High-capacity access networks based on hybrid all-optical OFDM PON

An innovative architecture for access PONs is proposed to exploit the capabilities of coherent OFDM in terms of efficient use of the spectrum and fine granularity in flexible resource sharing, but maintaining simple implementation. The solution is based on the reliance on electronic DSP for the generation of the OFDM-modulated subcarriers at the transmitter and on the FFT implementation at the remote node by means of an all-optical and passive element (for example a suitable AWG) in order to demultiplex the OFDM subcarriers. By means of simulations we demonstrate the achievable performance taking into account the constraints due to the use of realistic devices and components. Different architectures realized by the proposed hybrid scheme are shown, both to demonstrate the compliance with usual PONs based other multiplexing techniques and to guarantee also unbundling operation.