A Low-Cost Light Source for WDM-PONs with Shared High Power Fiber Lasers

Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) provides a future approach to upgrade existing power splitting passive optical networks (PONs). In this paper, three options of low- cost optical network units (ONUs), namely spectrum-slicing, injection-wavelength-locking, and loop-back architectures are introduced, and a novel light source based on shared high power fiber lasers is proposed. A brief analysis from the perspective of power budget shows a single fiber laser with the output of several watts can be shared by several thousands of ONUs, and the cost for WDM light sources can be greatly reduced.