Optical Switching and Networking 10 (2013) 100–105

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Optical Switching and Networking

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/osn

A novel colorless WDM passive optical network delivering

up/downstream signals and video broadcast signal simultaneously
Xuejiao Ma, Chaoqin Gan n, Shiqi Deng
Shanghai University, Key Laboratory of Specialty Fiber Optics and Optical Access, No. 149, Yanchang Road, Shanghai 200072, China

a r t i c l e in f o abstract

Available online 23 August 2012 A colorless wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network delivering up/
Keywords: downstream signals and video broadcast signal (VBS) simultaneously is presented in
Wavelength division multiplexing passive this paper. In this scheme, subcarrier modulation technique is adopted at the optical
optical network line terminal. Here un-modulated double-sideband subcarriers and optical carriers
Subcarrier modulation operating in different wavelength bands are used for downstream and video broadcast
Differential-phase-shift-keying signal transmission, respectively. The use of differential-phase-shift-keying (DPSK)
Re-modulation modulation for downstream transmission enables effective upstream transmission
by direct re-modulation. The simulation results demonstrated with 2.5-Gb/s
up/downstream signals and video broadcasting signal show this approach could work
very well.
& 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction deliver the multicast data while the differential-phase-

A rapid growth for huge bandwidth demanding ser-
vices such as high-definition television (HDTV) is begin-
ning to drive the development of broadband access
network. The wavelength division multiplexed passive
optical network (WDM-PON) is regarded as one of the
most promising access network architecture in the future.
Compared with the TDM-PON, WDM-PON is not suitable
for the delivery of video-broadcast service intrinsically.
The TDM-PON (EPON) broadcasts the downstream to all
the subscribers employing the optical splitter while the
WDM-PON is operated in P2P (point to point) model (each
subscriber receives its dedicated wavelength by AWG,
respectively). However, lots of advanced techniques have
been presented to overcome this issue such as subcarrier
multiplexing (SCM) technique [1,2] or orthogonal mod-
ulation format approach [3,4]. In the scheme described in
[2], the optical carriers in all WDM channels are used to
n downlink. At first, multi-frequency lasers (MFLs) located in
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ 86 21 56332344.
E-mail address: cqgan@shu.edu.cn (C. Gan).
shift-keying (DPSK) subcarrier signal is used to transmit
downstream data and its part is re-modulated as the
upstream source. However, the bit-rates demonstrated
are not high. In the approach [4], at the optical line
terminal (OLT), each wavelength power is split into two
parts. One part is used for the downstream transmission,
while the other part is wavelength-multiplexed first and
then modulated by video broadcast signal in DPSK format.
This scheme realizes the wavelength reuse, but increases
the complexity of remote note (RN).
Besides the above discussed problem, the crosstalk is
also discussed in [5]. Especially on the RSOA based uplink
re-modulation system, the crosstalk can be blamed for the
performance degradation. In this paper, we propose a novel
approach: it cannot only be capable of delivering video
broadcast services, but also solve the problem of wavelength
crosstalk by designing the PON structure. The proposed PON
structure deploys different wavelength bands for the down-
link and the uplink, respectively. Namely, the seed wave-
length for the uplink re-modulation is different from that of
two separated wavelength bands are employed as optical

