Fully converged optical, millimetre-wave wireless and cable provision in OFDM-PON FTTH networks

Abstract

This paper reports latest research results demonstrating experimentally the feasibility of the converged provision of optical access, cable and millimetre-wave wireless services fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks with a unique technological solution. Transmitting orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulated signals in FTTH networks permits multi-Gb/s seamless service provision with a unique optical network infrastructure. The use of radio-over-fibre transmission of OFDM signals eliminates the need for re modulation of data format conversion when converged services are distributed. The experimental results demonstrate multi-Gb/s optical access in an OFDM passive optical network (PON) with successful integration of the optical access network and in-building optical and electrical distribution employing bend-insensitive single-mode fibre (BI-SMF) and conventional coaxial cabling (75 Ω) respectively. An ad-hoc OFDM signal providing Gigabit-Ethernet (GbE) connectivity can be distributed in FTTH in coexistence with other standard OFDM wireless services such as terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T). In this case, the DVB-T signal can be extracted from the FTTH access optical network and distributed through the legacy coaxial network available in the building, if present. As an additional feature, the proposed approach permits power-over-coaxial distribution. This allows commercial-available low-power DVB-T receivers and USB 3.0 devices to be charged directly from the coaxial cabling outlets. The performance of the DVB-T signals transmitted in coexistence has been evaluated in a FTTH PON demonstrating proper operation. The experimental results confirm negligible degradation on the received signal and successful DVB-T video broadcasting over FTTH networks in radio-over-fibre supporting joint optical in-home distribution and electrical coaxial cabling distribution. Finally, OFDM signals transmitted in the optical access are demonstrated to be adequate for photonic generation of electrical 19.1 Gb/s OFDM-modulated millimetre-wave wireless signals in the 75 - 110 GHz band. Wireless transmission of 16-QAM-OFDM signals is demonstrated with a BER performance within the forward error correction limits.