A. Nespola

High-Speed Communications Over Polymer Optical Fibers for In-Building Cabling and Home Networking

This paper focuses on high-speed cabling using polymer optical fibers (POF) in home networking. In particular, we report about the results obtained in the POF-ALL European Project, which is relevant to the Sixth Framework Program, and after two years of the European Project POF-PLUS, which is relevant to the Seventh Framework Program, focusing on their research activities about the use of poly-metyl-metha-acrilate step-index optical fibers for home applications. In particular, for that which concerns POF-ALL, we will describe eight-level pulse amplitude modulation (8-PAM) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) approaches for 100-Mb/s transmission over a target distance of 300 m, while for that which concerns POF-PLUS, we will describe a fully digital and a mixed analog-digital solution, both based on intensity modulation direct detection, for transmitting 1 Gb/s over a target distance of 50 m. The ultimate experimental results from the POF-ALL project will be given, while for POF-PLUS, which is still ongoing, we will only show our most recent preliminary results.

Comparison of Different Modulation Formats for 1-Gb/s SI-POF Transmission Systems

In the framework of the currently ongoing effort to find the best transmission solution for Gigabit Ethernet over step-index polymer optical fiber (SI-POF), we give a novel contribution through the comparison of three possible modulation formats: pulse amplitude modulation (PAM)-2, PAM-4, and duobinary, all coupled with electronic equalization at the receiver. We show that on a 50-m SI-POF link using resonant cavity light-emitting diode (RC-LED), duobinary gives the best performance, followed by PAM-2 and then by PAM-4. All evaluations were performed by offline processing experiments.

100 Mb/s Ethernet Transmission Over 275 m of Large Core Step Index Polymer Optical Fiber: Results From the POF-ALL European Project

We present our prototype solution for transmitting 100 Mb/s Ethernet data over large core (1 mm) step-index polymer optical fiber (POF), as one of the final results of the EU-funded project POF-ALL. The system is demonstrated over a record maximum distance of 275 m, largely outperforming CAT-5 systems and currently commercially available POF media converters. These results let us envision POF deployment for home networking and industrial automation and in general for all those environments in which ease of installation, rugged solution, low-cost and electromagnetic compatibility issues are requested.

Experimental demonstration of fiber nonlinearity mitigation in a WDM multi-subcarrier coherent optical system

Thanks to the use of a digital multi-subcarrier architecture, we experimentally demonstrate a maximum reach increase of 11% for a 19×128Gbit/s PM-QPSK WDM comb with respect to an equivalent single-subcarrier system, achieving 14,100-km transmission over PSCF fiber with EDFA-only amplification.

Experimental demonstration of a novel update algorithm in stokes space for adaptive equalization in coherent receivers

We successfully demonstrate the application of a recently proposed adaptive butterfly equalizer update algorithm, based on error signals evaluated in Stokes space, to the processing of data from a PM-16QAM Nyquist-WDM experiment with multi-span transmission over three fiber types.

System aspects of the FDMA PON conceived within the FABULOUS European project

We experimentally demonstrate a FDMA-PON system targeting 20 Gbps per wavelength in the upstream, using a real-time FPGA-based transmitter and low-speed baseband DSP, and 39 Gbps in the downstream using a new resources allocation algorithm with 11.5GHz electrical bandwidth, in the framework of the EU research project FABULOUS.

Reflective FDMA-PON with 32 Gbps upstream capacity per wavelength and more than 32 dB ODN loss

We demonstrate 32 Gbps per wavelength upstream record capacity for a FDMA-PON over 37 km of installed fiber and 32 dB ODN loss, adopting an innovative ONU based on a reflective Mach Zehnder modulator.

Demonstration of upstream WDM+FDMA PON and real time implementation on an FPGA platform

We present a final demonstration of upstream FDMA-PON transmission on the EU project FABULOUS architecture. We show WDM capability over four wavelengths, each carrying 32 Gbps at 31 dB ODN loss, and DSP real time implementation on a commercial FPGA.

Theoretical and experimental assessment of nonlinearity mitigation through symbol rate optimization

We investigated the reach increase obtained through non-linearity mitigation by means of transmission symbol rate optimization (SRO). First, we did this theoretically and simulatively. We found that for PM-QPSK systems at full-C-band the reach increase may be substantial, on the order of 10%-25%, with optimum symbol rates on the order of 2-to-6 GBaud. We extended the investigation to PM-16QAM, where we found a qualitatively similar effect, although the potential reach increase is typically only about half that of PM-QPSK. We then set up an experiment to obtain confrmation of the theoretical and simulative predictions. We demonstrated a reach increase of 11% in a 19-channel, 128 Gbit/s per channel, PM-QPSK experiment, when going from single-carrier to multi-subcarrier (up to 16 subcarriers per channel) transmission. The experiment reached 14,100 km over PSCF, with 110 km spans and EDFA-only amplifcation. The results matched well the EGN model predictions.

Toward 20 Gbps upstream FDMA-PON real-time and low-speed DSP demonstrator

We experimentally demonstrate a FDMA-PON system targeting 20 Gbps per wavelength in the upstream, using a real-time FPGA-based transmitter and low-speed baseband DSP, in the framework of the EU research project FABULOUS.