1
Power Efficient Optical Transmission for Bandwidth
Virtualization in Superchannel Systems
Valery N. Rozental and Darli A. A. Mello
Abstract—We extend the previously proposed cognitive
power control (CPM) scheme for efficient power manage-
ment in optical transponders, to include multiple carrier
transmission in a bandwidth virtualization environment.
The scheme reduces the length of electronic chromatic
dispersion compensation filters according to the network
traffic fluctuations. Transmission rate reduction is achieved
by symbol retransmission, while maintaining internal pa-
rameters of the electronic devices unchanged, to avoid
increased complexity. We investigate single and multiple
carrier transmission schemes in terms of Pareto-efficiency
regarding transmission rate, reach and power consumption.
We show that for the same transmission rate polarization
multiplexed and higher modulation order schemes are more
power efficient. We further investigate the optimal number
of active subcarriers in a CPM-capable superchannel-based
optical line interface, showing that schemes that keep active
over half the subcarriers are power efficient. We realize a
case study to demonstrate power savings offered by CPM in
a typical terabit transmission scenario.
Index Terms—Optical transponders; bandwidth virtualiza-
tion; cognitive power management; chromatic dispersion
compensation; Pareto-efficient transmission.
I. I NTRODUCTION
ommercial product development for 100G optical sys-
C tems raised an important issue of power consumption
in optical transponders, leading to such solutions as single
chip ADC/DSP, use of advanced CMOS processes and optical
integration. Higher per channel transmission rates like 400
Gbps and 1 Tbps will rely, at least in the near future, on
optical parallelism that allows to overcome electronic de-
vices’ bandwidth limitations. In the bandwidth virtualization
scenario, where the service layer is decoupled from the op-
tical transmission layer [1], in order to attend variable client
demands, optical transponders that rely on multiple carriers
will have to support different modulation formats and config-
uration by software. However, reconfigurable transponders
able to adjust to the changing transmission and network
conditions require high complexity DSP, challenging for cur-
rent technologies. This is mainly due to elevated power
consumption in comparison with custom hardwired logic [2].
Also, toggling internal parameters of the electronic devices
(such as the internal clock rates) working on the edge of their
bandwidth capacity appears extremely complex and inserts
transition-associated distortions.
In this work we consider power efficiency of multiple
carrier transponder architectures as a figure of merit. Thus,
our objective is to obtain a noteworthy improvement in
power efficiency while maintaining operational parameters
of system’s devices unchanged, to avoid the aforementioned
complexity. To accomplish that, we have proposed the Cogni-
tive Power Management (CPM) scheme [3], for transmission
rate adjustment according to network traffic fluctuations.
CPM allows reducing system power consumption associated
with chromatic dispersion (CD) compensation. In [3] we
have described CPM for 100G systems based on polariza-
tion multiplexed (PM) QPSK optical transmission. Here,
we extend our analysis for multiple carrier transmission
in a bandwidth virtualization environment. In particular,
we perform a complexity analysis of CD compensation for
possible transmission schemes in single and multiple car-
rier software-defined transponders, introducing the notion
of Pareto-efficiency for optical transmission schemes. We
further address the issue of optimizing the traffic load dis-
tribution between the subcarriers in a CPM superchannel.
Finally, we show by example that in a typical multiple carrier
transmission scenario CPM provides a significant reduction
in power consumption.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section II
analyzes the computational complexity of CD compensation;
Section III assesses the power efficiency of the transmission
schemes in single carrier and multiple carrier cases; Section
IV describes the cognitive power management scheme in a
superchannel environment; Section V presents a case study
of power consumption for a typical transmission scenario and
Section VI concludes the paper.
II. C OMPUTATIONAL C OMPLEXITY OF THE C HROMATIC
D ISPERSION C OMPENSATION F ILTERS
As was shown in [4], the length (in taps) of the chromatic
dispersion compensation bulk filter, NCD , can be computed
by the following expression:
 
