Semiconductor optical amplifiers in future passive optical networks

Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) offer cost effective components for deployment in next generation passive optical networks (PONs). This paper summarises the potential for SOAs in future PON evolutions.

I. Introduction

There has been a sharp increase in demand for high speed access services [1] with passive optical networks (PONs) offering a route to accommodating this level of growth economically [2] [3] [4]. While the current standard specifies a specific margin, PONs exhibiting improved system margins are crucial since they provide increased reach and/or enhanced splitting ratios. This evolution necessitates the use of amplification and given these systems use 1490nm downstream and 1310nm upstream, semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) have a clear role to play. Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers (RSOAs) are also relevant to future PONs architectures providing a colourless amplifier obviating the need for tuneable of fixed laser sources at the customer premises. The RSOA can be seeded with a single continuous wave source shared among a number of users and can simultaneously amplify and modulate that seed to support a WDM overlay on the PON in a wavelength agnostic manner.