Demonstration of Long-Reach PON Using 10 Gb/s 3R Burst-Mode Wavelength Converter

Long-reach optical access networks promise significant cost savings. To merge existing metro and access networks to a single long-reach network, the long-reach technology has to address not only the power loss and fiber dispersion problems but also mismatch between two merged entities in terms of wavelengths and operational modes, especially during the transition period when support of legacy services is still required. In this letter, we demonstrate a long reach network employing a 10 Gb/s burst-mode O/E/O wavelength converter. The converter can simultaneously address the power loss, dispersion, and mismatch problems by a compact assembly. Two upstream wavelengths located in the 1310 nm and 1550 nm windows in the access section are converted to a DWDM wavelength of 1554.13 nm in the metro section. Error-free performance is achieved with a loud/soft ratio of 10 dB at a sensitivity of -27 dBm and the overhead for the burst-mode operation is as low as 0.512%.