CDacc λ2
NCD = 2 × + 1, (1)
2 c Tsp
2
where CDacc is the accumulated CD, λ is the optical carrier
wavelength, Tsp is the sampling time and c is the speed of
light. It was also shown that a 40% reduction in filter size,
computed by (1), leads to insignificant performance penal-
ties. Fig. 1 indicates the number of filter taps required for
the CD compensation, as a function of the accumulated CD
and the baud rate. The graphic was produced according to (1)
with 40% reduction, and an oversampling factor of 2 samples
per symbol. The dashed red lines correspond to selected
symbol rates, namely, 3.5, 7, 14 and 28 Gbaud, and the dot-
dashed black lines correspond to some fixed accumulated CD
values. Note that the filter size is a linear function of the CD,
and a quadratic function of the symbol rate, not dependent
on any particular modulation format. This feature plays an
important role in the efficiency assessment of the distinct
modulation formats.
A. FFT Size Optimization for the CD Compensation Filter
Having obtained the filter size we can estimate the com-
putational complexity associated with the CD compensation.
Our estimation is based on the number of real multiplication
operations, since they consume more power than the addition
operations, regardless of the hardware implementation [5].
 2

28 Gbaud

600

500
Filter size [taps]

400

300
14 Gbaud
200

100 7 Gbaud
3.5 Gbaud
0
6
4
2 2 2.5
1 1.5
x 10
4 0 0.5
10
Accumulated CD [ps/nm] x 10
Baudrate
Fig. 1: CD compensation filter size as a function of the accumulated dispersion and the baud rate.

We focus on the frequency domain equalization, because of provided that NF = 2k , k ∈ N. A number of real multiplica-
its computational efficiency in comparison with the time tions per filtering cycle is given, therefore, by:
domain equalization for a sufficient filter length [3] [6]. The
filtering cycle involves performing the fast Fourier transform MCY C = p [2MR + 3NF ] (5)
   
(FFT) over a new-coming block of data, a term-by-term mul- 3
= p 2 NF (−3 + log2 NF ) + 6 + 3NF , (6)
tiplication of the resulting sequence with the one obtained by 2
the FFT of the filter coefficients and an inverse FFT (IFFT).
where p is the number of polarizations. In (5-6) MR is mul-
Also, long input data sequence requires some overlapping
tiplied by 2 to account both for the FFT and the subsequent
method. In [7] a 50% overlap was assumed, that is, an FFT
IFFT, and NF is multiplied by 3, as three real multiplications
size, NF , of twice the filter length, which is the minimum
are required for each complex one. On the other hand, the
FFT size required for the aliasing free equalization [8]. But
number of bits resulting in one filtering cycle is:
computational complexity can be significantly reduced by
optimizing the FFT size according to the filter length, as pL
bCY C = log2 M, (7)
shown in [9]. For our analysis we assume that each complex κ
multiplication requires three real multiplications and three where L is the number of equalized samples resulting from
real additions, implemented in the following manner [10]: if one filtering cycle in one polarization, κ is the oversampling
z1 = a + jb and z2 = c + jd are two complex numbers, then: factor and M is the size of the modulation alphabet. Finally,
the number of multiplications per transmitted bit, Mb is
z1 × z2 = (ac − bd) + j(ad + bc) (2) computed as:
= [(a − b)d + a(c − d)] + j [(a − b)d + b(c + d)] . (3)
Mb = MCY C /bCY C
   
Because of the identical terms, the computation in (3) re- κ 3
= 2 NF (−3 + log2 NF ) + 6 + 3NF .(8)
quires three real multiplication and five real additions. Yet, L log2 M 2
if the multiplicand, z2 , is known a priori, the sum and
Note that Mb does not depend on the number of polariza-
the difference of c and d may be pre-computed and stored,
tions. In the overlapping methods (either overlap and save or
sparing two real additions. This assumption is valid for FFT,
overlap and add), the number of equalized samples resulting
where the multiplicands are of the form ǫ2πkn/N , and is also
from one filtering cycle, L, is related to the FFT size, NF , by
valid for the multiplication by the FFT-ed filter coefficients,
[8]:
because of the deterministic nature of the chromatic disper-
sion. We further assume radix-2 Cooley-Tukey algorithm, L = NF − NCD + 1. (9)
because it can be implemented for any power of two FFT
size, yielding a desired flexibility for rate-adaptive schemes. In order to obtain the optimal FFT size, for computational
Under these assumptions, the number of (non-trivial) real purposes we first consider a parameter N bF that is the
multiplications, MR , for FFT of size NF can be computed as bF in
continuous counterpart of NF , and substitute NF by N
[10]: (8-9). Thus, we wish to obtain

3 b opt
N = arg min (Mb ) . (10)
MR (NF ) = NF (−3 + log2 NF ) + 6, (4) F
bF
N
2
 3

