When setting up a new INTERCONNECT simulation, the standard workflow is to start with choosing a proper solver for the corresponding design/simulation.
If you want to do a frequency capture of the circuit to get its transmission/s-parameter, you will need to use the frequency domain S-Parameter Simulator (SPS). The only source to be used in the SPS is the Optical Network Analyzer (ONA) with analysis type of scattering data. The ONA captures the complex transmission of the circuit. Some other results that you can get from SPS are gain, angle, group delay/velocity, dispersion/dispersion slope, and loss. The peak analysis tool in ONA can also do peak analyses for the above-mentioned measurements and for Free Spectral Range (FSR).
If you want to do a time-domain simulation to capture the circuit/system’s response to time-dependent signals, depending on the simulation features, you need to choose between Transient Sampled Mode (TSM) and Transient Block Mode (TBM) signal representations. The mode type can be set in the Root Element Simulation/Signal Mode output signal mode property (sample/block) and optical sources will inherit this property from Root Element by default.
TSM is sample-by-sample processing, where each invocation of an element accepts one sample from each input port of the element and produces one sample on each output port. Sampled Mode is recommended for closed-loop systems. Bidirectional simulations of close-coupled elements, such as resonant structures, circuits with feedback loops, traveling laser sections, or circuits where reflections must be considered are examples of closed-loop systems. Measurements such as waveform, eye diagram, and Bit Error Rate (BER), etc. can be captures by the analyzers at the end.
In TBM, a waveform from each input port is mapped to a waveform on output ports, where a waveform is defined as a block of N samples. For optical signals, the waveform is the complex envelope of the optical field. In TBM, the simulation progresses element by element, and typically each element calculates only one block, this means the element only run once. It is possible to have bidirectional simulations with Block Mode, in this case, the bidirectionality is limited to elements separated by more than one block length. For bidirectional systems using Block Mode, the coherence length is equivalent to the block length. In this case, multiple iterations can be performed until the waveform or block reaches a steady state.
Laser sources like Continuous Wave (CW) laser and Multi-Mode (MM) Laser can be used in time-domain simulations (often coupled with modulators and electrical sources). The ONA with analysis type of impulse response can also be used in time-domain transient simulations.