Orthogonal frequency division multiple access PON (OFDMA-PON) for colorless upstream transmission beyond 10 Gb/s

In this paper, we overview the fundamental principles of next-generation optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)-PON systems, with a particular focus on upstream architectures capable of achieving 10⁺ Gb/s colorless upstream transmission. We also propose a novel OFDMA-PON architecture that satisfies these requirements and is capable of exceeding 10 Gb/s upstream transmission over a single wavelength. It is first analytically shown that optical carrier suppression at the optical network units (ONUs) combined with coherent detection at the optical line terminal (OLT) successfully eliminates both in- and cross-polarization beating noise that would otherwise be generated at the OLT and would fundamentally limit upstream transmission performance. A centralized light source OFDM-based PON architecture with source-free ONUs and OLTside coherent detection is then presented and experimentally verified to achieve 20 Gb/s/λ transmission over a class B+ optical distribution network (20 km SSMF with an additional 1:32 optical split.) By thus providing very high-speed, flexible, colorless upstream transmission, the proposed architecture is an attractive candidate for next-generation PON systems capable of cost-efficiently delivering heterogeneous services.