8192
21 4096
NF = 2NCD= 512 2048
Real multiplications/bit

20 1024
512
256

FFT size
19
128
18 64
32
17 16
8
Nopt
F
= 2048
16 4
2
15 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
3 4 CD compensation filter size
10 10
FFT size Fig. 3: Optimal FFT size values.
Fig. 2: FFT size optimization for a 250 taps CD compensation
filter, for a 16QAM polarization multiplexed signal with κ =
2. The solid blue line represents the values of the continuous 100 Gbps PM-QPSK systems. It allows to produce two
variable N b opt , red asterisks represent possible values for NF samples per symbol by commercially available analog to
F
and the green square indicates the optimum FFT size, NFopt . digital converters.
max
• Discrete symbol rates of the form Ts /2l , l = 0, 1, 2, 3,
resulting in rates of 3.5, 7, 14 and 28 Gbaud. As shown in
Substituting (9) in (8), taking the derivative of the latest Section IV, these rates can be seamlessly implemented
with respect to N bF and equaling it to zero results in a in the Cognitive Power Management scheme by symbol
transcendental equation for N b opt : repetition.
F
• Reach and the accumulated CD decorrelation: since
b opt b opt
b opt + 2NF − log2 NF − 4
log2 N = 3 − ln−1 (2). (11)
we consider a bandwidth virtualization scenario, the
F
Nb opt − NCD + 1 service layer is decoupled from the transmission layer
F
[1]. Therefore, the optical route is not known a priori
Since
and may or may not contain legacy CD compensation
2k−1 ≤ N
b opt ≤ 2k ,
F k ∈ N, (12) modules along some or all the sections of the lightpath.
In this scenario, the accumulated CD ceases to be a
that is, Nb opt is comprised between two subsequent powers
F function of the length of the optical link.
of 2, the optimal FFT size, NFopt , may be found as:
 k We also consider a limited set of digital modulation formats,
2 , if Mb (2k ) < Mb (2k−1 ); namely, BPSK, QPSK, 8QAM and 16QAM. Higher order
NFopt = k−1 (13)
2 otherwise. modulation formats have a prohibitive OSNR penalty that
makes their employment in this type of systems infeasible.
Fig. 2 shows the number of multiplications per transmitted
The aforementioned modulation formats, in combination
bit for a 250 tap CD compensation filter for a 16QAM
with the considered symbol rates, result in several bits per
polarization multiplexed signal, as a function of the FFT
second (nominal) transmission rates for a single carrier: 12.5,
size. Here, FFT size optimization results in roughly 25%
25, 37.5, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 Gbps. Each of these rates
complexity reduction in comparison with the 50% overlap
(with exception of 150 and 200 Gbps) have, essentially, more
case. For practical application, the optimum FFT size values
than one possible form of transmission. As an example, Table
can be pre-computed and stored in hardware, as can be seen
I resumes the resulting schemes for a 50 Gbps transmission.
in Fig. 3, that shows optimum FFT size values for different
Here, PM stands for “Polarization multiplexed”, and SP
filter lengths.
TABLE I: Possible Formats for a 50 Gbps Transmission
III. E FFICIENCY E VALUATION OF THE T RANSMISSION
S CHEMES Nominal Rate [Gbps] Transmission Scheme ROSNR [dB]

A. Single Carrier Case PM-BPSK @ 28 Gbaud 10.3

PM-QPSK @ 14 Gbaud 10.3
For further analysis we make the following assumptions:
50 SP-QPSK @ 28 Gbaud 10.3
• Fixed forward error correction (FEC) overhead size: sev-
PM-16QAM@ 7 Gbaud 14.0
eral recent works, e.g., [11], [12], have explored coding
optimization and variable coding rate. These schemes SP-16QAM @ 14 Gbaud 14.0
exceed the scope of our work. In particular, we consider
a 10−3 pre-FEC BER, required for the 10−15 pos-FEC stands for “Single polarization”. Each of the possible trans-
BER using a 7% overhead. mission schemes has an associated required OSNR (ROSNR)
max
• Maximum symbol rate, Ts , of 28 Gbaud: this rate is for a given target BER that, in turn, defines system’s reach.
widely explored in long-haul transmission because of the As shown in [13], OSNR is related to SNR and SNR per bit,
 4

12 12
x 10 x 10
5 4
PM−BPSK @ 28 Gbaud PM−BPSK @ 28 Gbaud
Real multiplications per second

