Multi-Channel Tunable Laser for Telecommunications & Optical Networks

Why Optical Networks Testing Needs Many Wavelengths at Once

Components and systems for optical networks rarely carry one wavelength. A ROADM, an arrayed waveguide grating or an amplifier carries a full DWDM channel plan, and some effects only show up when every channel is present: crosstalk between neighbours, amplifier gain tilt and changes in filter behaviour as the load grows.

A single tunable laser swept across the band can show how a device responds one channel at a time, but it cannot recreate the loaded condition. Stacking many separate laser instruments is costly, takes up rack space and needs each unit controlled on its own.

Production test lines have a further problem. They need the same channel plan set up quickly and repeated for every device, often for many hours a day, without an engineer adjusting lasers between tests.

The Multi-Channel Tunable Laser Platform

The multi-channel tunable laser from ID Photonics is the CoBrite MX, a 3U 19-inch mainframe that holds many CoBrite laser modules under one controller. The CBMA24 takes 24 laser ports and the CBMA48 takes 48, and a system can be set up with as few as 2 channels.

Lasers sit on slide-in cards, each holding up to four modules. Cards and controller modules can be replaced in the field without downtime, so a test rack can start with the channels it needs today and add more as optical networks programmes grow.

Why Channel Count, Laser Type and Band Matter

Three choices decide how the chassis is configured:

• Channel count: from 2 to 48 channels, in cards of up to four, to match the channel plan under test.
• Laser type: N-type modules for linewidth below 25 kHz, or S and G-type modules at about 80 to 100 kHz where narrow linewidth is not needed.
• Band: C-band, L-band or C+L, depending on the systems the lab works on.

Laser types can be mixed in one chassis, so a few narrow linewidth N-type channels for coherent work can sit alongside standard channels used only to load the grid. This keeps the cost of a fully loaded test bed in line with what each channel actually has to do.

Built for Telecommunications and Optical Network Labs

The CoBrite MX is designed for both R&D benches and automated production racks.

Wavelength coverage

The C-band runs from 190.7 to 196.65 THz (1524.5 to 1572 nm) and the L-band from 186 to 191.1 THz (1568.8 to 1611.7 nm). N-type modules tune in 1 MHz steps aligned to the ITU-T G.694.1 DWDM grid.

Output power

N-type modules give up to 16 dBm on the C-band. Power is set per channel, so a test can reproduce an even channel plan or a deliberately uneven one, such as a single strong channel among weaker neighbours.

Remote control

USB, Ethernet and SCPI are built in, and a browser-based GUI runs from a PC, tablet or smartphone with nothing to install.

Test automation

Channel plans and sweeps can be scripted from Python with PyVISA, LabVIEW with NI-VISA or MATLAB with the Instrument Control Toolbox, over TCP/IP or USBTMC.

Building a Complete DWDM Test Setup

Channels from the multi-channel tunable laser can be combined onto one polarisation-maintaining fibre by the Polarisation-Maintaining Multiplexer, then amplified within its C-band range by the Polarisation-Maintaining EDFA. The ID OSA Optical Spectrum Analyser checks channel placement, power and gain flatness across the grid. For a full coherent system with transmitters and receivers already integrated, the CoBrite MX is also part of the Multi-Terabit Optical Test Solution.

Who Uses It

• Telecom equipment makers validating ROADMs, AWGs and multiplexers
• Optical component manufacturers running production test racks
• Amplifier developers measuring gain flatness under full load
• Coherent receiver teams needing many local oscillator channels
• Photonics research groups at universities and national laboratories

Supply and Support in India

United Spectrum Instruments (USI), Chennai, is the distributor for ID Photonics in India and supplies the multi-channel tunable laser to telecom, component and research teams.

USI helps optical networks teams choose the chassis size, laser types, band and number of cards, and provides installation, training and after-sales support, with GST-compliant invoicing.

Request a Configuration

Download the brochure from this page, use the Enquire Now button, write to sales@unitedspectrum.in, or call +91 93631 83748 / +91 97899 04948. Please mention:

• The number of channels you need now and later
• The band: C-band, L-band or C+L
• The laser types and linewidth you need
• Your control software and the devices you will test