A carrier-reuse WDM-PON architecture with multicast/broadcast capability

We propose a novel scheme to realize multicast based on our previously reported carrier-reuse WDM-PON architecture. The subcarriers are employed to transmit the downlink point-to-point (unicast) data, whereas the carriers of the downlink subcarrier modulated lights are reused by the reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers at each optical network unit for uplink transmission. An additional multicast/broadcast channel is multiplexed with the unicast downlink channels. Utilizing splitting capability of the power splitter and the cyclic property of the arrayed waveguide grating at the remote node, the multicast/broadcast channel and a dedicated downlink unicast channel are transmitted to each optical network unit simultaneously. Simulation results show that this scheme could work very well in WDM-PONs, with one 10 Gb/s multicast/broadcast channel, and thirty-two 10 Gb/s downlink unicast channels, and thirty-two 2.5 Gb/s uplink unicast channels.