Digital filter multiple access PONs with DSP-enabled software reconfigurability

• Published in: Journal of optical communications and networking Vol. 7; no. 4; pp. 215 - 222
• Main Authors: Bolea, M., Giddings, R. P., Bouich, M., Aupetit-Berthelemot, C., Tang, J. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway Optica Publishing Group 01-04-2015; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE); Piscataway, NJ ; Washington, DC : IEEE : Optical Society of America
• Subjects: Digital; Digital filters; Digital orthogonal filtering; Digital signal processing; Digital signal processing (DSP); Engineering Sciences; Fiber optic networks; Filtering; Filtration; Multiple access; Multiplexing; Optical communication; Optical fiber filters; Optical network units; Optics; Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM); Passive optical networks; Passive optical networks (PONs); Photonic; Software-defined networking (SDN); Upstream
• ISSN: 1943-0620; 1943-0639
• DOI: 10.1364/JOCN.7.000215

Digital filter multiple access (DFMA) passive optical networks (PONs) are, for the first time to our knowledge, proposed and extensively investigated, where digital signal processing (DSP)-enabled, software-reconfigurable, digital orthogonal filtering is employed in each individual optical network unit (ONU) and the optical line terminal to enable all ONUs to dynamically share the transmission medium under the control of the centralized software-defined controller and the transceiver-embedded DSP controllers. The DFMA PONs fully support software-defined networking with the network control further extended to the physical layer. As digital filtering is the fundamental process at the heart of the proposed DFMA PONs, the filtering-induced tradeoffs among upstream transmission capacity, filter design flexibility, and filter DSP complexity are examined, based on which optimum filter design guidelines are identified for various application scenarios. Furthermore, the performance characteristics of the DFMA PONs are also numerically explored in terms of maximum achievable upstream transmission capacity, differential ONU launch power dynamic range, and ONU count-dependent minimum received optical power.