Real multiplications per second

SP−QPSK @ 28 Gbaud 3.5 SP−QPSK @ 28 Gbaud
4 PM−QPSK @ 14 Gbaud PM−QPSK @ 14 Gbaud
SP−16QAM @ 14 Gbaud 3
SP−16QAM @ 14 Gbaud
PM−16QAM @ 7 Gbaud PM−16QAM @ 7 Gbaud
3 2.5

2
2
1.5 Pareto frontier
1
1
0.5
0
0 1 2 3 4 10 11 12 13 14
Accumulated CD [ps/nm] 4
ROSNR
x 10
Fig. 4: Computational complexity of the 50 Gbps transmis- Fig. 5: Pareto efficiency for 50 Gbps transmission schemes.
sion schemes.

wide range of the accumulated CD values. This allows to

SNRb , by: simplify the analysis assuming some fixed accumulated CD,
without loss of generality. From the inspection of Table I and
p Rs Rb
OSNR = SNR = SNRb (14) Fig.4 it is evident that the use of either single polarization
2Bref 2Bref
schemes or BPSK does not produce any benefit, considering
In (14), p is the number of polarizations, Rs is the symbol the above-mentioned features. This property can be viewed
rate, Bref is the reference band (typically 12.5 GHz) and in terms of Pareto efficiency. For instance, for a fixed ac-
Rb is the transmission bit rate. Interestingly, OSNR does cumulated CD value of 34,000 ps/nm that corresponds to
not depend on the number of polarizations, but only on the transmission over 2000 km of a standard single mode fiber
transmission bit rate [13]. Since coherent detection allows (SSMF) with dispersion coefficient D = 17 ps/nm/km we
linear mapping of optical signal to electronic domain, well can arrange the possible transmission schemes as in Fig.
established in digital communications formulae that relate 5. Here, Pareto frontier is formed by PM-QPSK and PM-
BER (or, more precisely, the bit error probability, Pb ) to SNRb , 16QAM. Other schemes do not meet the Pareto efficiency
may be applied. In particular, assuming Gray coding [14]: criterion (i.e., are not beneficial neither in reach nor in power
1 p  consumption) and should not be employed. This conclusion
Pb (BPSK, QPSK) = erf c SNRb (15) contradicts some earlier publications, e.g., [15], [16], where
2 s ! use of BPSK as a mean of link reach enhancement is consid-
11 3 SNRb
Pb (8QAM) ≈ erf c √ (16) ered. Analogous analysis for all the considered transmission
16 3+ 3 rates results in a set of Pareto efficient schemes, summarized
r !
3 6 SNRb in Table II. Observe that the schemes are also “vertically”
Pb (16QAM) ≈ erf c , (17) efficient, in a sense that higher rate schemes always result in
8 15
penalty, either in reach or power consumption, in comparison
where erf c is a complimentary error function. Note that with lower rate schemes.
SNRb required for some target BER depends solely on the Mapping in Fig. 6 illustrates the rule of transmission
constellation format. For the target BER = 10−3 , (15-17) scheme selection by a CPM-capable single carrier transpon-
yield [14]: der. Blue asterisks that represent different transmission
schemes are being attributed a pair of numbers, (M, Rs ),
SNRb (BPSK, QPSK) = 6.8 dB (18) where M is the constellation size and Rs is the symbol
SNRb (8QAM) = 9.0 dB (19) rate (in Gbaud). Here, due to Pareto efficiency, for the
SNRb (16QAM) = 10.5 dB. (20) same transmission rate, schemes to the right of the graph
(i.e., with higher ROSNR) have lower power consumption.
The last column of Table I summarizes the ROSNR computed In a bandwidth virtualization environment, schemes with
according to (14) for the aforementioned BER in 50 Gbps ROSNR higher than the estimated OSNR (inside the vertical
transmission. shaded area) are discarded. Likewise, rate requirements
For a given rate, the transmission schemes are analyzed given by the traffic state eliminate schemes with insuffi-
taking into consideration two features: cient rate (inside the horizontal shaded area). Among the
1) Computational complexity (as a measure of power con- remaining schemes (inside the unshaded area), the one of
sumption) for a given accumulated CD value; lowest rate and higher ROSNR (right bottom corner of the
2) ROSNR at a given target BER. unshaded area) is the most power efficient.
Fig. 4 displays the computational complexity of the trans- 1 Single polarization scheme appears because of the assumed
mission schemes of Table I. Note that the relative distance minimum symbol rate of 3.5 Gbaud. Reducing the minimum rate
between the curves remains quasi-constant throughout a by half will allow to use polarization multiplexed 16QAM.
 5

TABLE II: Pareto efficient schemes for a single carrier transmission.

