Broadband Optical Access using Centralized Carrier Distribution

Abstract

Passive optical network (PON) is considered as an attractive fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology. Wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) PON improves the utilization of fiber bandwidth through the use of wavelength domain. A cost-effective solution in WDM PON would use the same components in each optical networking unit (ONU), which should thus be independent of the wavelength assigned by the network. Optical carriers are distributed from the head-end office to different ONUs to produce the upstream signals. Various solutions of colorless ONUs will be discussed. Although the carrier distributed WDM PONs have many attractive features, a key issue that needs to be addressed is how best to control the impairments that arise from optical beat noise induced by Rayleigh backscattering (RB). Different RB components will be analyzed and RB mitigation schemes will be presented. Finally, some novel PONs including signal remodulation PONs, long reach PONs and wireless/wired PONs will be highlighted.