Cost-Effective Spectrally-Efficient Optical Transceiver Architectures for Metropolitan and Regional Links

The work presented herein explores cost-effective optical transceiver architectures for access, metropolitan and regional links. The primary requirement in such links is cost-effectiveness and secondly, spectral efficiency. The bandwidth/data demand is driven by data-intensive Internet applications, such as cloud-based services and video-on-demand, and is rapidly increasing in access and metro links. Therefore, cost-effective optical transceiver architectures offering high information spectral densities (ISDs > 1(b/s)/Hz) need to be implemented over metropolitan distances. Then, a key question for each link length and application is whether coherent- or direct (non-coherent) detection technology offers the best cost and performance trade-off. The performance and complexity limits of both technologies have been studied. Single polarization direct detection transceivers have been reviewed, focusing on their achievable ISDs and reach. It is concluded that subcarrier modulation (SCM) technique combined with single sideband (SSB) and high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signaling, enabled by digital signal processing (DSP) based optical transceivers, must be implemented in order to exceed an ISD of 1 (b/s)/Hz in direct-detection links. The complexity can be shifted from the optical to the electrical domain using such transceivers, and hence, the cost can be minimized. In this regard, a detailed performance comparison of two spectrally-efficient direct detection SCM techniques, namely Nyquist-SCM and OFDM, is presented by means of simulations. It is found out that Nyquist-SCM format offers the transmission distances more than double that of OFDM due to its higher resilience to signal-signal beating interference. Following this, dispersion-precompensated SSB 4- and 16-QAM Nyquist-SCM signal formats were experimentally demonstrated using in-phase and quadrature (IQ)-modulators at net optical ISDs of 1.2 and 2 (b/s)/Hz over 800 km and 323 km of standard single-mode fibre (SSMF), respectively. These demonstrations represent record net optical ISDs over such distances among the reported single polarization wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems. Furthermore, since the cost-effectiveness is crucial, the optical complexity of Nyquist-SCM transmitters can be significantly reduced by using low-cost modulators and high-linewidth lasers. A comprehensive theoretical study on SSB signal generation using IQ- and dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulators (DD-MZMs) was carried out to assess their performance for WDM direct detection links. This was followed by an experimental demonstration of WDM transmission over 242 km of SSMF with a net optical ISD of 1.5 (b/s)/Hz, the highest achieved ISD using a DD-MZM-based transmitter. Following the assessment of direct detection technology using various transmitter designs, cost-effective simplified coherent receiver architectures for access and metro networks have been investigated. The optical complexity of the conventional (polarization- and phase-diverse) coherent receiver is significantly simplified, i.e., consisting of a single 3 dB coupler and balanced photodetector, utilizing heterodyne reception and Alamouti polarization-time block coding. Although the achievable net optical ISD is halved compared to a conventional coherent receiver due to Alamouti coding, its receiver sensitivity provides significant gain over a direct detection receiver at M-ary QAM formats where M ≥16

Polarization-insensitive single-balanced photodiode coherent receiver for long-reach WDM-PONs

In an access network based on a passive optical network architecture, coherent detection is attractive since it allows for high receiver sensitivity coupled with inherent frequency selectivity. Nevertheless, solutions employed in core networks are prohibitively complex and costly, requiring the optical complexity of the coherent receivers to be reduced to make them feasible for access networks. For monolithic integration, a key challenge is posed by the polarization beam splitter (PBS). If, however, the PBS is removed, the receiver needs to be redesigned to be insensitive to the incoming polarization state of the received signal. In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate a polarization-insensitive (i.e., polarization-independent) coherent receiver for the optical network unit in passive optical networks (PONs). The receiver consists of only a 3-dB coupler and a single-balanced photodiode such that the complexity is comparable to a direct detection receiver. The proposed cost-effective coherent receiver is implemented by using the Alamouti polarization-time block coding scheme combined with heterodyne detection. To verify the technique, the Alamouti-coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal is rotated over the full Poincaré sphere. Compared to the dual-polarization-OFDM signal operating at a net bit rate of 10 Gb/s per polarization (a gross bit rate of 10.7 Gb/s including a 7% FEC overhead), only a 0.6 dB sensitivity degradation is observed. The sensitivity at the FEC threshold, assumed to be 4 × 10-3, is measured to be -41.5 dBm (56 photons-per-bit) on a 25-GHz grid. Following this, different channel spacings are investigated and the signal is transmitted over 80 km of standard single-mode fiber in a long-reach wavelength division multiplexed PON system. The loss budgets are found to be 43.0 and 42.8 dB for 50- and 25-GHz grids, respectively

Bidirectional symmetric 8×10.7Gb/s WDM-PON over 108 km installed fiber using low complexity polarization-insensitive coherent ONUs

Polarization-time block-coded OFDM-QPSK downstream channels are robustly detected using a polarization-insensitive coherent receiver, consisting of only a 3dB coupler and single balanced PD. 8×10.7Gb/s channels are bidirectionally transmitted over 108 km installed fiber achieving a 1:16-way passive split

DSP for single-sideband direct-detection systems

We review signal-signal beat interference mitigation techniques for direct-detection systems. Simulation and experiments have been carried out for ≥ 100 Gb/s/λ WDM systems transmitting over up to 160 km single-span SSMF

Nyquist-WDM PDM-QPSK transmission over SMF-28 fibre using URFL amplification

Nyquist-WDM PDM-QPSK transmission over standard SMF-28 fibre with novel distributed URFL amplification is reported for the first time. Transmission over 6157 km in a recirculating loop, and 320 km in an unrepeatered link without a ROPA were demonstrated. © 2014 IEEE