Filterless architecture for coherent undersea networks

Abstract

Active photonic switching components, such as reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), cannot be deployed at the branching units (BUs) in submarine networks, which limits the flexibility of the undersea networks. In this regard, the filterless optical network architecture based on passive broadcast-and-select nodes and coherent transceivers at the edge terminals can be considered as a promising solution. In this paper we propose and evaluate a filterless network architecture for a trunk and branch undersea network topology. The performance is compared with a conventional solution in terms of cost and wavelength consumption. And it is shown that the filterless architecture can bring significant cost savings for both the terminals and line equipment while offering the same agility as the conventional network architecture.