Beneficial OLT transmitter and receiver concepts for NG-PON2 using semiconductor optical amplifiers [invited]

Optical line termination transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) concepts using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) for the next generation of passive optical networks (NG-PON2) are experimentally compared. In general, a single SOA per wavelength channel at the Tx and a configuration comprising a single SOA followed by avalanche photodiodes (APDs) at the Rx are beneficial in terms of signal quality and power dynamic range. Additionally, we introduce a cost-effective bidirectional SOA approach for simultaneous upstream preamplification and downstream boosting. Our results indicate its feasibility for mid-class loss budget classes of NG-PON2.