LIGHTWAVE COMMUNICATION LABORATORY
DAV Institute of Engineering & Technology (DAVIET), Jalandhar, is in the process of establishing a photonic education and research program. The program will include a new state-of-the-art facility for a laboratory on optical transmission and an advanced national training center to train technical teachers and researchers in the area of optical communications for India. RSoft has collaborated with DAVIET in establishing lightwave communication research laboratory at DAVIET by providing OptSim with 5 user license and is supporting our initiatives. Research and education in optical communications is very vital from an infrastructural point of view for an emerging economy like India. The laboratory on optical transmission is one of its kinds in India. RSoft has been very supportive of our efforts by not only providing photonics software and training at RSoft’s US headquarters, but also by arranging visits for us to the leading US university photonics centers such as those at Columbia University and Princeton University.
RSoft's Physical Layer Simulation Tools:
-- OptSIM™: Integrated Platform and Full Solution for Optical System Simulationwith unique twin simulation engine
The System Simulation tools are used to drive and demonstrate performance improvement in optical links. These tools are produced and marketed by RSoft's Physical-Layer Division, with shared Network technical expertise in wavelength domain simulation. They are used by researchers and equipment designers and manufacturers all over the world.
OptSim, with its extensive library of components, validated accuracy and flexibility in design and modeling of numerous applications such as CATV, Radio over Fiber, Free Space Optics,CWDM/DWDM lightwave systems, Ethernet, etc., is the perfect tool for physical layer design of FTTH/FTTP networks.
Using OptSim’s extended library of standard and predefined components, many different what-if scenarios can be simulated to find the optimal performance to cost ratio. Predefined components include a number of commonly used off-the-shelf and custom components, modules and sub-systems like fibers, lasers (including VCSEL, FP, DFB, etc), PIN/TIA, transceivers/transponders, etc., with the specifications provided by leading manufacturers. The OptSim statistical analysis capabilities allow studying the FTTH systems nominal and EOL (end-of-life) performance variations.
Unique feature of Optical Communication Simulator, OptSIM
1. OptSIM is the only commercially available simulation software with dual simulation engines, viz. Frequency Domain Simulation & Time Domain Simulation. detail (see sr. 3).
2. OptSim is based on many years of peer-reviewed scientific research, and includes many ground-breaking innovations in its component models, simulation engines, and software framework. Over 50 published scientific papers directly relate to OptSim. (a list of publications is attached herewith) There is a significant level of research and development ongoing for OptSim involving collaborations with industry ( like Telecordia Technologies, Agilent, JDSU, 3M, IBM, Nortel Networks, Honeywell, US Navy etc.) as well as world-renowned research institutions (like Columbia University, University of Turin, University of California, University of Illinois etc.). This background and level of innovation far surpasses that of any other optical communication simulator. In addition, OptSim and its predecessors first appeared on the commercial market in 1998, based in part on peer-reviewed research published in scientific journals in 1997. Today, OptSim is a mature and well respected commercial product. On the other hand, other optical communication Simulatorsdid not appear commercially until 2002, and are still not a mature tool.
3. OptSim is the only commercially available simulation package that provides a choice of simulation engines utilizing complementary technical approaches. An OptSim user can choose to simulate using the block-mode simulation engine or the sample mode simulation engine depending upon the design needs. The block mode simulation approach is simulation approach where frequency domain split step Fourier method is used for the simulation of nonlinear single-mode optical fiber. In addition, OptSim offers the choice of the sample mode simulation engine where RSoft’s proprietary Time Domain Split Step method is used. Other Simulators offers only one type of simulation engine similar to OptSIM’s Block mode simulation engine. For long bit sequence simulations, other Simulator’s overhead for simulation time and computational resources can become prohibitively large (due to simulation techniques), while OptSim's sample mode (which is a proprietary simulation technique of RSoft) simulation won’t force any additional overhead or demands for computational resources.
4. Additional unique capabilities of OptSim's sample-mode simulation engine include the Spectral Propagation Technique that provides simulation results for power spectra and OSNR charts for even complex designs in just seconds.
5. Optsim comes with an extremely rich library of more than 550 models, while other simulator has close to 250 modules or less.
6. In addition, OptSim comes with vendor-certified and off-the-shelf components, like different kinds of fibers, transmitters, receivers etc.. With OptSim, a user just needs to select the appropriate model of the component without the burden of getting physical parameters that are often very difficult if not impossible to obtain but otherwise needed for modeling. No other Simulator offers this facility.
7. In addition to time and frequency domain analyses, OptSim also provides the Wavelength Domain Simulation approach where much larger simulation time spans (of the order of seconds) can be simulated in real time. This method effectively captures transient and dynamic behavior of network components and keeps track of inter- and intra-channel crasstalks. Other Simulatordoesn’t allow this kind of simulation.
8. Best Fit Laser Toolkit™ and Electrical Circuit Model Generator™: OptSim recognizes that numerical values of many physical parameters of various models are not always readily available from the datasheets and are often very difficult to obtain. That’s why OptSim comes with the Best Fit Laser Toolkit™. For example, the Best Fit Laser Toolkit extracts laser (including VCSEL) rate equation physical parameters corresponding to the datasheet parameters inserted by users. It thenworks in conjunction with the Electrical Circuit Model Generator™ to generate an equivalent SPICE model for that laser (including VCSELs) for simulations using the most popular electrical circuit simulation tools. Other Simulatordoes not provide these capabilities.
9. Wizards: OptSim also recognizes that the majority of simulation tool users are not experts in programming languages. That’s why OptSim comes with various wizards that aid users in creating custom component models that can be used in OptSim simulations. For example, the MATLAB® wizard in OptSim is a user friendly dialog window where the user specifies the number of inputs, outputs, parameters, etc. and the wizard automatically generates a MATLAB *.m file for the user. Other Simulators on the other hand, does not provide these user friendly wizards.
10. Interfaces to External Software and Hardware: OptSim can very effectively cosimulate with external software tools (like MATLAB, SPICE, BeamPROP™, LaserMOD™, GratingMOD™, and the Essential MacLeod™) and can exchange data with laboratory equipment (like Agilent’s optical spectrum analyzer 86146B, and Luna’s optical vector analyzer). While other simulator can work with some external software and laboratory test equipment, its interfaces are less extensive and powerful than OptSim's.
11. OptSim supports both Windows and UNIX operating systems including Linux and Sun Solaris among others. Other Simulator, on the other hand, only supports Windows.
12. OptSIM is the only Simulation tool which takes into account all order PMD effect and not limiting it to 2nd or 3rd order, like other simulators. For high speed data network design this is a very crucial aspect.
13. OptSIM has capability to design various types of Optical Amplifier like EDFA, SOA, Raman Amplifier, unlike other simulator which requires separate simulator to design Optical Amplifiers.
14. OptSIM has been experimentally validated by number of experiments, detail is available in technical papers available on CD.