Demonstration of a 10 Gbit/s Long Reach Wavelength Converting Optical Access Network

This paper demonstrates a 10 Gbit/s wavelength converting access network utilising a centralised optical processing unit that consolidates multiple low cost PONs onto a DWDM backhaul. The centralised processing unit functions as an amplifier, wavelength converter, pre-chirping stage and optical burst equaliser to map legacy PONs onto a DWDM grid for efficient backhaul transmission and to ease the dynamic range requirement of the 10 Gbit/s burst-mode receiver at the optical line termination (OLT). The dispersion limited performance, wavelength tolerance, and burst-mode dynamic range are evaluated demonstrating a maximum range of 62 km for 20 nm of input wavelength variation and a dynamic range of up to 22 dB.