Next Generation Optical Broadband

Architectures and Components

Optical Broadband Working Group

Center for Integrated Photonic Systems

1
 Next Generation Optical Broadband
Architectures and Components
OBWG White Paper
July, 2006

Working Group Members

MIT BT Motorola JDSU

Randy Kirchain Ivan Boyd Dan Grossman Ed Murphy
Fred Leonberger Russell Davey Tim Burke
Rajeev Ram Dave Payne Ruo Li
Richard Roth Dave Faulkner
Tom Rand-Nash Ranulf Scarbrough

Nokia Telecom Italia Independent

Markku Tahkokorpi Paolo Solina Paul Green
Marco De Bartoli

Additional Contributors

Corning Novera Ovum

Bob Whitman Byong Yoon Kim Karen Lui

2
 Executive Summary

This white paper introduces the key challenges facing hardware for next-
generation optical broadband access systems, an area also referred to as FTTx -
fiber to the “x”, where x might mean “home”, “premises”, “curb”, “node” or,
in general, any situation where there is at most one optical/electronic
conversion between central office and subscriber premises. The emphasis is on
advanced network architectures and the component performance required to
support them. For each architecture, the status of key components is analyzed,
and important areas for future investigation are recommended.

Next-generation access networks must provide improved performance (ideally

including the capability of delivering gigabit service rates) while minimizing the
operational and capital costs associated with providing that service. They must
also be coordinated with management, operations, and economic cost trends
currently being experienced by communication providers. This white paper
considers two related architectures, the Long-reach Passive Optical Network
(LR-PON) and the WDM-PON, together with the associated hardware challenges.

The LR-PON component of this study is being driven by the pressures on the
world’s carriers to exploit the low attenuation and high capacity offered by
optical fiber in order to mitigate the operational expenditures tied to backhaul
and the maintenance of many central offices. Wavelength division passive
optical networks (WDM-PONs), which are distinct from the purely time-domain
multiplexing (TDM) and time-domain multiple access employed in today’s PON
offer the prospect of not only providing headroom for growth (due to fiber’s
enormous capacity if WDM is used), but also the avoidance of the system loss in
TDM PON due to the required power splitters. The baseline architectures that
these next-generation directions will be compared to are the GPON standard
defined by FSAN, and the Ethernet-based EPON defined by IEEE 802.3, and
possible extensions of those standards.

LR-PON is designed to lower the cost per customer by focusing on the

termination of the access traffic deeper into the metropolitan area transport
network. This includes eliminating the capital cost associated with termination
equipment as well as reducing the operating cost for central offices by
replacing many of them with amplifier/splitter cabinets. In the proposed
LRPON, the goal is to provide 10 Gbps over 100 km with up to a 1000-way
multistage split. Clearly, large splits are required to serve the greater number
of customers accessible by the longer reach. For a TDM LR-PON, the larger split
also requires an increase in the bit rates. To date, there are no field trials of
LR-PON networks, but there have been laboratory demonstrations of their
technical feasibility.

The most important component innovations that could empower LR-PON are:

3
 (1) Electronics and photonics to support the wider dynamic range (due
to longer reach) at10 Gbps. This innovation could be development
of 10 Gbps burst-mode electronics in the OLT receiver (for
automatic gain control) oroptical power leveling (such as
integrated variable optical attenuators). The entire burst-mode
part of the PON architecture will need to be reexamined
quantitatively, since the increases of both the travel time and
number of subscribers to be addressed per PON will be much
larger for LR-PON than is the case for today’s PONs.
(2) Amplification to compensate for the large splitting ratio. This
could be low-cost, burst mode-compatible EDFA technology
which, since it would utilize the 1550 nm band currently used for
video overlay, would require execution of existing plans for
transition from video overlay to IPTV. An alternative technology
that would be compatible with analog video overlay is the
development of lownoise, high-power semiconductor optical
amplifier (SOA) technology at 1300 nm and 1490 nm.

WDM-PON is designed to lower cost by increasing the aggregate capacity of the

fiber distribution plant with better overall link power budgets than traditional
TDM at the same service rate. Today’s TDM-based PONs incur a link power-
budget penalty due to the passive splitters that dominates other losses. WDM-
PON allows, at least in the laboratory, sustained service rates as high as 1 Gb/s
per user employing existing components. The key challenges are in managing
the inventory of ONUs for the various receive wavelengths and the lack of
bandwidth sharing, which could be a significant barrier to efficient utilization
of the network given the bursty nature of access traffic. On the other hand,
considering the enormous bandwidth available together with the possible need
to service different protocols on different wavelengths, it is offers a potentially
attractive alternative to the time-slicing approaches of today’s PONs.

Good progress has been made in developing fieldable and affordable WDM-PON
systems, and successful trials at 100 Mbps have been completed in Korea. The
most important component innovations that could further empower WDM-PON
are:
(1) Cost-effective colorless ONUs that would eliminate the inventory
management problem. The existing approaches include injection
locking and reflective SOAs. The SNR ratio of both approaches
must be proven at 1 Gb/s service rates over distances greater
than 20 km.
(2) Low-cost athermal arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) in the
distribution plant. The cost of AWGs today is approximately
$50/port - this is three times the cost of a power splitter.

The number of users supported per feeder fiber must be dramatically increased
in order for the per customer cost of transport and backhaul to be competitive.

4
This can be either through dramatic increases in the number of wavelengths
per fiber or through hybrid WDM/TDM.

Based on the analyses of WDM and LR PON systems in this white paper, two
areas for future investigation are recommended:
• As presently understood, the above architectures explore two
orthogonal approaches to increasing the performance and reducing the
cost of access networks. From the preceding, it is clear that hybrid
systems employing a combination of WDM and advanced TDM have the
potential for addressing all perceivable performance and cost goals,
while mitigating some of the risk associated with unproven component
technology. By focusing on the above two architectures we hope to
initiate a discussion on the optimal mix of WDM and TDM. Hybrid
architectures also exploit the enhanced power budget of WDM systems
while addressing the network cost savings of LRPON systems. Related
issues should be addressed such as realizable strategies to transition
from GPON to next-generation PONs, and methods of comparing system
approaches and estimating future system costs.

• The second area follows from the first and is component oriented: to
investigate in depth the key devices highlighted in this paper so as to
develop a detailed understanding of their present limitations and
possible approaches to overcome these limitations, and to accelerate
their network deployment. For both WDM-PON and LR-PON the long-term
potential of SOA technology might be critical. Unsurprisingly, LR-PON
places greater pressure on electronics (e.g., 10 Gb/s burst-mode
receivers) whereas WDM-PON demands low-cost colorless ONUs and
higher performance passive optical components (low cost, high port
count athermal AWGs).