ARTICLE IN PRESS

Optik

Optics

Optik 119 (2008) 788792

www.elsevier.de/ijleo

Four-wave mixing analysis in WDM optical communication systems with

higher-order dispersion
Amarpal Singha,, Ajay K. Sharmab, T.S. Kamalc
a

Beant College of Engineering and Technology, Gurdaspur, Punjab, India

National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, India
c
SLIET, Longowal, Punjab, India
b

Received 1 September 2006; accepted 24 March 2007

Abstract
Four-wave mixing (FWM) is one of the major limiting factors in WDM optical ber communication systems. In this
paper, we analyze the individual and combined effect of second-, third-, fourth- and fth-order dispersion parameters
on FWM at different input channel powers and core effective areas, which have not been calculated earlier. FWM
power versus channel power graphs for individual and combined effects of dispersion parameters have been presented,
and it has been observed that FWM reduces for combined effect of dispersion parameter.
r 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Keywords: FWM; Higher-order dispersion; Core effective area; Channel power

1. Introduction
Four-wave mixing (FWM) (also called four-photon
mixing) is one of the major limiting factors in WDM
optical ber communication systems that use the low
dispersion ber or narrow channel spacing. Normally,
multiple optical channels passing through the same ber
interact with each other very weakly. However, these
weak interactions in glass can become signicant over
long ber-transmission distances. The most important is
FWM in which three wavelengths interact to generate a
fourth [1].
FWM is due to changes in the refractive index with
optical power called optical Kerr effect. FWM is a thirdorder non-linearity in silica bers that is analogous to
inter-modulation distortion in electrical systems. When
Corresponding author.

E-mail address: s_amarpal@yahoo.com (A. Singh).

0030-4026/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijleo.2007.03.009

three electro-magnetic waves with optical frequencies copropagate through one ber, they mix to produce a fourth
inter-modulation product. In the FWM effect, three copropagating waves produce nine new optical sideband
waves at different frequencies. When this new frequency
falls in the transmission window of the original frequencies, it causes severe cross talk between the channels
propagating through an optical ber. FWM occurs when
light of three different wavelengths is launched into a ber;
it gives rise to a new wave [2]. This newly generated wave
as a result of FWM co-propagates with the originally
transmitted signal and interferes with them. It causes
severe degradation for the WDM channels. This work is
reported in [3] and analyzes the effect of higher-order
dispersion parameters on FWM. In this paper, we analyze
the effect of higher-order, i.e. up to 5OD, dispersion
parameters on FWM power.
Section 2 deals with the theory of FWM and
derivation of expression of FWM power including

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A. Singh et al. / Optik 119 (2008) 788792

higher-order dispersion terms. In Section 3 we plot

FWM power versus channel power for all different cases
of individual dispersion terms and their combination for
different lengths and core effective areas.

2. Theory
The propagation constant in terms of Taylor series
can be expanded as
db 1
d2 b 1
d3 b
b bo o  oo o  oo 2 2 o  oo 3 3
do 2
do
6
do

1
d4 b
1
d5 b
o  oo 4 4
o  oo 5 5 . . . ,
1
24
do
120
do
where db/do t, the propagation delay per optical
length. Now

1
dt 1
d2 t
o  oo 3 2
b bo o  oo t o  oo 2
2
do 6
do
3
4
1
d
t
1
d
t
o  oo 5
o  oo 4 3
...,
2
24
do
120
do4
2

2 3
2p2
2 dt
3d t
t

pf

f

f

f
f

f

o
o
o
6
3
do
do2 7
7
Db b  bo 2p6
6
7
3
4
4
4 p3
5
2p
4d t
5d t
f  f o

:::
f

f
o
3
4
3
15
do
do


dt 2p2
d2 t

Df 3 2
2p Df t pDf 2
do
do
3

3
4
3
4
p
d t 2p
dt
Df 5 4 ::: .
Df 4 3
do
do
3
15

We dene here the following dispersion parameters:

dt
l2 qt
l2

D
b2
dw 2pc ql 2pc
is the second-order dispersion parameter,


2
d2 t
l2
qt
2q t
b3

l
2l
dw2 2pc2
ql
ql2

l2
l2 D1 2lD
2pc2

is the third-order dispersion parameter,



3
2
d3 t
l3
qt
3q t
2q t

l
6l
6l
b4
dw3 2pc3
ql
ql3
ql2

l3
l3 D2 6l2 D1 6lD
2pc3

is the fourth-order dispersion parameter and

b5



4
4
2
d4 t
l4
qt
4q t
3q t
2q t

12l

36l

24l
dw4 2pc4
ql
ql4
ql3
ql2

l4
l4 D3 12l3 D2 36l2 D1 24lD
2pc4

789

is the fth-order dispersion parameter, where

q2 t
q3 t
q4 t
D1 ;
D2 ;
D3 .
2
3
ql
ql
ql4
As reported in [4], we can neglect db/do t, because
it produces a phase delay of the carrier signal and has no
inuence on distortion of the signal. Therefore, by
putting the values of b2, b3, b4 and b5 in Eq. (3) and
taking the values only up to the fourth-order derivatives,
we obtain the phase matching factor as
qt
D;
ql

2
l
l
D 2pDf
3 2pc2 l D1 2lD
6 2pc
6 p2 Df 2 l3 3
2
Db 2p2 Df 2 6
,
6 3 2pc3 l D2 6l D1 6lD
4
3 Df 3 l4
4
3
2
2p
15 2pc4 l D3 12l D2 36l D1 24lD

