Studies of OFDM signal for broadband optical access networks

• Published in: IEEE journal on selected areas in communications Vol. 28; no. 6; pp. 800 - 807
• Main Authors: Chow, C W, Yeh, C H, Wang, C H, Wu, C L, Chi, S, Chinlon Lin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.08.2010; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Bandwidth; Broadband; Carriers; Chromatic dispersion; Costs; Dispersions; Fibers; heterogeneous wired/wireless network; Networks; Noise; OFDM; Optical communication; Optical fiber networks; Optical network units; Optical noise; orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM); Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing; Passive optical networks; passive optical networks (PONs); Rayleigh backscattering; Wavelength division multiplexing; Wireless communication; Wireless communications; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 0733-8716; 1558-0008
• DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2010.100805

Using orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) format for passive optical network (PON) is a subject of great interest for recent research works. OFDM signal has high spectral efficiency, high tolerance to the fiber chromatic dispersion and the high flexibility on both multiple services provisioning and dynamic bandwidth allocation. In this paper we study the use of OFDM signals for optical access networks, including carrier distributed PON, heterogeneous optical wired/wireless network and a 100 Gb/s OFDM-PON. We first quantify the performance of the OFDM signal when subjected to the noise produced by two different Rayleigh backscattering (RB) components that are present in the carrier-distributed PON. Then, based on these results, we also study the possibility of using OFDM for signal remodulation in a long-reach (LR)-PON. We propose carrier-distributed OFDM PONs using a dual-feeder fiber architecture and wavelength-shifting to mitigate the RB noise. Afterwards, we propose heterogeneous optical wired/wireless access networks, combining 10 Gb/s PON and 10 Gb/s OFDM radio-over-fiber (ROF) network. Finally, we propose a 100 Gb/s OFDM-PON using subcarrier multiplexing (SCM).