1573-4277/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.osn.2012.08.001
 X. Ma et al. / Optical Switching and Networking 10 (2013) 100–105
sources for both the downstream and video broadcast
transmission via utilizing SCM technology. Then, by cou-
pling optical carriers and double-side band (DSB) subcar-
riers operating in different wavelength bands, downstream
and video broadcast signals in two different wavelength
bands are transmitted in the same fiber link. So compared
with some methods [1,6], the crosstalk between down-
stream signal and broadcast video signal could be elimi-
nated. Besides, there is no special limitation of the optical
carrier-to-subcarrier ratio (OCSR) of the SCM signal. What’s
more, compared with our previous work [7], wavelength-
dependent narrow optical filter or interleaver is not
required at the optical network unit (ONU). The ONU could
be colorless and cost-effective. Furthermore, the upstream
transmission is realized by re-modulating optical wave-
length with DPSK video broadcast signal. As a result, these
colorless solutions not only lower ONU cost but also
improve the system performance. Lastly, we demonstrate
the architecture can work very well with 2.5 Gb/s down-
stream signal on DSB subcarriers of 193.1 THz; video broad-
cast signal on optical carrier of 193.9 THz and upstream
signal by directly re-modulating the broadcast services.
2. Principle of operation
Fig. 1 shows the proposed WDM-PON architecture. Two
MFLs of two separated wavelength bands are applied at the
OLT. Here we take the examples of Blue and Red bands as
shown in Fig. 2(a). The frequency spacing between Blue
and Red bands is integer multiples of the arrayed wave-
guide grating’s (AWG’s) free spectral range (FSR). Multiple
wavelengths in the two bands are directly used to generate
multiple SCM signals just as illustrated in Fig. 2(b).
Fig. 1. Schematic configuration of the proposed WDM-PON.
101
Subsequently, N un-modulated SCM signals at both bands
pass through an interleaver filter (IF) to separate optical
carriers and the double-side band (DSB) subcarriers,
respectively. All the DSB subcarriers (Blue and Red bands)
are de-multiplexed by arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs)
and used as optical sources for multiple-wavelength down-
stream transmission while the entire optical carriers (blue
and Red bands) are DPSK modulated together for video
broadcast signal transmission.
For the upper fiber path, the multiplexed Blue-band
downstream signals are combined with the Red-band
video broadcast signals to pass the upper single mode
fiber (SMF). For the lower fiber path, the multiplexed Red-
band downstream signals are coupled with the Blue-band
video broadcast signals to pass through the lower SMF.
Fig. 2(c) and (d) show the wavelength schematic diagram
for the upper and lower link, respectively. The RN only
includes two cyclic AWGs. In each ONU, a circulator
routes the coupled signal to a coarse wavelength division
multiplexing (CWDM) filter. The filter is used to separate
the downstream and video broadcast signal operating at
two different wavelength bands. Then the downstream
signal is directed into a conventional receiver while the
video signal power is split into two parts by a 3 dB
splitter. One portion is demodulated by a DPSK receiver
and the other portion is utilized to provide the seeding
source for re-modulating the upstream on-off keying
(OOK) signal, which saves the cost of a wavelength-
specific laser and realizes colorless at each ONU. It can
be noticed that two sets of fibers and more AWGs are
employed at OLT and RN to enhance the system perfor-
mance realizing broadcasting services. So, compared with
traditional PON architecture, the cost is increased. But,
102 X. Ma et al. / Optical Switching and Networking 10 (2013) 100–105

Fig. 2. Wavelength assignment plan of the proposed WDM-PON. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 3. Spectra for downlink and uplink. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this
article.)

actually, the feeder fibers are in pairs when deployed in
optical cables. To a pair of fibers, they work for uplink and
downlink, respectively. In our structure, the single fiber is
working in the method of bidirectional transmission. So,
we can fully exploit the pairs of feeder fibers resources to
improve the structure performance by crosstalk-free
transmission between OUNs and the OLT. And for AWGs,
usage of them will increase the cost of system to some
extent, But these costs of the RN is shared by all the
relative subscribers, which means if there are enough
users linked to the RN, for each subscriber, there is little
increase in cost. Generally speaking, the cost-efficient is
more emphasized in the side of ONUs. When we realize
the colorless ONU, we call the structure more cost-
efficient.
3. Simulation analysis
To demonstrate the transmission performance of the
system, at the OLT, two distributed feedback lasers (DFB)
operating at 193.1 THz (Blue band) and 193.9 THz (Red
band) are used to simulate the bidirectional transmission.
The output power of each laser is set to be 0 dB/m. Here,
both the Mach–Zehnder Modulators (MZMs) are driven
by a 10 GHz sinusoidal clock and the sinusoidal clock does
not mix with any data stream. Then, the IF with a free
space range (FSR) of 20 GHz is employed to separate the
optical carrier and the adjacent subcarriers. Fig. 3(a)
shows the spectra of optical signal after MZM. For
Fig. 3(b), the optical carrier of 193.9 THz (in Red band)
is modulated by phase modulators (PM) for 2.5 Gb/s video
 X. Ma et al. / Optical Switching and Networking 10 (2013) 100–105 103

