M. Artiglia

Ultra-dense WDM-PON 6.25 GHz spaced 8×1 Gb/s based on a simplified coherent-detection scheme

We demonstrate experimentally a novel type of coherent low cost Gigabit-to-the-User Ultra-Dense-Wavelength Division Multiplexing (UD-WDM) PON, featuring 6.25 GHz channel spacing and long reach. Polarization-independent coherent detection is achieved by exploiting a novel scheme which requires only a 3 × 3 coupler, three photodiodes, basic analogue processing and a common DFB as local oscillator (LO). This avoids the conventional polarization diversity approach. The DFB LO is free running, i.e. not locked in frequency, and is tuned to detect any of the eight channels by simply changing its temperature in a range of 2° C. We achieve 70 km long-reach transmission plus 30 dB attenuation, for a total of > 45 dB optical distribution network loss. This indicates that this solution could be effectively exploited to overlay existing PON infrastructures by UD-WDM.

Coherent Systems for Low-Cost 10 Gb/s Optical Access Networks

We experimentally demonstrate a cost-effective coherent 10 Gb/s system for passive optical networks, exploiting off-the-shelf DFB lasers and a phase-diversity receiver based on a simple 3 × 3 fiber coupler. Since the system uses a simple amplitude-shift keying format, no complex electronic processing is required and there is no need of frequency/phase stabilization of the local oscillator, whose frequency can change by more than ±1 GHz with no significant performance variation. The system has a 40 dB loss budget and is, therefore, compatible with the high losses of practical optical distribution networks, where power splitting is used to distribute the signal to a high number of users. Error-free 10-Gb/s transmission at the FEC limit is obtained after transmission over up to 66 km of G.652 single mode fiber. Polarization-independent operation is also demonstrated with a simple modification of the detection scheme, without duplicating components, and with a small variation of the sensitivity. The limited complexity indicates the potential for a cost-effective implementation, which makes it compatible with the strictly cost-aware access networks environment, even for high-end services.

10-Gb/s Long-Reach PON System With Low-Complexity Dispersion-Managed Coherent Receiver

We demonstrate 10-Gb/s transmission over more than 130 km of G.652 fiber using a simple directly modulated distributed feedback (DFB) laser and a new “chirp-managed” approach based on a low-complexity coherent receiver. The “chirp-managed” effect, which has been obtained in the past by optical spectral reshaping, is conveniently achieved here by means of simple electrical filtering of the received signal at the intermediate frequency. Due to coherent detection, the receiver sensitivity was -38 dBm at bit error rate (BER) 1/4 1.8 χ 10-3. No colored filters and no dispersion compensation (optical or digital signal processing (DSP)-based) were used at the receiver side. We show that the coherent system presented here, based on off-the-shelf components, is robust against variations of DFB chirp, local oscillator detuning, and electrical filter bandwidth over ranges wide enough to guarantee a simple and cost-effective implementation for 10-Gb/s long-reach passive optical network applications.

Coherent PON system with high-sensitivity polarization-independent receiver and no ADC/DSP

A 1.25 Gb/s ASK PON system with -51dBm sensitivity (at BER=2-103) is enabled by a polarization-independent coherent receiver that needs no DSP (nor ADC). The system just uses common DFBs and commercial electronic devices and has 52 dB dynamic range.

Demonstration of cw soliton trains at 10, 40 and 160 GHz by means of induced modulation instability

Here we believe we demonstrate for the first time that induced modulational instability (MI) in common uniform fibers can be successfully used to produce continuous true soliton trains, and this can be achieved even at 10 GHz.

Electrical filter-based and low-complexity DPSK coherent optical receiver

Direct-detection of differential phase shifted keying (DPSK) optical signals is implemented either by ad hoc optical filtering or one-bit delayed optical interferometers. We show a coherent receiver where the filtering is performed in the electrical domain after down-converting the incoming signal to the baseband or to an intermediate frequency. This can be particularly advantageous whenever optical filters cannot be used or when extremely narrow filtering (sub-GHz) would be required [for example ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) passive optical networks]. Electrical filters can be realized more accurately than their optical counterpart. In addition, in a coherent receiver, this operation is colorless and avoids digital signal processing. We show experimentally this reduced complexity receiver and compare it with the classical one based on the delay and multiply block.

10 Gb/s long-reach PON system based on directly modulated transmitters and simple polarization independent coherent receiver

We demonstrate a coherent 10 Gb/s PON system solution exploiting a direct modulated laser (DML) transmitter to obtain long reach (>100 km). The system exploits a simplified coherent receiver. This receiver, which is similar to the scheme that we recently proposed, had to be adapted to obtain polarization-independent operation with a chirped signal from a DML and is still based on simple optical and electrical components. Thanks to the combined use of coherent-RX and DML, the system achieves a link budget of 43 dB for 105 km transmission distance with no need of dispersion compensation. This makes it a cost-effective, simple, and robust solution for satisfying the increasing capacity request of access networks.

Polarization-Independent Coherent Real-Time Analog Receiver for PON Access Systems

A 1.25-Gb/s ASK passive optical network (PON) system with a -51 dBm pre-FEC sensitivity (at BER = 2 × 10-3) is enabled by a real-time polarization-independent coherent receiver (PI-RX) that needs no DSP (nor ADC). The receiver, which only makes use of common DFBs and commercially available electronic ICs, is targeted for use on a 6.25-GHz UD-WDM grid and has a 52-dB dynamic range. Measurements of the robustness of the PI-RX against backreflections and crosstalk from coexistent adjacent channels show that this preliminary implementation is suitable for UD-WDM-PON systems with frequency spacing down to 5 GHz.

Hitless dynamic wavelength allocation in coherent WDM-PONs

We introduce a novel algorithm for real-time ONU activation (λ - assignment) and reconfiguration (λ - tuning) in WDM coherent PONs. The algorithm prevents service interruption of lighted channels and it is experimentally demonstrated by using real-time fully-analog coherent transceivers.

Ultra-dense WDM access network field trial

An UDWDM-PON with simple real-time ASK and DPSK transceivers at 6.25 GHZ channel spacing is validated in a field-trial with deployed fiber with power budget above 40 dB. This work presents final results of the Coconut European Project.