Characterization of phase modulated non-return-to-zero (PM-NRZ) format for DWDM long reach PONs

A technique which has been shown to be effective to mitigate the Rayleigh backscattering (RB) noise and potentially suited for use in the carrier distributed passive optical networks (PONs), uses a phase modulator (PM) at the reflective optical networking unit (RONU) to reshape the spectrum of the upstream non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signal, named PM-NRZ. Since the PM-NRZ signal has a much wider spectrum than the conventional NRZ signal, it would be very interesting to know its performance when applied to the multiple channels, or dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) environment. Here, we, for the first time, show how close the neighboring channels can be located in the network by means of numerical simulations. We also provide solutions to reduce the crosstalk produced by neighboring PM-NRZ channels. Since in the WDM-PON system the distances between different ONUs and the head-end office vary, we also analyze the network performance when the powers of adjacent PM-NRZ signals change.