCC0, and RES overheads.
SM subfields:
• TTI: trail trace identifier, used to transmit 64-byte OTUk TTI signals.
• BIP-8: for OTUk bit error detection. This byte provides a bit interleaved parity-8 (BIP-8) code. The OTUk
BIP-8 is computed over the bits in the OPUk (columns 15 to 3824) area of OTUk frame i, and inserted in
the OTUk BIP-8 overhead location in OTUk frame i+2.
• BEI/BIAE: used to convey the count of bit errors and incoming alignment error condition in the upstream
direction.
• BDI: used to convey the signal fail status detected in a section termination sink function in the upstream
direction.
• IAE: used to allow the S-CMEP ingress point to inform its peer S-CMEP egress point that an alignment
error in the incoming signal has been detected.
GCC0: used to support a general communications channel between OTUk termination points.
RES: reserved.
ODUk Overheads
Optical channel data unit - k (ODUk): supports maintenance and operation of the optical channel. It consists of the
end-to-end ODUk channel and six levels of tandem connection monitoring (TCM).
ODUk overheads consist of PM, TCMn, TCM ACT, GCC1/GCC2, APS/PCC, EXP, FTFL, and RES overheads.
PM and TCM subfields:
• TTI/BIP-8/BEI/BIAE/BDI: These subfields have the same meaning as those in the SM field of OTUk
overheads but different monitoring levels.
• BIP-8: The BIP-8 is computed over the bits in the OPUk (columns 15 to 3824) area of ODUk frame i, and
inserted in the ODUk BIP-8 overhead location in OTUk frame i+2.
• STAT: ODUk maintenance signals.
FTFL: used to transmit a 256-byte fault type and fault location (FTFL) message.

EXP: for experimental use and currently used by coherent boards.
RES: reserved.
OPUk Overheads
Optical channel payload unit - k (OPUk): supports client signal adaptation.
OPUk overheads consist of PSI, JC, NJO, PJO, and RES overheads.
• PSI: used to transmit a 256-byte payload structure identifier (PSI) signal.
• PSI[0] contains a one-byte payload type (PT). PSI[1] to PSI[255] are mapping and concatenation specific.
• JC: used to control two justification opportunity bytes NJO and PJO.
• RES: reserved.
Frame Alignment Overheads

Frame alignment (FA): aligns signal frames.
Frame alignment overheads consist of frame alignment signal (FAS) and multi-frame alignment signal (MFAS)
overheads.
• Frame alignment signal (FAS), used for signal frame alignment and consisting of three OA1 bytes and
three OA2 bytes (OA1 = 1111 0110; OA2 = 0010 1000).

• Multiframe alignment signal (MFAS), used for multiframe alignment and spanning multiple OTUk/ODUk
frames. An MFAS byte consists of no more than 256 frames.
Service Mapping Paths
Why Encapsulation and Mapping Are Required?

In an OTN network, there are various client services (such as SDH, Ethernet, and video) that are of different
granularities (for example, STM-1, STM-4, and STM-16). To ease transmission and management of client services
and ensure interconnection between devices, ITU-T defines the basic structure of an OTN interface. Client
services can be transmitted across the network only after they have been encapsulated, multiplexed, and mapped
to the standard OTN frame structure.
Encapsulation and Mapping Process

ITU-T defines the encapsulation and mapping process as follows: Client services are first encapsulated as OPUk
signals, and then (small-granularity) ODUk signals. Multiple channels of ODUk signals are then multiplexed into
larger-granularity ODUk signals, which are finally mapped to OTUk signals.

Service Mapping Mode
Standard Mode
Client-side services are directly mapped into ODUk signals to achieve flexible service grooming. The management
is simple, but the bandwidth is wasted when the service rate is low.
Timeslot Mode
Services with a rate lower than 2.5 Gbit/s are sliced into 155 Mbit/s granularities (occupying one timeslot) and
then converged into ODU1 signals. In this manner, multiple channels can share the bandwidth of ODU1.
OTN Service Mapping Paths

The following uses the mapping of client signals (1.25 Gbit/s) into OTU1 as an example.
1. Client signals (1.25 Gbit/s) are directly encapsulated into OPU0.
2. OPU0 signals are mapped into ODU0 signals.
3. ODU0 signals are mapped into ODTU01 signals.
4. Two ODTU01 signals are multiplexed into ODTUG1 signals.
5. ODTUG1 signals are mapped into OPU1 signals.
6. OPU1 signals are mapped into ODU1 signals.
7. ODU1 signals are mapped into OTU1 signals.
Simply speaking, the client signals (1.25G) are mapped all the way from OPU0, ODTUG1, and ODU1 to OTU1.
Note: For details about OTN service mapping paths, see the Service Encapsulation and Mapping & OTN Framing
video at 《Service Encapsulation and Mapping & OTN Framing》.

