What are the differences between coarse wavelength division multiplexer (CWDM) and dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM)?

1. CWDM has 18 bands, from 1270nm to 1610nm, and the interval between each band is 20nm. There are three types of DWDM channel spacing according to needs: 0.4nm (50Ghz), 0.8nm (100Ghz) and 1.6nm (200Ghz), 100GHz (from C17 to C61, which is the most commonly used and suitable for conventional equipment); 50GHz (from C17 to H61, suitable for high channel devices).

2. CWDM wavelengths of 1470nm to 1610nm generally use DFB lasers. Because of the large channel spacing, CWDM devices and lasers are cheaper than DWDM devices.

3.The spacing between CWDM optical channels is wider, and the number of multiplexed optical wavelengths on the same fiber is less than that of DWDM. This is the reason for the terms "thick" and "dense";

4. CWDM optical modulation uses a non-cooled laser and is tuned by electronics; while DWDM uses a cooled laser and is tuned by temperature.

5. Since the temperature distribution is very uneven within a wide optical wavelength range, temperature tuning is very difficult and costly to implement. CWDM avoids this difficulty and thus significantly reduces the cost. Currently, the cost of CWDM system is generally only 30% of that of DWDM;

6. The power consumption and physical size of the CWDM system are much smaller than that of the DWDM system.

Of course, if you have any WDM project recently, can use the HT6000 together, if you want reduce the space, you can use the mux/demux card,  the fuction is same,it‘s nice to us. it can help you expand capacity.