More accurate simulation of dynamic transparent optical wavelength division multiplex networks

Novel modulation schemes and higher bit rates as well as dynamically switched networks make it necessary to consider effects, which could be neglected in system simulations so far. In this paper, we present simulation methodologies needed for the accurate characterisation of the signal quality in such transparent optical networks.The combined effects of polarisation mode dispersion (PMD) and polarisation-dependent loss (PDL) are investigated, and a more accurate method for the BER estimation based on histograms is described. Furthermore, dynamical transient effects in the physical layer require extending the regarded time scale to the millisecond range. An efficient way how to simulate the effects on different time scales is presented.