Amplified subcarrier multiplexed Passive Optical Network using a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

A Passive Optical Network is a solution that provides a large bandwidth economically in an access network and Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (SOA) can potentially extend the reach and scalability of such network further whilst satisfying important requirements including transparency, symmetrical bandwidth and ease of system upgrading. It is investigated in this paper the use of a traveling wave SOA in a distributed network employing subcarrier multiplexed signals of two QPSK data streams, individually at 1 Gb/s. The system demonstrates error free amplification for a subcarrier frequency of 3.7 GHz. Results show that the system performance is limited by SOA output power and indicate that the SOA can be used as a pre- or inline- amplifier where its optimal gain of approximately 20 dB can be utilized.