Upstream access and local area networking in passive optical networks with a single reflective semiconductor optical amplifier

Abstract

We propose and experimentally demonstrate three novel schemes for upstream access and local area network emulation among customers in a passive optical network using a single reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) placed at the customer premises. The first scheme uses the broadband amplified spontaneous emission spectra of the RSOA for the transport of the local area network traffic among the customers, while the second scheme uses the optical carriers delivered to each optical network unit from the central office for the wavelength seeding of the RSOA to facilitate the transport of the local area network traffic. The third scheme describes the self-seeding process of the RSOA with the use of fiber Bragg gratings placed at the optical network unit to facilitate the upstream access and local area network traffic. These schemes for optical layer local area networking among the customers are experimentally demonstrated with more than 2Gbits/s downstream data, 1Gbit/s upstream access traffic, and 1Gbit/s local area network traffic. Moreover, the results of the experiments of all three schemes are compared further and discussed in terms of bandwidth of the local area network traffic, seeding optical power into the reflective semiconductor optical amplifier, and power budget.