Nominal Rate [Gbps] Transmission Schemes ROSNR [dB] Complexity (mult/sec) [Tops] Normalized complexity [%]
PM-QPSK @ 3.5 Gbaud 4.3 0.168 4.4
12.5
SP1 -16QAM@ 3.5 Gbaud 8.0 0.084 2.2
PM-QPSK @ 7 Gbaud 7.3 0.558 15.0
25
PM-16QAM @ 3.5 Gbaud 11.0 0.168 4.4
37.5 PM-8QAM @ 7 Gbaud 11.3 0.558 15.0
PM-QPSK @ 14 Gbaud 10.3 1.535 40.0
50
PM-16QAM @ 7 Gbaud 14.0 0.558 15.0
75 PM-8QAM @ 14 Gbaud 14.3 1.535 40.0
PM-QPSK @ 28 Gbaud 13.3 3.839 100.0
100
PM-16QAM @ 14 Gbaud 17.0 1.535 40.0
150 PM-8QAM @ 28 Gbaud 17.3 3.839 100.0
200 PM-16QAM @ 28 Gbaud 20.0 3.839 100.0

Transmission values. Same design tradeoffs apply to generation of local

Rate (nominal) oscillators at the receiver. One subtlety should be noted: at
200G (16, 28) the transmitter, all subcarriers must remain active, even if
Non applicable schemes there is no data to transmit. This is because power bursts
associated with turning the subcarriers on and off create
Optimal scheme
transients in the fiber, degrading performance. Local oscil-
150G (8, 28)
lators, however, may be turned on and off according to uti-
lization, without affecting neighboring channels. This adds
Complexity decreases
complexity to power consumption optimization. In duplex
100G (4, 28) (16, 14) design, local oscillators are generated by splitting the carrier
waves. In this way, all system’s laser sources remain active
75G (8, 14) and optimization reduces to CD compensation associated
Required rate

power.
50G (4, 14) (16, 7)
Consider a superchannel duplex transceiver with N sub-
37.5G (8, 7)
carriers, where each subcarrier is capable of transmitting
25G (16, 3.5) (4, 7)
(16, 3.5) schemes of Table II. We ignore possible OSNR differences
12.5G (4, 3.5)
SP – common to generation by recirculating loop – between
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 subcarriers within a superchannel. We further ignore OSNR
ROSNR penalties due to subcarrier spacing, assuming that all
Estimated OSNR [dB] schemes are equally affected. We also assume homogeneous
Fig. 6: Minimum power transmission scheme selection in transmission, that is, same scheme is used by all (active)
software defined transponders in bandwidth virtualization subcarriers. Due to the variable number of subcarriers, new
environment. transmission schemes are formed. Table III resumes possible
schemes for 400 Gbps transmission for N = 10. Note that due

TABLE III: Possible Formats for 400 Gbps Transmission by

B. Multiple Carrier Case
a 10 Subcarrier Superchannel
Optical superchannels [17], will, most likely, become a new Active Transmission ROSNR Mult./sec.
standard for terabit transmission. This is because optical Subcarriers Scheme [dB] [Tops]
parallelism circumvents band limitations of the electronic 2 PM-16QAM@ 28 Gbaud 20.0 7.678
devices, namely, digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital con- 3 PM-8QAM2 @ 28 Gbaud 17.3 11.517
verters. Moreover, (quasi)-baud rate subcarrier spacing al- 4 PM-QPSK @ 28 Gbaud 13.3 15.356
lows efficient spectrum use. Clearly, power consumption of
4 PM-16QAM@ 14 Gbaud 17.0 6.140
optical superchannels depends on implementation. As of to-
6 PM-8QAM2 @ 14 Gbaud 14.3 9.210
day, there are no finalized standards, and many issues, such
8 PM-QPSK @ 14 Gbaud 10.3 12.28
as the implementation method, the number of subcarriers,
the level of component integration etc., are subject to re- 8 PM-16QAM@ 7 Gbaud 14.0 4.464
search [18]. For example, Nyquist-WDM superchannels [19]
require a distinct laser assembly for each subcarrier. These to CPM granularity, not all available subcarriers can be used.
assemblies typically dissipate several watts in a steady state Neglecting OSNR penalties due to subcarrier spacing, the
operation [20], depending on the temperature. Coherent ROSNR for multicarrier scheme (third column) is the same
optical OFDM schemes, on the other hand, use one optical as for single carrier with identical modulation format. In
source. However, a recirculating frequency shift loop [21], this case the two Pareto efficient schemes are 8 subcarriers
used for the “optical comb” generation, employs EDFA (or a PM-QPSK at 14 Gbaud and 8 subcarriers PM-16QAM at 7
pair of EDFAs) that dissipates several dozens of watts [22].
Future optical integration may substantially lower these 2 Transmission at 450 Gbps.
 6

