COL 11(12), 120602(2013) CHINESE OPTICS LETTERS December 10, 2013
Remotely pumped EDFA-based 40-Gb/s downstream
and 10-Gb/s upstream long-reach WDM PON
employing RSOA and FBG equalizer
Zhiguo Zhang
(
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Zhihui Cao
(
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),
Xue Chen
(
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),
Liqian Wang (
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), and Min Zhang (
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)
State Key Lab of Information Photonics and Optical Communications, Beijing University
of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
∗
Corresponding author: zhangzhiguo@bupt.edu.cn
Received August 30, 2013; accepted November 5, 2013; posted online December 9, 2013
We propose a remotely pumped Er-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA)-based 40-Gb/s downstream and 10-
Gb/s upstream transmission long-reach wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-
PON) scheme with downstream and upstream transmission implemented by quadrature phase-shift keying
(QPSK) transceiver and reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA)-based intensity modulation
direct detection (IM-DD). Transmissions of the 40-Gb/s QPSK downstream, using a Mach-Zehnder mod-
ulator, and the 10-Gb/s non-return-to-zero on-off keying (NRZ-OOK) upstream, using a 1.2-GHz RSOA
equalized by fiber Bragg grating (FBG), are demonstrated with 40-km fiber transmission.
OCIS codes: 060.0060, 060.2330.
doi: 10.3788/COL201311.120602.
Wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network
(WDM-PON) has been regarded as a promising solution
to meet the ever-increasing access bandwidth require-
ments for delivering gigabit per second data and video
services to a large number of users
[1−3]
. Given the expo-
nential growth of internet traffic and bandwidth-hungry
innovative services, WDM-PON access networks will mi-
grate to the 40 Gb/s per channel in the near future
[4,5]
.
Furthermore, long-reach optical links and large cover-
age are also becoming increasingly necessary with the
enhancement of the transmission rate and the network
capacity. The main challenges in the deployment of
WDM-PON technology in an access network involves
the low-cost and colorless light sources and avoidance
of utilizing expensive external modulators and receiver
in the optical network unit (ONU)
[6,7]
. A low-cost and
easy-integration solution is the utilization of a reflective
semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA)-based modula-
tor and intensity direct detection (DD) receiver at the
ONU
[8,9]
.
The modulation bandwidth of RSOA is limited to
1−3 GHz, resulting in the difficult of achieving 10 Gb/s or
beyond 10 Gb/s of operation. Recently, several attempts
have been performed to operate these low-bandwidth de-
vices at 10 Gb/s and beyond, including advanced mod-
ulation formats
[10]
, post-detection electrical signal pro-
cessing (electronic equalization), and optical signal pro-
cessing (optical equalization)
[11,12]
. Typical electronic
equalization methods, including the decision-feedback
equalizer (DFE) and maximum likelihood sequence es-
timation (MLSE) equalizer, have also been investigated
in Refs. [13,14]. Typical optical equalization methods,
including delay interferometer (DI) and optical filter
(OF), have been investigated in Refs. [15,16]. However,
electronic equalization is mainly being implemented by
analog/digital converters and the electronic digital signal
process. Thus, high cost is a huge disadvantage when
the bit rate increases to 10 Gb/s or higher. Limited by
the precise multichannel matching between the multiple
pass-band channels of DI and the multiple uplink wave-
lengths transmitted by RSOAs, a DI is difficult to use
as a multiple-channel optical equalizer because different
channels are difficult to independently and precisely ad-
just. Similarly, an OF (including the WDM filter) with
a fixed pass-band also cannot satisfy the need for optical
equalization. Therefore, innovative low-cost equalization
solution with tunable bandpass, simple structure, and
easy implementation is still needed. Although 40-Gb/s
downstream transmission can be achieved using a chirp-
managed directly modulated laser in WDM-PON
[17]
, the
high spectral efficiency transmission scheme is still neces-
sary to improve the transmission distance limited by the
fiber dispersion and expand the variable length between
the optical line terminal (OLT) and different ONUs in
WDM PON.
Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is an innovative low-cost
equalization solution. Thus, it is a very attractive pas-
sive, linear, and compact component. Several schemes
have been performed to operate FBGs as chromatic dis-
persion (CD) compensator, OF, and optical equalizer in
an optical communication system
[18]
. In addition, as a
single bandpass and tunable filter, the bandpass of the
FBG can be flexibly adjusted to satisfy the requirement
of a precise channel matching between the FBG pass-
band channel and the uplink wavelength transmitted by
RSOA. Therefore, compared with WDM and DI OFs,
the tunable FBG filter has significant advantage. In this
letter, we first propose a remotely pumped Er-doped
fiber amplifier (RPEDFA)-based 40-Gb/s downstream
and 10-Gb/s upstream transmission long-reach WDM-
PON scheme. The downstream transmission is imple-
mented using quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK)
transceivers, and the upstream transmission is imple-
mented using FBG optical equalizer-based RSOA mod-
1671-7694/2013/120602(4) 120602-1
c
2013 Chinese Optics Letters