OTUk/ODUk/OPUk Types and Bit Rates

This document describes the types and bit rates of the OTUk, ODUk, OPUk, OTUCn, ODUCn, and OPUCn signals.
The OTN supports beyond 100 Gbit/s, 100 Gbit/s, 40 Gbit/s, 10 Gbit/s, 2.5 Gbit/s, 1.25 Gbit/s and other line
rates.
Note:
• OTUk (k = 1, 2, 3, 4, X5, or X10); ODUk (k = 0, 1, 2, 2e, 3, 4, flex, X5, or X10); OPUk (k = 0, 1, 2, 2e, 3, 4, flex,
X5, or X10)
• OTUCn (n = 2 or 4); ODUCn (n = 2 or 4); OPUCn (n = 2 or 4)

OTU Types and Bit Rates
OTUk rate = 255/(239-k) x STM-N bit rate
OTU Type OTU Nominal Bit Rate OTU Bit Rate Tolerance
OTU1 255/238 × 2 488 320 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OTU2 255/237 × 9 953 280 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OTU3 255/236 × 39 813 120 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OTU4 255/227 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OTUX5 255/227 × 155 520 × 640/2 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OTUX10 255/227 × 155 520 × 640 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OTUCn n × 239/225 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
Note:
• The nominal OTUk rates are approximately: 2 666 057.143 kbit/s (OTU1), 10 709 225.316 kbit/s (OTU2),
43 018 413.559 kbit/s (OTU3), 55,904,986.784 kbit/s (OTUX5), and 111,809,973.568 kbit/s
(OTU4/OTUX10).
• The nominal OTUCn rates are approximately: n × 105 725 952.000 kbit/s.
Note:
each OTUk consists of 4080 x 4 bytes. Each OPUk payload consists of 3808 x 4 bytes. The 255/238, 255/237,
and 255/236 in the OTUk nominal rates indicate the ratio of post-FEC check bytes to pre-FEC check bytes. The
supplementary description is as follows:
• OTU1: The ratio of post-FEC check bytes to pre-FEC check bytes is as follows: (4080 x 4)/(3808 x 4) =
255/238. The OTU1 bit rate is 255/238 times the STM-16 bit rate.
• OTU2: 16 columns of stuffing information are added when STM-64 is mapped to OPU2 as payload.
Therefore, the ratio of post-FEC check bytes to pre-FEC check bytes is as follows: (4080 x 4)/[(3808- 16)
x 4] = 255/237. The OTU2 bit rate is 255/237 times 4 times the STM-16 bit rate.
• OTU3: 32 columns of stuffing information are added when STM-256 is mapped to OPU3 as payload.
Therefore, the ratio of post-FEC check bytes to pre-FEC check bytes is as follows: (4080 x 4)/[(3808-
32) x 4] = 255/236. The OTU3 bit rate is 255/236 times 16 times the STM-16 bit rate.
• OTU4: The OTU4 bit rate is 255/227 times 10 times the STM-64 client bit rate.

ODU Types and Bit Rates
ODUk rate = 239/(239-k) x STM-N bit rate
ODU Type ODU Nominal Bit Rate OD
ODU0 1 244 160 kbit/s ±20 ppm
ODU1 239/238 × 2 488 320 kbit/s ±20 ppm
ODU2 239/237 × 9 953 280 kbit/s ±20 ppm
ODU3 239/236 × 39 813 120 kbit/s ±20 ppm
ODU2e 239/237 × 10 312 500 kbit/s ±100 ppm
ODU4 239/227 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
ODUX5 239/227 × 49 766 400 kbit/s ±20 ppm
ODUX10 239/227 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
ODUflex for CBR client signals 239/238 × client signal bit rate Client signal bit rate to
ODUflex for GFP-F mapped client signals 476/3,824 × n × 15,230/15,232 × ODU2 bit rate ±20 ppm
ODUCn n × 239/225 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
Note:
• The nominal ODUk rates are approximately: 2 498 775.126 kbit/s (ODU1), 10 037 273.924 kbit/s (ODU2),
40 319 218.983 kbit/s (ODU3), 10 399 525.316 kbit/s (ODU2e), and 104 794 445.815 kbit/s (ODU4),
52,397,222.907 kbit/s (ODUX5), and 104,794,445.815 kbit/s (ODU4/ODUX10).
• The nominal ODUCn rates are approximately: n × 105 725 952.000 kbit/s.
• The value "n" represents the number of tributary slots occupied by the ODUflex (GFP-F).
Note: each ODUk consists of 3824 x 4 bytes. Each OPUk payload consists of 3808 x 4 bytes. The 239/238,
239/237, and 239/236 in the ODUk nominal rates indicate the ratio of the ODUk bytes to the OPUk payload
excluding the stuffing information. The supplementary description is as follows:
• The ODU0 bit rate is 50% of the STM-16 bit rate.
• ODU1: No stuffing information is added when STM-16 is mapped to OPU1 as payload. Therefore, the ratio
of the ODU1 bytes to the OPU1 payload is as follows: (3824 x 4)/(3808 x 4) = 239/238. The ODU1 bit
rate is 239/238 times the STM-16 bit rate.
• ODU2: 16 columns of stuffing information are added when STM-64 is mapped to OPU2 as payload.
Therefore, the ratio of the ODU2 bytes to the OPU2 payload excluding the stuffing information is as
follows: (3824 x 4)/[(3808- 16) x 4] = 239/237. The ODU2 bit rate is 239/237 times 4 times the STM-16
bit rate.
• ODU3: 32 columns of stuffing information are added when STM-256 is mapped to OPU3 as payload.
Therefore, the ratio of the ODU3 bytes to the OPU3 payload excluding the stuffing information is as
follows: (3824 x 4)/[(3808- 32) x 4] = 239/236. The ODU3 bit rate is 239/236 times 16 times the STM-
16 bit rate.
• ODU2e: An ODU2e signal is generated using the timing of its client signal. The ODU2e bit rate is 239/237
times the 10GBASE-R client bit rate.
• ODU4: The ODU4 bit rate is 239/227 times 10 times the STM-64 client bit rate.

