WDM PONs based on colorless technology

• WDM PONs will be introduced with applications in business and mobile fronthaul segments.
• Fixed wavelength technologies will first be deployed such as CWDM dual fiber and CWDM single fiber.
• When higher density of ports will be required, colorless technologies will be essential.
• A WDM PON system based on self-seeded RSOAs is experimented with CPRI3 links.
• Good performances demonstrated with long reach and coexistence with legacy PONs.

Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) Passive Optical Network (PON) is foreseen to be part of the Next Generation Passive Optical Networks. Business and mobile fronthaul networks already express the need to develop WDM PONs in the access segment. Fixed wavelength transceivers based on Coarse WDM are already available to respond to today’s market needs but Dense WDM technologies will be needed and colorless technologies are essential to provide simple and cost-effective WDM PON systems. We propose in this paper to demonstrate the capabilities of a DWDM PON system prototype based on self-seeded RSOAs and designed to transmit CPRI over 60 km of fiber at 2.5 Gbit/s.