10-Gb/s/channel WDM PON using ultra-narrow spectrum-sliced incoherent light source

We present the use of an ultra-narrow spectrum-sliced incoherent light source for transmission of 10-Gb/s non-return-to-zero signals for wavelength-division-multiplexed passive optical networks. In this light source, a broadband amplified spontaneous emission noise is spectrum-sliced by an ultra-narrow filter and then fed to a gain-saturated semiconductor optical amplifier to suppress the excess intensity noise of the incoherent light. 10-Gb/s modulation is followed using a polarization-insensitive optical modulator. Thanks to the ultra-narrow linewidth of the source (~0.01 nm), not only is the 10-Gb/s incoherent signal successfully transmitted over 20-km standard single-mode fiber without any dispersion compensation, but also retains the noise suppression after passing through a 0.2-nm-bandwidth narrow optical filter. Two different line rates of 10.7 and 12.5 Gb/s are experimentally demonstrated, assuming 7% and 25% forward error correction, respectively. Also presented is the 10-Gb/s upstream transmission over a loopback configured network.