Comparison of cost- and energy-efficient signal modulations for next generation passive optical networks

Abstract

Extensive numerical investigations are undertaken to analyze and compare, for the first time, the performance, techno-economy, and power consumption of three-level electrical Duobinary, optical Duobinary, and PAM-4 modulation formats as candidates for high-speed next-generation PONs supporting downstream 40 Gb/s per wavelength signal transmission over standard SMFs in C-band. Optimization of transceiver bandwidths are undertaken to show the feasibility of utilizing low-cost and band-limited components to support next-generation PON transmissions. The effect of electro-absorption modulator chirp is examined for electrical Duobinary and PAM-4. Electrical Duobinary and optical Duobinary are power-efficient schemes for smaller transmission distances of 10 km SMFs and optical Duobinary offers the best receiver sensitivity albeit with a relatively high transceiver cost. PAM-4 shows the best power budget and cost-efficiency for larger distances of around 20 km, although it consumes more power. Electrical Duobinary shows the best trade-off between performance, cost and power dissipation.

First demonstration of real-time end-to-end 40 Gb/s PAM-4 system using 10-G transmitter for next generation access applications

“…However, further increase in dispersion will cause strong signal distortion [ Fig.3 (d)]. It also agrees with numerical simulation results 6 . The pre-amplified receiver sensitivity at a BER of 10 -3 is about -24 dBm (-22 dBm) for 10 km (20 km) SMF, which results in a total link budget of 34 dB (32 dB).…”

Multi-band CAP for Next-Generation Optical Access Networks Using 10-G Optics

“…On one hand, the optical transmitter takes the majority cost of the overall transceiver cost and the cost is approximately proportionally depends on the bandwidth [13]. On the other hand, the low-cost optical transceiver is one of the major limiting factors determining the achievable performance.…”

“…This is critcal for cost and power saving from operators' point of view. At high bit rates of 40 Gb/s/λ, however, the above-mentioned single carrier schemes with simple linear or nonlinear equalizations [10,11,13,14] are difficult to support transmission beyond 20-km SMF with reasonably high optical link power budgets unless dedicated dispersion compensation fibers (DCFs) [8,9] are adopted. The use of DCFs increases system cost and insertion loss, reduces system flexibility and complicates link configuration.…”

DSP-Based 40 GB/s Lane Rate Next-Generation Access Networks

“…The more complex multi-band or multi-carrier schemes may find superior advantages in long-reach PONs [9]; however, here we focus on the maximum achievable performance for simple single carrier schemes. This work extends our previous work in [11,12] via contributing a fair performance comparison between all three schemes by considering symbol-spaced equalization, including both linear and nonlinear equalizers. A low complex maximum likelihood estimation equalization has also been considered for the first time.…”

“…Comparatively, both electrical Duobinary and PAM-4 uses an EAM, which considers the chirp model based on experimental measurements [14] and behaves a negative chirp. The detailed modeling of EAM can be found in [11]. The model reveals an important relationship relating the carrier frequency deviations with the power variations through the time-dependent chirp-parameter for electro-absorption modulated lasers (EMLs).…”