PBS-Free Polarization-Independent PON Coherent Receiver

We introduce a coherent receiver that, without DSP and/or polarization coding at the transmitter, requires no Polarization Beam Splitter and still is polarization-independent. It is experimentally demonstrated at 10 Gbit/s with a sensitivity of -37.6 dBm at FEC level. It can also be operated at higher bit-rates and finds application in high-speed access and datacenter networks.