OPU Types and Bit Rates

OPUk rate = 238/(239-k) x STM-N bit rate
OPU Type OPU Payload Nominal Bit Rate OPU Payload
OPU0 238/239 × 1 244 160 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OPU1 2 488 320 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OPU2 238/237 × 9 953 280 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OPU3 238/236 × 39 813 120 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OPU2e 238/237 × 10 312 500 kbit/s ±100 ppm
OPU4 238/227 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OPUX5 238/227 × 49 766 400 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OPUX10 238/227 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
OPUflex for CBR client signals Client signal bit rate Equals the client signal bit rate tol
OPUflex for GFP mapped client signals 238/239 × ODUflex signal bit rate ±20 ppm
OPUCn n × 238/225 × 99 532 800 kbit/s ±20 ppm
Note:
The nominal OPUk payload rates are approximately: 1,238,954.310 kbit/s (OPU0), 2,488,320.000 kbit/s (OPU1
payload), 9,995,276.962 kbit/s (OPU2 payload), 10,356,012.658 kbit/s (OPU2e payload), 40 150 519.322 kbit/s
(OPU3 payload), 52,177,987.665 kbit/s (OPUX5 payload), and 104,355,975.330 kbit/s (OPU4/OPUX10 payload).
The nominal OPUC2 payload rates are approximately: 210 567 168.000 kbit/s.
Note: Each ODUk consists of 3824 x 4 bytes. Each OPUk payload consists of 3808 x 4 bytes. In the OPU Payload
Nominal Bit Rate column, "238/239" indicates the ratio of the OPU0 payload to the ODU0 bytes, and "238/237"
indicate the ratio of the OPUk payload to the OPUk payload (excluding the padding information). The following
provides a supplementary description:
• OPU0: The ratio of the OPU0 payload to the ODU0 bytes is derived from the following equation: (3808 x
4)/(3824 x 4) = 238/239. The OPU0 bit rate is 238/239 times 50% of the STM-16 client signal bit rate.
• OPU1: No padding information is added when STM-16 is mapped to OPU1 as payload. The OPU1 bit rate is
the STM-16 client signal bit rate.
• OPU2: 16 columns of padding information are added when STM-64 is mapped to OPU2 as payload.
Therefore, the ratio of the OPU2 payload to the OPU2 payload (excluding the padding information) is
derived from the following equation: (3808 x 4)/[(3808 - 16) x 4] = 238/237. The OPU2 bit rate is
238/237 times 4 times the STM-16 client signal bit rate.
• OPU2e: The OPU2e bit rate is 238/237 times the 10GBASE-R client signal bit rate.
• OPU3: The ratio of the OPU3 payload to the OPU3 payload excluding the stuffing information is as
follows: (3808 x 4)/[(3808- 32) x 4] = 238/236. The OPU3 bit rate is 238/236 times 16 times the STM-
16 bit rate.

• OPU4: The OPU4 bit rate is 238/227 times 10 times STM-64 client bit rate.
Transponder & Muxponder

An Optical Transponder Unit (OTU) board converts client-side services into optical signals carried over ITU-T–
compliant WDM wavelengths after performing mapping, multiplexing, convergence, and other operations. OTU
boards can be divided into Transponder and Muxponder by function, which are abbreviated as TP and MP
respectively.
Transponder
N into N out: N * low-speed client-side services to N * optical signals carried over ITU-T–compliant WDM
wavelengths.
Muxponder
N into 1 out: N * low-speed client-side services to one high-speed optical signal carried over ITU-T–compliant
WDM wavelengths.
Client services are SDH, SONET, OTN, SAN, Ethernet, video, and other services.