Gbaud. Nevertheless, the number of active subcarriers for

power-efficient transmission is not necessarily the maximum 40 40

Number of subcarriers

Number of subcarriers
1Tbps 1Tbps
available: Fig. 7 illustrates the number of active subcarriers 700 Gbps 700 Gbps
30 30 400 Gbps
in Pareto-efficient schemes for transmission rates up to 2 400 Gbps

Tbps, for systems with N = 10, N = 20 and N = 30. With the 20 20

10 10
30
0 0
0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1
Fraction of Madd Fraction of Madd
25
(a) OSNR = 10 dB. (b) OSNR = 13 dB.
Active subcarriers

20 40 40

Number of subcarriers
Number of subcarriers
1Tbps 1Tbps
700 Gbps 700 Gbps
30 30
400 Gbps 400 Gbps
15
20 20

10 10 10

N = 10 0 0
5 0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1
N = 20 Fraction of Madd Fraction of M
add
N = 30 (c) OSNR = 16 dB. (d) No OSNR restriction.
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Fig. 8: Number of system’s subcarriers versus the additional
Nominal rate [Tbps]
complexity.
Fig. 7: Number of active subcarriers for different transmis-
sion rates.
Traffic rate [Gbps]

exception of low rates, the number of active subcarriers for 70

Pareto-efficient schemes takes on values between ⌊N/2 + 1⌋ 60
50
and N.
Another essential issue is optimizing the number of sub- 40
30
carriers in a transponder. Assume that each subcarrier –
20
even when inactive – increases the power budget by some
10
constant amount. To match the power consumption of CD
0
compensation, we analyze this power increase in terms of 08 12 16 20 00 04 08
additional complexity. Our reference, Madd is the number of Hour
real multiplication required for the compensation of 34,000
(a) Daily traffic pattern.
ps/nm of accumulated CD in a single carrier PM-QPSK
system transmitting at 112 Gbps: 3.839 Tops. (see Table II).
Fig. 8 shows the optimal number of subcarriers for selected
Traffic rate [Gbps]

70
transmission rates, namely, 400 Gbps, 700 Gbps and 1 Tbps, 60 Weekend
where we varied the number of subcarriers between 5 and 50
45. Each subcarrier added a complexity that is a fraction of 40
Madd , varied in steps of 0.1. We also explored the influence 30
of the estimated OSNR by repeating the analysis for OSNR 20
= 10, 13 and 16 dB (Figs. 8a-c), comparing the results with 10
the case of no OSNR restriction (Fig. 8d). If OSNR is high, 0
20 21 22 23 24
even for small additional complexity per subcarrier (10-20% Date
of CD compensation complexity), transponders with fewer
subcarriers become more power efficient. As OSNR degrades (b) Weekly traffic pattern.
this influence reduces, essentializing optical parallelism to Fig. 9: Fluctuation of the aggregate internet traffic between
reduce the baud rate and comply with the reach require- ASNs.
ments.

IV. C OGNITIVE P OWER M ANAGEMENT

A. Motivation
Figs. 9(a-b) show, respectively, daily and weekly fluctu-
ations of the aggregate internet traffic for all exchange
points between autonomous systems networks (ASNs) in
Brazil [23]. There exists a substantial fluctuation between
the daytime and the nighttime traffics. Weekly traffic also
exhibits fluctuations, having a reduction of almost 40% dur-
ing weekends. Although actual values may vary from one
link to another, the general pattern of these graphs should
remain similar. In long-haul transmission, these fluctuations
are not taken into account, and systems operate at the
constant nominal rate to accommodate the highest traffic
load. However, lower transmission rates allow reducing the
length of the digital filters used for CD compensation (see
Section II), resulting in lower computational complexity and
power consumption.

