Cost-Effective 50-Gb/s PAM-4 Passive Optical Network Operating at C-Band Implemented by Using 2-bit DAC and FFE

We experimentally demonstrate a cost-effective 50-Gb/s passive optical network operating at C-band. It utilizes a 2-bit digital-to-analog converter at the transmitter and a feed-forward equalizer at the receiver. A fixed amount of electronic and optical pre-equalization is employed to compensate in part for the dispersion-induced distortions.