Kamau Prince

Converged Wireline and Wireless Access Over a 78-km Deployed Fiber Long-Reach WDM PON

In this letter, we demonstrate a 78.8-km wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network supporting converged transport of 21.4-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero differential quadrature phase-shift keying, optical phase-modulated 5-GHz radio-over-fiber, fiber and air transmission of 3.125-Gb/s pulse ultrawideband, and 256-quadratic-amplitude modulation wireless interoperability for microwave access.

Fiber transmission and generation of ultrawideband pulses by direct current modulation of semiconductor lasers and chirp-to-intensity conversion

Optical pulses generated by current modulation of semiconductor lasers are strongly frequency chirped. This effect has been considered pernicious for optical communications. We take advantage of this effect for the generation of ultrawideband microwave signals by using an optical filter to achieve chirp-to-intensity conversion. We also experimentally achieve propagation through a 20 km nonzero dispersion shifted fiber with no degradation of the signal at the receiver. Our method constitutes a prospective low-cost solution and offers integration capabilities with fiber-to-the-customer-premise systems.

A 80 km reach fully passive WDM-PON based on reflective ONUs

We propose a novel line coding combination (Inverse RZ coding in downlink and RZ in uplink) that extends the reach of WDM Passive Optical Networks based on Reflective SOAs with no in-line amplification. We achieved full downstream remodulation even when feeding the reflective SOA with power levels as low as -35 dBm, thus increasing the system power budget. We experimentally assessed this scheme for a fully passive, full-duplex and symmetrical 1.25 Gb/s WDM-PON over a 80 km G.652 feeder.

GigaWaM—Next-Generation WDM-PON Enabling Gigabit Per-User Data Bandwidth

The “Gigabit access passive optical network using wavelength division multiplexing” project aims to implement 64-Gb/s data transmission over 20-km single-mode fiber. Per-user symmetric data rates of 1-Gb/s will be achieved using wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) architecture with a 1:64 user split per PON segment. Enabling technologies being developed within the scope of the project include tunable transceivers and athermal 50-GHz array waveguide grating multiplexer devices. The future-proof WDM architecture will enable convergence triple-play (telephony, TV, and broadband internet) service over existing optical infrastructure, and also facilitate cost-effective dense wavelength division multiplexing for metro aggregation and mobile backhaul networks.

MIMO-OFDM WDM PON with DM-VCSEL for femtocells application

We report on experimental demonstration of 2x2 MIMO-OFDM 5.6-GHz radio over fiber signaling over 20 km WDM-PON with directly modulated (DM) VCSELs for femtocells application. MIMO-OFDM algorithms effectively compensate for impairments in the wireless link. Error-free signal demodulation of 64 subcarrier 4-QAM signals modulated at 198.5 Mb/s net data rate is achieved after fiber and 2 m indoor wireless transmission. We report BER of 7x10(-3) at the receiver for 16-QAM signals modulated at 397 Mb/s after 1 m of wireless transmission. Performance dependence on different wireless transmission path lengths, antenna separation, and number of subcarriers have been investigated.

Variable Delay With Directly-Modulated R-SOA and Optical Filters for Adaptive Antenna Radio-Fiber Access

We present an all-optical adaptive-antenna radio over fiber transport system that uses proven, commercially-available components to effectively deliver standard-compliant optical signaling to adaptive multiantenna arrays for current and emerging radio technology implementations. The system is based on a directly-modulated reflective semiconductor amplifier (R-SOA) and exploits the interplay between transmission-line dispersion and tunable optical filtering to achieve flexible true time delay, with 2pi beam steering at the different antennas. The system was characterized, then successfully tested with two types of signals defined in IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) standard for wireless networks: a 90 Mbps single-carrier signal (64-QAM at 2.4 GHz) and a 78 Mbps multitone orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) signal. The power budget of this configuration supports a 4-element antenna array.

All-optical envelope detection for Radio-over-Fiber links using external optical injection of a DFB laser

We outline a novel method performing all-optical envelope detection of radio-frequency signals for radio-over-fiber links. A high frequency modulated signal with a slower-varying envelope is injected into a DFB laser which, due to gain suppression effects, recovers only the envelope of the optical signal. We characterize the DFB gain suppression effect in terms of injected signal wavelength and power level requirements. System performance is assessed, including experimental bit-error rate results; these illustrate successful envelope detection for a 20 GHz carrier with ASK modulation operating at 2.5 Gbit/second. Preliminary results at 5.5 Gbit/s show significant potential for application in hybrid optical-wireless communications networks.

Free-Running 1550 nm VCSEL for 10.7 Gb/s Transmission in 99.7 km PON

We present a cooler-less, free-running 1550 nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) directly modulated at 10.7 Gb/s. We also report on error-free transmission through 40 km of standard single-mode optical fiber, achieved without the use of dispersion-mitigation or mid-span amplification. Inverse-dispersion fiber was utilized to realize a dispersion-matched 99.7 km optical access uplink supporting error-free transmission with 27 dB loss margin. These results indicate the feasibility of implementing cooler-less long-wavelength VCSEL devices in long-reach optical access networks.

A novel line coding pair for fully passive long reach WDM-PONs

A novel line coding pair allows to use unsaturated reflective-SOAs as upstream remodulator in long-reach WDM-PONs. Full-duplex and symmetric 80 km reach is demonstrated without in-line amplification at 1.25 Gb/s.

IM/DD vs. 4-PAM using a 1550-nm VCSEL over short-range SMF/MMF links for optical interconnects

We experimentally compare the performance of 10.9-Gb/s IM/DD and 5-GBd 4-PAM modulation formats over 5-km SMF and 1-km MMF links, employing a commercially-available 1550-nm VCSEL as an enabling technology for use in optical interconnects.