broadcasting signal transmission and the upstream
employs the same spectra as broadcasting services due
to the re-modulation by RSOA. The two PMs are driven by
the same DPSK video broadcast signal. For Fig. 3(c), the
separated subcarriers from 193.10 THz (in Blue band) at
each wavelength (193.09 THz and 193.11 THz) are modu-
lated via an amplitude modulator (AM) driven at 2.5 Gb/s
non-return to zero (NRZ) Subsequently, the modulated
downstream signal and video broadcast signal operating
at different wavelength bands are coupled together and
sent into SMF feeders (20 km) with a chromatic disper-
sion 16 ps/nm/km. The launched power per channel for
downstream signal and video broadcast signal is  8.7 dB/
m and  5.7 dB/m before these signals are fed into fiber.
At the ONU, an AM driven by a 2.5 Gb/s NRZ 29  1
pseudorandom binary sequence (PRBS) is used for
upstream re-modulation. If a longer PRBS is adapted,
there are no significant changes of the system perfor-
mance. The difference is demonstrated in Fig. 4. The gain
of the EDFA is approximately to be 10 dB. After passing
through the AWG and SMF, the upstream OOK signal is
detected by a conventional receiver. According to the
reference [8], the output power of EDFA is greater than
that of SOA while the gain of SOA is more than that of
RSOA. To the EDFA and the SOA, the noise figures are less
than 6 dB and 8 dB, respectively. Generally, the band-
width of SOA is larger than that of EDFA. But, in the
proposed scheme, the EDFA can satisfy the requirement of
signal wavelength of 193.1 THz (Blue band) and
193.9 THz (Red band). So, in optical access network

Fig. 4. Demonstration of different PRBS. (a) PRBS: 210  1, (b) PRBS: 29  1.

Fig. 5. BER curve and eye diagram of downstream signal.

104 X. Ma et al. / Optical Switching and Networking 10 (2013) 100–105

(short-distance transmission), the RSOA can be replaced
in the simulation.
Fig. 5 shows the measured BER and eye diagram of the
downstream signal. After the transmission over 20 km
SMF, the receiver sensitivity at the BER of 10  9 is
 25.3 dB/m. The power penalty caused by the fiber is
less than 0.1 dB. The total loss experienced by the down-
stream signal is around 10 dB. So the power margin for
the downstream signal is 6.6 dB.
Fig. 6 shows the BER results and eye pattern of the
video broadcast signal. The receiver sensitivity at 10  9
BER after transmission is  24.8 dB/m. Compared with the
back to back (BTB) case, there is no power penalty for the
video broadcast signal after 20 km SMF transmission. So

Fig. 6. BER curve and eye diagram of video broadcast signal.

Fig. 7. BER curve and eye diagram of upstream transmission.

 X. Ma et al. / Optical Switching and Networking 10 (2013) 100–105
the effect induced by fiber dispersion can be ignored in
the scenario. The measured power for the DPSK de-
modulation is around  18.9 dB/m, implying at least a
5.9 dB margin.
The BER curve for the upstream data is shown in Fig. 7.
The receiver sensitivity at BER of 10  9 is  20.7 dB/m
while that is about  21.2 dB/m in the case of BTB. The
performance degrades around 0.5 dB. Such a penalty
attributed to dispersion and Rayleigh backscattering indi-
cates little effect on upstream transmission. Since the
chromatic dispersion in the feeder fiber can induce a
partial phase-to-intensity conversion [9], the seeding
source used for re-modulation is not pure continuous
wave (CW). When a CW seed light is used for upstream
re-modulation, the receiver sensitivity at a BER¼ 10  9 is
21 dB/m after 20 km transmission. Compared with the
DPSK seeding light, the power penalty decreased 0.3 dB.
In addition, considering  8.3 dB/m output power of an
EDFA and a total loss of 9 dB (4 dB from 20 km fiber, 1 dB
from two circulators, and 4 dB from the AWG), a 3.4 dB
power margin is obtained. Clearly, the power budget is
enough for the proposed architecture.
4. Conclusion
We have demonstrated a novel architecture to provide
both point to point service and video-broadcast service. It
has a colorless structure by utilizing optical carriers and
DSB subcarriers operating at two separated wavelength
bands in one transmission fiber link. In addition, the use
of DPSK modulation improves re-modulation efficiency.
Finally, we obtain good transmission performance of
2.5 Gb/s down/upstream and broadcast transmission.
105
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by NSFC (No.61132004),
Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project and
STCSM/S30108 and 08DZ2231100).
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