Summary of CWDM AND DWDM

(ITU) standards, with CWDM using a wider spacing between channels of 20nm, compared to the more tightly packed spacing of DWDM at 0.8nm or 0.4nm.
This means that CWDM can support up to 18 channels and with DWDM it is possible to fit 40, 80 or up to 96 channels on the same fiber pair.

The channels on CWDM are located on frequencies between 1271nm to 1611nm, whereas for DWDM the “C-band” 1530nm – 1565nm frequency range is most commonly used as the light has a lower attenuation in optical fiber at this frequency and can travel further.

Bandwidth:
CWDM up to 100GHZ
DWDM 400/800 GBPS.