A passive photonic loop architecture employing wavelength-division multiplexing

The authors present a fiber subscriber-loop architecture that uses multichannel wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) to eliminate outside-plant electronics while providing each subscriber with dedicated channels to and from the central office. The approach has a number of attractive features, such as reduced maintenance requirements at remote sites in the loop plant and enhanced flexibility in the provisioning of services. The authors report an experimental demonstration of the architecture utilizing LEDs (light-emitting diodes) and low-cost receivers for narrowband ISDN (integrated services digital network) transmission and DFB (distributed feedback) laser for broadband transmission (up to 1.2 Gb/s)