Demonstration of a symmetric 40 Gbit/s TWDM-PON over 40 km passive reach using 10 G burst-mode DML and EDC for upstream transmission [invited]

To meet the 2015 timeline, a hybrid time- and wavelength-division multiplexed passive optical network (TWDM-PON) has been selected as the pragmatic path toward the second stage of the next-generation PON (NG-PON2). High-end business users and mobile front-haul/back-haul for next-generation wireless systems that highly rely on symmetrical data rate services are believed to be the main deployment drivers for NG-PON2. In this paper, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, we demonstrate a symmetric 40 Gbit/s TWDM-PON system that fully complies with the up-to-date full service access network/International Telecommunication Union NG-PON2 migration path. There are two distinguishing features from previously reported systems. One is that four symmetric 10 Gbit/s wavelength pairs are supported at the final NG-PON2 wavelength plan [i.e., (C-/L+) band] over 40 km passive reach, and the other is that a burst-mode tunable directly modulated laser and burst-mode electronic dispersion compensation are demonstrated for 10 G upstream transmission instead of tunable external modulated lasers. The selection of the final NG-PON2 wavelength plan is first briefly reviewed. Then the key enabling technologies for our demonstrated TWDM-PON are analyzed and their technological choices, availability, and performances are further investigated. After illustrating the demonstrated system architecture and configuration, measurements and analysis are presented to prove the system feasibility and technical availability. In this demonstration, N1 and N2 optical distribution network (ODN) classes can be totally supported without amplifiers, whereas preamplification is needed to achieve El and E2 ODN classes. Both downstream and upstream optical parameters are summarized.