Subcarrier Multiplexing (SCM) is a method for combining (
multiplexing
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
) many different communications signals so that they can be transmitted along a single
optical fiber
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
. SCM (also known as SCMA, SubCarrier Multiple Access) is used in
passive optical network
A passive optical network (PON) is a fiber-optic telecommunications technology for delivering broadband network access to end-customers. Its architecture implements a point-to-multipoint topology in which a single optical fiber serves multiple en ...
(PON) access infrastructures as a variant of
wavelength division multiplexing
In fiber-optic communications, wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. This techniq ...
(WDM).
SCM follows a different approach compared to WDM. In WDM an optical carrier is modulated with a baseband signal of typically hundred of Mbit/s. In an SCMA infrastructure, the baseband data is first modulated on a GHz wide subcarrier, that is subsequently modulated on the optical carrier. This way each signal occupies a different portion of the optical spectrum surrounding the centre frequency of the optical carrier. At the receiving side, as normally happens in a commercial radio service, the receiver is tuned to the correct subcarrier frequency, filtering out the other subcarriers.
The operation of multiplexing and demultiplexing the single subcarriers is carried out electronically. The conversion into the optical carrier is done at the multiplexer side. This gives an advantage over a pure WDM access, due to the lower cost of the electrical components if compared with an optical multiplexer.
SCM has the disadvantage of being limited in maximum subcarrier frequencies and data rates by the available bandwidth of the electrical and optical components. Therefore, SCM must be used in conjunction with WDM in order to take advantage of most of the available fiber bandwidth, but it can be used effectively for lower-speed, lower-cost multiuser systems.
References
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External links
WDM - Wavelength Division MultiplexingSubcarrier Multiplexing for High-Speed Optical Transmission
Multiplexing
Digital television
Digital radio
Broadcast engineering
Physical layer protocols