OTN Tributary Boards and Line Boards

Tributary and line boards work with cross-connect boards.
A tributary board plus a line board together performs the functions of an OTU board.
Different from an OTU board, the tributary and line boards achieve more flexible and fine-grained grooming of
electrical services and offers a higher bandwidth utilization by working with a cross-connect board.
Note: Huawei OTN product series support the use of separate tributary and line boards.
OTN Tributary Boards

Function
OTN tributary boards are used mainly to locally add/drop client services from the WDM side.
Specifically, an OTN tributary board receives a client service, converts the service into an electrical signal, maps
the signal into an appropriate ODUk signal, and sends the ODUk signal to the cross-connect board.
Positions of OTN Tributary Boards in a WDM System
OTN Line Boards

Function
• Allows for local add/drop of client services on the WDM side by working with an OTN tributary board.
Specifically, the OTN tributary board receives a client service, converts the service into an electrical signal,
maps the signal into an appropriate ODUk signal, and sends the ODUk signal to the cross-connect board for

grooming. When the OTN line board receives the ODUk signal from the cross-connect board, it maps and
multiplexes the signal and converts the signal into an OTUk signal carried over an ITU-T G.694.1-compliant
DWDM wavelength. The reverse conversion is similar.
• Transparently transmits WDM-side services by working with another OTN line board.
When receiving a west WDM-side service, this OTN line board performs E/O conversion, demapping, and
demultiplexing to convert the service into an ODUk signal. Then this OTN line board sends the ODUk signal to the
cross-connect board for grooming. When the other OTN line board receives the ODUk signal from the cross-
connect board, it converts the ODUk signal into an OTUk signal carried over an ITU-T G.694.1-compliant DWDM
wavelength by performing mapping, multiplexing, and E/O conversion, and sends the OTUk signal to the east.
The reverse process is similar.
Positions of OTN Line boards in a WDM System
Why the tributary/line separated architecture is needed?
OTU boards can be used to add client-side services to the WDM side. Why the tributary/line separated
architecture is needed?

As shown in the preceding figures, the major difference between the tributary/line separated architecture and the
OTU architecture lies that centralized cross-connect boards are introduced into the tributary/line separated
architecture for grooming of ODUk signals at different levels. To be specific, under the tributary/line separated
architecture, client-side services are not encapsulated into WDM-side services (OTUk) and added to the line side
using one board.This architecture improves electrical-layergrooming flexibility and bandwidth usage.
1+1 Protection and 1:1 Protection
1+1 protection
Each working channel has a dedicated protection channel.
At the transmit end, services are transmitted to both the working and protection channels. In normal cases, the
receive end receives services from the working channel.
If the working channel becomes abnormal, the receive end selectively receives services from the protection
channel based on channel status and external commands.

1:1 Protection
Each working channel corresponds to a protection channel, and they protect each other.
Services, however, are not concurrently transmitted to both the working and protection channels. Instead, the
transmit end sends primary services to the working channel and extra services (low-level services) to the
protection channel. Then, the receive end receives primary services from the working channel and extra services
from the protection channel.
When the working channel is faulty, the transmit end sends primary services to the protection channel and the
receive end receives primary services from the protection channel. At this time, the extra services are terminated
to ensure normal transmission of the primary services.

Unidirectional Switching and Bidirectional
Unidirectional switching
When the channel in one direction is faulty, only services in this direction are switched and services in the other
direction are still received from the original channel. Service switching in each direction is independent and has no
impact on service switching in the other direction.
Advantage
The implementation mechanism of unidirectional switching is simple and does not require any protocols, and
service switching is quick.
Bidirectional switching
When the channel in one direction is faulty, services in both directions are switched regardless of whether the
channel in the other direction is faulty.

Advantage
In bidirectional switching mode, services in both directions pass through the same devices and services are easy
to manage.
If a fault occurs on the network, services will not be transmitted in the fault area and the fault can be rectified
without triggering excessive service switching. The latencies in both directions are the same.
Physical Clocks
Introduction
In physical clock synchronization mode, WDM devices restore frequency signals from physical signals such as
Ethernet links, packet links, and SDH links to achieve frequency synchronization of the upstream and downstream
devices. Physical clocks require the device hardware to support clock extraction. Therefore, each node must
support physical-layer clocks to achieve frequency synchronization on the entire network.
Principles
The BITS device functions as a clock source to transmit clock signals to the device. The system clock of the
device traces the BITS clock source. The physical layer uses the clock signals synchronized with the system clock
of the device as the transmit clock and transmits the clock signals through data code streams. The physical layer
uses the high-precision clock signals extracted from data streams as the system reference clock source for
frequency synchronization.
Application Scenario
Physical clocks can be used in the following scenarios:
• Physical clock (OTN): Supports synchronous Ethernet processing and synchronous Ethernet transparent
transmission to implement frequency synchronization.
o Synchronous Ethernet processing: The system clock performs frequency synchronization for
upstream NEs one by one. Synchronous Ethernet processing can be used with IEEE 1588v2 to
implement phase synchronization.
o Synchronous Ethernet transparent transmission: It only transmits the clock to the destination node
to guarantee clock quality. Internal free-run on the NE is implemented, and frequency is not
synchronized with the upstream NE. Synchronous Ethernet transparent transmission cannot work
with IEEE 1588v2 to implement phase synchronization.
• Physical clock (packet): On a packet network, packet boards can be used to implement frequency
synchronization.
• Physical clock (SDH): In an SDH modernization scenario where the SDH network must be synchronized,
SDH boards can be used to implement frequency synchronization and provide synchronization for base
stations.
• The following figure uses physical clocks as an example to describe the typical scenario of frequency
synchronization. In this scenario, all devices on the WDM/OTN network must support physical clocks.