CPM- 1G/10G/40G/100G
Capable Long-Haul
IP GRouter CPM-
Capable
...
Superchannel
Line Discrete
CPM- 1G/10G/40G/100G Interface transmission rates
Capable
IP GRouter
Fig. 10: Optical link of a CPM-capable terabit system.
B. Operating Principle
We consider a terabit long-haul optical link with IP routers
connected to optical line interface by 1, 10, 40 and 100 Gb/s
Ethernet interfaces, as depicted in Fig. 10. The superchannel
based CPM line interface is able to multiplex the incoming
information into a payload of up to the maximum trans-
mission rate and map into an optical channel for trans-
mission. All subcarriers support QPSK, 8QAM and 16QAM
polarization-multiplexed transmission at 28 Gbaud.
CPM is based on the repetition of the transmitted symbols,
when a sufficiently low traffic flow is detected. The number of
repetitions per symbol, NR = 2k , k = 0, 1, 2, 3, results in per
subcarrier nominal transmission rates of 200/NR , 150/NR
and 100/NR for 16QAM, 8QAM and QPSK respectively. As in
Section III-B, we consider only homogeneous transmission,
where the same scheme (modulation format and transmis-
sion rate) is used by all active subcarriers. Combinations
of the number of active subcarriers, modulation formats
and the per subcarrier rates result in several transmission
schemes, out of which only the Pareto-efficient ones are
supported (see Section III-B). For example, considering max-
imum rate of 1 Tbps and a 5-carrier superchannel, transmis-
sion rates supported by the CPM interface are: 12.5, 18.7, 25,
37.5, 50, 56.2, 62.5, 75, 93.7, 100, 112.5, 125, 150, 187.5, 200,
225, 250, 300, 375, 400, 450, 500, 600, 750, 800 Gbps and 1
Tbps, based on traffic demands. Surely, this granularity may
be reduced for simplicity. At the receiver, the sequence is
downsampled according to the required data rate, as shown
in Fig. 11. The figure depicts a transmission of two samples
Ts Baudrate
28G
Identical symbols
14G
Identical symbols
7G
Identical symbols
3.5G
Fig. 11: Repetition-based per subcarrier transmission
scheme.
per symbol (black arrows), with Ts being the symbol period.
After sampling and analog-to-digital (AD) conversion, down-
sampling is performed, discarding the samples crossed in
7
1G/10G/40G/100G CPM-
Capable
CPM- IP GRouter
Capable
...
Superchannel
Line
Interface 1G/10G/40G/100G CPM-
Capable
IP GRouter
red, maintaining two samples for each transmitted symbol.
In this way, system parameters, such as the transmitter
modulator and the receiver AD converters operation rates,
remain unchanged. For RZ systems this scheme may require
special care during the clock recovery, or, perhaps, a pulse-
carver frequency adjustment and is left for further study.
In order to benefit from the CPM scheme, IP routers should
be able to switch the transmission rates of their Ethernet
interfaces between 1, 10, 40 and 100 Gb/s, according to traffic
conditions. A decision may be taken based on a composition
of two parameters: internal buffer congestion and histori-
cal traffic patterns. The CPM line interface, in turn, must
monitor the rate of its (client) Ethernet interfaces, compute
the optimal transmission rate and adjust the multiplexing
scheme. It also must acknowledge the receiver at each switch
of the transmission scheme, so that both line interfaces are
synchronized. Thus, a cognitive power management scheme
may be resumed in the following steps:
1) IP routers switch operational rates of their Ethernet
interfaces according to the internal buffer size and his-
torical traffic patterns, through auto-negotiation with
the line interface.
2) CPM line interface monitors the rate of its Ethernet
interfaces, computes the optimal rate and adjusts the
transmission scheme.
3) When the sum of the traffic from all connected IP
routers is such that the transmission scheme switch
at the optical transmitter is triggered, the transmitter
receiver synchronization is performed.
4) At the receiver, the downsampling pattern, the number
of active subcarriers and the electronic CD compensa-
tion filter length are readjusted according to the new
transmission rate.
Ideally, in step 4 the modulation format would also be
adjusted. However, employment of such systems is question-
able because equalizer convergence time in each modula-
tion switch adds to the latency associated with the CPM
synchronization protocols, and may also result in data loss.
Therefore, we assume that the system sets its modulation
format only once, during the initialization, according to the
estimated SNR.
V. C ASE S TUDY
To exemplify the power efficiency improvement by CPM
we consider a 2000 km uncompensated link of SSMF fiber
with dispersion parameter D = 17 ps/nm/km. The system
transmits at a maximum nominal rate of 1 Tbps over central
wavelength λ = 1550 nm using a 10-subcarrier superchan-
nel. The system supports QPSK, 8QAM and 16QAM modu-
lation formats. We further consider that estimated OSNR =

