User's Guidance of Single Fiber Bidirectional CWDM Multiplexer / Memultiplexer
2017-03-30

In the Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) system, there are two main types of CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer: dual fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer and single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer, of which dual fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer adopts two fibers to transmit and receive the optical signal, and the wavelengths of the optical signals transmitted on the two fibers are the same; single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer only uses a fiber to transmit and receive the optical signal, so that the transmitted optical signal and the received optical signal on the fiber must be transmitted at different wavelengths. Single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer is usually used in fiber expansion applications with only one fiber.

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About single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer

Single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer typically has only one line port (as shown above), however, there are some other single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexers / memultiplexers still adopt duplex line ports, but has only port is working, as the FMU single-fiber CWDM multiplexer / demultiplexer is shown below, although it has configures duplex line ports, actually it has only one port works, another port is marked the "N / A" that means "not available": 

single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer memultiplexer
The following picture shows the working principle of single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer, there are 16 kinds of wavelengths totally used to achieve the transmission of 8 kinds of optical carrier signals in a fiber, among them, the transmitting optical signal wavelength at A end is consistent with the receiving optical signal wavelength at B end and vice versa.
working principle of single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer memultiplexer_

How to choose optical module for single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer 

Due to the wavelength particularity of single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer, lots of people will feel confused about the fact that what kind of optical module should be used. In fact, the wavelength of the optical signal should be dominant when selecting an optical module for a single-fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / demultiplexer. Taking the figure above as an example: 1270nm wavelength at A end is the transmitting optical signal, then the corresponding port should use 1270nm CWDM optical module, while 1290nm wavelength at B end is the transmitting optical signal, so 1290nm CWDM optical module should be used in the corresponding port.

The use example of single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer. 

Now we will take the CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer as an example to describe that how to build single fiber bidirectional CWDM network, here we used two 4-channel FMU single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer, and the detailed information about ports and wavelengths as shown below:

FMU single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer

 single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer memultiplexer

 single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer memultiplexer

TX (Transmitting Wavelength)

1470nm

1510nm

1550nm

1590nm

1490nm

1530nm

1570m

1610nm

RX (Receiving Wavelength)

1490nm

1530nm

1570nm

1610nm

1470nm

1510nm

1550nm

1590nm

The figure below is the detailed application example of single fiber bidirectional CWDM network, this application used 4-channel single fiber bidirectional CWDM multiplexer / memultiplexer and 8 CWDM SFP + optical modules with 4 kinds of wavelengths (1480nm, 1510nm, 1550nm and 1590nm), it is worthy noting that these CWDM SFP + optical modules of different wavelengths should be used based on the transmission wavelength of the CWDM multiplexer / demultiplexer.
single fiber bidirectional CWDM network
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