Optical Doctor (OD)
Huawei OTN equipment supports the Optical Doctor (OD) system. The OD system provides intelligent, end-to-
end, refined, and digital management of the optical layer on a WDM network. Through centralized configuration for
optical-layer parameters, the OD system supports automatic monitoring, analysis of network performance.
System Functions
1. Online OSNR Monitoring
The OD system supports online OSNR monitoring for 10G, 40G, 100G, 200G, and 400G wavelengths, including
40-wavelength, 80-wavelength, 96-wavelength, and FlexGrid systems, making the OSNR monitoring of 10G,
40G, 100G, 200G, and 400G wavelengths as convenient as that of 10G wavelengths. This greatly facilitates
routine maintenance and makes it easy to upgrade existing networks to 40G, 100G, 200G, and 400G networks.
The online OSNR monitoring provided by the OD system has the following features:
• Simple operations
The OSNR monitoring function is integrated into the network management system (NMS) and can be
performed by directly operating the NMS. The monitored OSNR information is intuitively displayed in a
virtual meter graphical user interface (GUI), eliminating auxiliary devices or complex operations.
• High detection precision
The detection precision is better than that of conventional 10G OSNR detection.
• Wide range of monitored wavelengths
All site types, all wavelengths including 10G, 40G, 100G, 200G, and 400G , as well as all spectrum widths
(including 40-wavelength, 80-wavelength, 96-wavelength, and FlexGrid systems) can implement online
OSNR monitoring.

2. E2E Optical-Layer Performance Maintenance
In addition, the OD system can be used to perform O&M of the optical layer on a WDM network, as described
below.
• Centralized configuration for network-wide monitoring
The OD system supports centralized configuration for optical-layer performance monitoring parameters,
greatly saving labor costs.
• Automatic monitoring of optical-layer performance
The OD system can automatically monitor network-wide optical-layer performance without using any
meters. It can automatically detect the channels with abnormal performance.
• End-to-end (E2E) graphical display of optical-layer performance data
The OD system graphically displays link performance, facilitating status query and fault isolating.
System Composition
The OD system requires the interoperation between the hardware and software.
• Hardware
They are used to obtain optical-layer performance data, monitor all optical signals in a centralized way without
interrupting services, and report the monitored optical-layer performance data to the OD system.
• Software
The OD system is integrated in the NMS. Users can deliver network-wide performance monitoring configuration
commands using the NMS. After obtaining the optical-layer performance data reported by each NE, the OD
system analyzes the performance data and graphically displays the analysis result. Based on the configuration
policy, the OD system instructs the EVOAs and OA boards to perform adjustments and optimize optical-layer
performance.


Common Concepts
dBm and mW
Both dBm (decibel-milliwatts) and mW (milliwatts) are units of optical power.
They can be converted as follows: dBm=10xlgP. Here, P indicates optical power, in mW.
For example, 1 mW can be converted into 0 dBm.
dBm and dB
dBm is the unit of optical power, and dB is the unit of an optical power gain or attenuation.
They can be converted as follows: dB=10xlg(P1/P2). Here, both P1 and P2 indicate optical power, in mW.
That is, dB=10xlgP1-10xlgP2=dBm1-dBm2.
When optical power is expressed in dBm, dB is the unit of optical power difference.
When calculating the insertion loss of an optical component, you only need to subtract the output optical power
from the input optical power.
For example
• Ptotal indicates the optical power of multiplexed wavelengths.

• P1 and P2 indicate the optical power of a single wavelength separately.
WSS Optical-Layer Loopback

Optical-layer loopback is performed to locate faults. Specifically, services are transmitted and received through
the same WSS board, and a loopback is performed at the DM/AM layer or internal port layer of the WSS board.
Currently, optical-layer loopback can be implemented in two modes.
- Mode 1: Manually create physical fiber connections, loop back the DM and AM ports of the WSS board using
optical fibers, and configure logical fiber connections and loopback from the DM port to the AM port on the NMS.

