Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is a technique of multiplexing multiple optical carrier signals through a single optical fiber channel by varying the wavelengths of laser lights. WDM allows communication in both the directions in the fiber cable.
In WDM, the optical signals from different sources or (transponders) are combined by a multiplexer, which is essentially an optical combiner. They are combined so that their wavelengths are different.
The combined signal is transmitted via a single optical fiber strand. At the receiving end, a demultiplexer splits the incoming beam into its components and each of the beams is send to the corresponding receivers.
The following diagram conceptually represents multiplexing using WDM. It has 4 optical signals having 4 different wavelengths. Each of the four senders generates data streams of a particular wavelength. The optical combiner multiplexes the signals and transmits them over a single long-haul fiber channel. At the receiving end, the splitter demultiplexes the signal into the original 4 data streams.
Based upon the wavelength, WDM can be divided into two categories −
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Course WDM (CWDM) : CWDM generally operates with 8 channels where the spacing between the channels is 20 nm (nanometers) apart. It consumes less energy than DWDM and is less expensive. However, the capacity of the links, as well as the distance supported, is lesser.
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Dense WDM (DWDM) : In DWDM, the number of multiplexed channels much larger than CWDM. It is either 40 at 100GHz spacing or 80 with 50GHz spacing. Due to this, they can transmit the huge quantity of data through a single fiber link. DWDM is generally applied in core networks of telecommunications and cable networks. It is also used in cloud data centers for their IaaS services.