2
Db

D Df3cl lD1 2D

pDf 2 l2 6
6 Df 2 l2 l2 D 6lD 6D
,
2
1
2
6
c 4 12c3 3
Df60cl3 l3 D3 12l2 D2 36lD1 24D
(4)

where Df is channel spacing, D is ber chromatic

dispersion, qD/ql is dispersion slope, a is the attenuation
factor and c is the velocity of light.
FWM induced cross talk in WDM systems [59] and
[11], which is given as


Z 2 2
1  expaL2
PFWM D g Pi Pj Pk expaL
,
9
a2
and the FWM efciency is expressed as


a2
4 expaLsin2 DbL=2
Z
1

.
1  expaL2
a2 Db2

(5)

The intensity-dependent phase matching factor can be

dened [3] as


f1  expaLeff g
Db0 Db  gmP1 P2  P3
, (6)
aLeff
where m is an integer. The phase matching factor
changes as the wave propagates along the ber due to
ber loss. Hence, for long bers (LbLeff) the effective
ber length is dened as
1  expaL 1
 .
a
a
Therefore, the FWM power can be expressed as


Z0 2 2
1  expaL2
PFWM D g P1 P2 P3 expaL
,
9
a2

Leff

(7)
and the FWM efciency is


a2
4 expaLsin2 Db0 L=2
0
1
Z
,
1  expaL2
a2 Db0 2

(8)

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A. Singh et al. / Optik 119 (2008) 788792

where g is the non-linear coefcient 2pn2 =lAeff ; n2 is the

ber non-linear refractive index 2.68  1020 m2/W;
P1, P2, P3 are the input channel powers; Aeff is the
effective area of ber core; and Leff is the effective ber
length.

3. Results and discussion

In our calculations, we assume the case of equal input
channel power of the three input channels such that
P1 P2 P3 Po. Referring to ITU: T recommendation G.653 [10]
D
qD/ql
q2D/ql2
q3D/ql3
a

Fiber chromatic dispersion 0.5 ps/km nm

Dispersion slope 0.085 ps/km nm2
Dispersion curvature 2.3776  104 ps/
km nm3
Dispersion curvature 7.0647  106 ps/
km nm4
Attenuation factor 0.25 dB/km

In Fig. 1, we describe the effect of FWM crosstalk

introduced in the optical ber under the combined effect
of 2OD, 3OD, 4OD and 5OD dispersion parameter with
the phase matching factor, at m 0.63, when three
channels, each having equal channel power i.e. Po are
transmitted through the ber. For these calculations, the
effective ber core area is 50 mm2, ber loss a 0.25
dB/km and the ber non-linear refractive index
n2 2.68  1020 m2/W. The pump wavelengths are
taken as 1558 and 1558.8 nm, resulting in the channel
spacing of 0.8 nm. We plot FWM power versus channel
power for different combinations cases of 2OD, 3OD,
4OD and 5OD dispersion parameters as shown in Figs.
16. The plot with the 2OD+3OD+4OD+5OD term

Fig. 1. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of distances under the combined effect of
b2+b3+b4+b5.

Fig. 2. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of distances under the combined effect of b3+b5.

Fig. 3. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of distances under the combined effect of b2+b3.

Fig. 4. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of distances under the combined effect of b3.

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A. Singh et al. / Optik 119 (2008) 788792

Fig. 5. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of distances under the combined effect of b4.

Fig. 6. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of distances under the effect of only b5.

791

Fig. 7. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of core effective area under the effect of only b5.

Fig. 8. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of core effective area under the effect of only b4.

Table 1. Comparison of FWM power reduction due to

different combinations for ber length of 5 km
Dispersion parameter

FWM power
in dBm when
channel
power 5 mW

FWM power in
dBm when
channel
power 40 mW

3OD+5OD only
2OD+3OD only
3OD only
4OD only
5OD only
2OD+3OD+4OD+5OD
only

22
47
22
14
14
47

22
19
22
34
37
20

is shown in Fig. 1 and from this gure it is observed that

the FWM power is 47 dBm at 5 mW channel power for
5 km length. Fig. 2 shows the combined effect of the
3OD+5OD dispersion parameter on FWM power, and
the
variation
from
an
earlier
case,
i.e.

Fig. 9. FWM power versus input channel power at different

values of core effective area under the combined effect of
b2+b3+b4+b5.

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A. Singh et al. / Optik 119 (2008) 788792

Fig. 1, is observed. Similarly, the plots of 3OD+5OD,

2OD+3OD, 3OD and 5OD only are shown in
Figs. 36, respectively. It is seen that the FWM power
reduces by combined effect 2OD+3OD+4OD+5OD
dispersion terms.
The comparison of FWM power reduction due to
different combinations is also given in Table 1.
From the above result, it is clear that the impact of
3OD, 4OD and 5OD is small as compared with 2OD but
still contributes when the combined terms are considered.
Figs. 79 shows the impact of core effective area (Aeff)
when the length of ber is constant and 80 km and it is
observed that as core effective increases FWM decreases.

4. Conclusion
This paper presents the detailed theoretical analysis of
the inuence of higher-order dispersion effect (2OD,
3OD, 4OD and 5OD) on FWM power. It is observed
that the higher-order dispersion term has signicant
impact on FWM power. The impact decreases as the
order of the dispersion term increases. The impact of
3OD, 4OD and 5OD is small as compared with 2OD but
still contributes when the combined terms are considered. It is concluded that under the combined effect of
second-, third-, fourth- and fth-order dispersion parameters, the cross talk introduced by FWM reduces.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of
Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of
India, New Delhi, for nancial support for work under

the project Designing and simulation of high data rate

optical ber transmission systems.

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