- Mode 2: Configure a software loopback on the NMS without any manual fiber loopback operation.
Mode 1
To implement the optical-layer loopback on the WSS board, you need to perform a fiber loopback on the DM and
AM physical ports, and configure the logical fiber connection and loopback function between the DM and AM
ports on the NMS. By checking the service transmission and receiving on the OTU board, you can determine
whether the optical line between the OTU and WSS boards is normal.
The loopback path on the WSS board is as follows: IN->DM->AM->OUT. After a loopback is configured, a
LOOP_ALM alarm is generated on the IN port. The alarm is cleared only after all loopback configurations are
deleted.
The DWSS20 board is used as an example to describe manual optical-layer loopback via physical fiber
connection.

Mode 2
The WSS modules of some boards have internal optical ports for loopback. Therefore, instead of performing fiber
loopback on the DM and AM physical ports of the boards, you can directly configure software loopback on the
NMS to avoid onsite operations.
The ADC0824 board is used as an example to describe manual optical-layer loopback via physical fiber
connection.
WDM/OTN Latency
What Is Latency
In a communications network, latency refers to the time it takes for original data to go through a series of
processing operations such as encoding on a forwarding device, transmission from the transmit end over
transmission links, and reception and decoding on the receive end (destination). The network latency consists of
the following parts:
• Sending latency: The period from the time when the original data enters the forwarding device to the time
when the original data completely enters the transmission medium, depending on the data
volume/channel bandwidth and processing performance of the devices
• Transmission latency: The period from the time when the data is sent from the transmit end to the time
when the data is completely received by the receive end, depending on the transmission distance and
transmission medium
• Processing latency: The period taken by the receive-end device to decode and restore the received
information to the original data, depending on the processing performance of the device

•
WDM/OTN Latency Distribution

The WDM/OTN network is an optical transmission system that uses optical fibers as the signal transmission
media. As shown in the preceding figure, transmission links and physical devices are the main factors affecting
network latency in a typical WDM/OTN system.
For transmission links, the latency introduced by line fibers and dispersion compensation fibers (DCFs) needs to
be considered:
• The latency introduced by line fibers refers to the time it takes for optical signals to travel over line fibers.
• The latency introduced by DCFs refers to the time it takes for optical signals to travel over DCFs.
For physical devices, the latency introduced by electrical-layer and optical-layer units needs to be considered:
• The latency introduced by the optical-layer unit is generated when the optical-layer unit processes optical
signals.
• The latency introduced by the electrical-layer unit is generated when the client-side service signals are
converted into electrical signals at the receive end, and then the electrical signals undergo processing such
as mapping, FEC encoding/decoding, and electrical cross-connections inside the board.
The following table lists the latency distribution and magnitudes of WDM/OTN networks.
Introduced Latency
Latency Source Contributor to Latency
Magnitude
Inherent latency of optical signal transmission in

Line fiber 5 μs/km
fiber media
Optical signal transmission over DCFs, related to

DCF 0.625 μs/km
the compensation distance
EDFA optical amplifier 100 ns Internal erbium-doped fibers
RAMAN optical amplifier ns Pigtails
MUX/DEMUX unit ns Pigtails

Introduced Latency
Latency Source Contributor to Latency
Magnitude
FOADM unit ns Pigtails
ROADM unit ns Pigtails
10 μs to 100 μs, load- Electrical signal encapsulation/decapsulation,

OTU board
independent and FEC encoding/decoding

OTN tributary board

OTN line board
OTN cross-connect board 1 μs to 2 μs OTN electrical signal cross-connect
WDM/OTN Latency Performance Optimization Technologies

According to the preceding analysis, the WDM/OTN network latency is mainly introduced by devices and line
fibers. The fiber transmission latency accounts for more than 90% of the network latency, followed by device
components. Huawei WDM/OTN technology optimizes networking and optical-layer and electrical-layer devices
to reduce the end-to-end (E2E) transmission network latency and ensure the minimum network latency.
• Simplified network architecture design, one-hop service transmission, and reduced latency
The simplified network architecture design reduces forwarding nodes, constructs a one-hop transmission network,
and reduces the system latency. For example, the conventional ring or chain topology is optimized to a full-mesh
topology during backbone network planning and design. On the metro network, WDM/OTN devices are shifted
downwards to CO nodes.
• Optical-layer optimization:
o Leverages the coherent communication technology, DCM-free, to eliminate the extra latency
caused by DCFs.
o Replaces the DCF-based dispersion compensation modules with the FBG-based dispersion
compensation modules.
o Leverages the advanced optical-layer technologies of ROADM/OXC to implement optical-layer
pass-through and switching, reducing the number of OEO times.
o Replaces EDFAs with intelligent Raman amplifiers. These Raman amplifiers do not need the
erbium-doped fiber as the medium. This avoids extra latency caused by the EDFA, effectively
extends the all-optical transmission distance, and reduces the number of electrical regeneration
sites.
• Electrical-layer optimization:
o Optimizes FEC algorithm performance, increases the transmission distance, and reduces the
number of electrical regeneration sites.
o Flexibly sets the number of FEC levels and reduces the latency penalty.