17 dB and that additional power requirement per subcarrier
is 0.2Madd (see Section III-B). Also, assume an additional
OSNR margin of 2 dB. To assess the performance we scaled
the daily traffic pattern of Fig. 9a so that the maximum rate
is 1 Tbps. Fig. 12 exhibits the 24-hour CPM transmission
pattern of an ideal system represented by the red solid
line, where the transponders switch between the modulation
formats during operation. Here, the complexity is reduced
by 36%, from 3.98 × 106 to 2.54 × 106 Tops. The top lines
of the text boxes denote selected transmission schemes for
this case. A simpler case – for QPSK modulation only –
is represented by the green dash-dotted line. Note that,
although the transmission rate granularity remains almost
identical, the transmission schemes vary (compare top and
bottom lines of the text boxes). For the QPSK modulation
case the complexity is reduced by 28%, from 3.98 × 106 to
2.87 × 106 Tops.
1000
6SC PM−16QAM@3.5Gbaud
6SC PM−QPSK@7Gbaud
800
10SC PM−QPSK@28Gbaud
Traffic [Gbps]
600
9SC PM−8QAM@14Gbaud
7SC PM−QPSK@28Gbaud
400
10SC PM−16QAM@7Gbaud
10SC PM−QPSK@14Gbaud
200 Traffic profile
Transmission rate all formats
Transmission rate QPSK
0 [1] “Bandwidth virtualization enables a programmable optical net-
0 2 4 6
Time [sec.]
Fig. 12: Multiple subcarrier CPM for daily traffic fluctua-
tions.
Estimating the associated reduction in power consumption
is a complex task affected by many factors, e.g., data rate,
technology, architecture, packaging, interconnect design, etc.
For a gross estimation, however, we used the result of [3]
where we assumed the energy consumption per real multi-
plication for 40 nm CMOS ASIC (that includes associated
interconnect capacitance, addition and storage operations)
to be ≈ 2 pJ. Daily power consumption values for the
aforementioned systems are summarized in Table IV.
TABLE IV: Daily Power Consumption for Non-CPM-capable,
Ideal and QPSK Only Systems
System Multiplications [Tops] Consumption [kW.Hr]
Non-CPM 3.98 × 106
Ideal 2.54 × 106
QPSK 2.87 × 106
VI. C ONCLUSION
We presented a scheme for the cognitive management of
power consumption associated with CD compensation, based
on the intrinsic time variability of internet traffic. Starting
8
with a single carrier case, we extended our analysis for a
multiple carrier superchannel bandwidth virtualization en-
vironment. We investigated transmission schemes in terms
of Pareto-efficiency regarding transmission rate, reach and
power consumption. We showed that for the same transmis-
sion rate polarization multiplexed and higher modulation
order schemes are more power efficient, and that BPSK
modulation does not yield any advantage – neither in reach
nor in power efficiency – in CPM-capable systems. We spec-
ified the rule of transmission scheme selection by a CPM-
capable transponder, according to channel conditions. We
also investigated the optimal number of active subcarriers
in superchannel-based optical line interface, showing that
schemes that keep active over half the subcarriers are power
efficient for some transmission rate. We further showed the
influence of additional complexity on the optimal degree of
system’s optical parallelism, showing that this influence in-
creases with OSNR. Finally, we demonstrated the reduction
in power consumption through a case study of a typical
terabit transmission scenario, showing a 36% reduction in an
ideal case (using all modulation formats) and 28% reduction
in the QPSK only case. The 8% difference between both
cases that corresponds to non-negligible 180 W.Hr of daily
consumption suggests to investigate a seamless online toggle
between modulation formats in software-defined transpon-
ders.
A CKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Innovation Center, Eric-
sson Telecomunicaes S.A., Brazil.
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