o Sets different encapsulation modes for various features.
WDM/OTN Latency Management Solution

Latency management is a comprehensive application based on latency measurement and data estimation of
network links and nodes to provide network or service latency that can be sensed, sold, committed, and
guaranteed.
Measurable Latency
E2E latency indicators are essential to verification of service level agreements (SLAs) between users and network
carriers, especially to latency-sensitive services. Based on the real-time network latency monitoring data, network
carriers establish dynamic network latency models and adjust the network transmission policies by predicting
latency changes. Therefore, how to obtain the latency data of the transmission link is particularly important.
Traditional methods for measuring the link latency have shortcomings, such as inaccurate precision and service
interruption during measurement. For example:
• Externally connected meters: Services are interrupted during the measurement.
• Estimation: The transmission latency is estimated based on the lengths of the fiber links at the source and
sink ends. This method ignores the latency introduced by the electrical layer and has low precision. In
addition, the length of the fiber link is difficult to obtain.
To provide latency-sensitive customers with latency performance priority services, ITU-T G.709 adds the latency
measurement function to support online real-time monitoring of network latency. In ITU-T G.709, this function is
associated with ODUk PM-layer and TCM-layer overheads. The PM and TCM overheads are latency
measurement overheads and located in row 2 and column 3 of the OTU frame. Bit 7 is related to the PM layer
test, bits 1 to 6 are related to the TCM layer test, and bit 8 is a reserved bit (the default value is 0). The function is
classified into ODUk PM-layer test (DMp) and ODUk TCMi-layer test (DMti). The latency at different TCMi layers
can be tested based on the TCMi enable status.
The following figure shows the measurement process.

1. The initiator of latency measurement encapsulates services, inserts the latency measurement bytes into
the ODUk overheads, starts the latency measurement, and records the current time.
2. The latency measurement bytes are transmitted along the links with the services. If an intermediate node
exists, the intermediate node transparently transmits the latency measurement bytes and does not
process them at the ODUk layer. When the latency measurement bytes reach the terminator of the
latency measurement, the latency measurement bytes are transmitted to the initiator in the reverse
direction.
3. The initiator receives the latency measurement bytes from the reverse transmission and compares them
with the start time of latency measurement to calculate the round-trip latency from
the initiator to terminator. Considering the consistency of WDM/OTN routes, half of the round-trip latency
can be regarded as the one-way transmission latency.
This latency measurement is based on ODUk overhead bytes and does not affect services. Therefore, this function
provides in-service latency monitoring. The measurement precision is μs-level, which can meet most service
requirements. The latency measurement results include the electrical-layer processing latency of service boards
and the optical-layer transmission and processing latency of transmission fibers, OA, DCM, and OADM. To ensure
the test accuracy, you can perform multiple tests and take the average value.

Optical Power Flatness
What Is Optical Power Flatness?

Optical power flatness is the difference between the optical power of each wavelength and the average optical
power of all wavelengths on an OA.
Use the multi-channel spectrum analyzer unit (MCA) to scan the optical power of all single wavelengths on an
optical multiplex section (OMS), calculate the average optical power of all wavelengths that pass through the OA,
and then calculate the difference between the single-wavelength optical power and the average optical power.
Take an absolute value for each difference, among which the maximum value is the optical power flatness.
• Normalized actual single-wavelength optical power of each channel

o Normalization: The optical power of all channels must be converted to the optical power of the
same spectral width.
If the spectral widths are inconsistent, assuming that the spectral widths before and after
conversion are A and B respectively, and the optical power before and after conversion are Pa and
Pb respectively, then: Pb = 10log10 (10^(Pa/10)/AB).
o Corrected single-wavelength optical power (Pi) of MCA = Normalized Pi + (Total output optical
power of OA – Sum of optical power of all wavelengths scanned by MCA)
• Average optical power
o Average optical power = (P1/W1 + P2/W2 + ... + Pn/Wn) x 50
Pn: single-channel nominal power (unit: mW)
Wn: spectral width (unit: GHz)
N: number of supervisory signal wavelengths, excluding supervisory noise channels and non-
supervisory channels
Why Is the Optical Power Flatness Indicator Required?

During long-haul optical transmission of a WDM system, the optical power of each wavelength differs greatly,
which causes non-linear effects and severely compromises system performance. To prevent OSNR deterioration
of optical transmission links caused by the optical power imbalance of each channel, and even communication
quality deterioration or communication interruption, the optical power flatness of the system needs to be adjusted.

Optical Power Equalization
According to the power spectrum reported by power monitoring points, commission the optical power flatness
based on the following rules:
1. If the optical power of a single wavelength is higher than the average optical power range, the optical attenuator
value on the channel should be increased to decrease the optical power.
2. If the optical power of a single wavelength is lower than the average optical power range, the optical attenuator
value on the channel should be decreased to increase the optical power.
According to the locations of power monitoring points, optical power equalization can be classified into transmit-
end, intermediate-level, and receive-end power equalization.
Incident Optical Power

Incident optical power indicates the single-wavelength optical power when service light enters a long fiber. In the following figure, optical
power at point C is the incident optical power.

Why Is Incident Optical Power required?
The transmission performance of a WDM system is affected by the following factors:
• Optical power: indicates the degree of energy that comes from optical signals and whether the optical
module can receive optical signals.
• Dispersion: causes adjacent channel interference.
• Optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR): quantifies the degree of optical noise interference on optical signals.
• Nonlinear effect: affects the signal phase and pulse shape, causing the transmission quality to deteriorate.
The incident optical power is used to suppress nonlinear effects and ensure transmission quality.
In a non-coherent transmission system, due to the low incident optical power, the fiber has linear effects.
Therefore, the nonlinear effects have little impact on the system. However, as coherent systems emerge, and fiber
amplifiers and high-power lasers are widely used, the nonlinearity of fibers becomes more and more significant
and becomes a key factor that limits the transmission performance.
Once the non-linear effect occurs, it cannot be eliminated or compensated. Therefore, the non-linear effect must
be prevented as much as possible.
In practice, the fiber type and modulation format cannot be changed. Therefore, only the incident optical power
can be reduced.
Incident Optical Power Specifications

From the perspective of suppressing the non-linear effect, the lower the incident optical power, the better.
However, if the incident optical power is too low, the optical power will be attenuated after long-haul transmission.
As a result, the receive end may fail to receive signals and services cannot be transmitted normally. Therefore, the
incident optical power cannot be too low.
A reference value of the standard incident optical power is formulated based on the fiber type and modulation
format to balance the nonlinear effect and optical power, as shown in the figure below.
Commissioning the Incident Optical Power

Fiber access scenarios are classified into standard and non-standard fiber access scenarios. In a standard incident
optical power scenario, the single-wavelength incident optical power of a fiber is equal to the nominal single-
wavelength output optical power of an OA board. In a non-standard incident optical power scenario, the single-
wavelength incident optical power of a fiber is lower than the nominal single-wavelength output optical power of
an OA board.

When commissioning the incident optical power, you need to determine the incident scenario of the optical
transmission system. The commissioning methods vary according to the standard and non-standard incident
scenarios, as shown in the figure below.
In a non-standard fiber access scenario, ensure that the actual single-wavelength incident optical power at the
incident optical power reference point is equal to or lower than the incident optical power counter.
EVOA attenuation at the incident optical power adjustment point = Nominal single-wavelength output optical
power – 0.5 – Incident optical power counter. 0.5 indicates the FIU insertion loss. By setting the attenuation of the
EVOA, you can adjust the actual single-wavelength incident optical power at the incident optical power reference
point to the incident optical power counter.
In the standard fiber access scenario, no commissioning is required.

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Cairo Local

2 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

3 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

4 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

5 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

• Multi-service access: 2M to 100GE Any rate

6 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

7 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

FEC Position in an OTUk Frame

Error Correction Mode

8 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Key Indicator: NCG

HDFEC vs. SDFEC

9 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Type Implementation Overhead NCG

SDFEC Difficult (N-bit quantification) 15% Relatively high

Optical and Electrical Subracks

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An optical subrack grooms and manages optical signals on an OTN.

Master-Slave Subrack Management

Master-Slave Subrack Cascading Mode

11 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Capability of Master-Slave Subrack Management

12 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Connection Between Master and Slave Subracks of Different Types

WDM Site Types

13 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

14 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

• A ROADM site adds or drops single-wavelength or multi-wavelength signals to achieve dynamic

ROADM Site Configuration Model

Configuration Example of a 4-dimensional ROADM Site

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16 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

EDFA and Raman Amplifier

• Single-level amplifiers and multi-level amplifiers by the number of cascaded EDFAs

Classification of Raman Amplifiers

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Comparison Between EDFA and Raman Amplifiers

Gain exists in any fiber regardless of the fiber type. The

Stable. The EDFA is insensitive to

Cost Moderate Relatively high

18 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

19 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

20 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Channel Type Description Bandwidth Applicable Board

D1-D3, D4-D12 The OSC board maps the supervisory 12 x 64 AST2

FE_DCN FE_DCN is an extended DCN channel. 5.12 AST2

FE_DCN_ASON FE_DCN_ASON is an ASON channel. 5.12 AST2

Electrical-Layer Grooming & Optical-Layer Grooming

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22 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Unidirectional Regeneration vs. Bidirectional Regeneration

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24 Cairo Transmission Sector | Cairo Local

Bit transparent mapping TTT+GMP GE and 40GE

Bit transparent mapping IMP+BMP 10GE LAN

Bit transparent mapping GFP-T GE

Bit transparent mapping BMP 10GE LAN, 25GE, and 50GE

Bit transparent mapping GMP 100GE

Bit transparent mapping IMP 200GE and 400GE