Towards Unified Channel Equalization to Meet Transmission Requirements for Next Generation Passive Optical Networks

In this paper, the challenges of next generation passive optical networks are identified, and a promising solution to mitigate them is proposed using a unified/fixed weights of channel equalization. Possible layouts of existing and future networks employ different values of data rate, wavelength range, laser chirp, and fiber length. Therefore, adaptive equalizer weights are used in order to compensate the effects of those requirements, but at the cost of increased complexity and time constraints. The originality of this paper is in utilizing a single impulse response of the equalizer through fixed weights to satisfy any network configuration and to highly simplify signal processing operations. The simulated and experimental results are in very good agreement in which bit-error-rate of 10(-2) is obtained at -27 dBm received optical power using 20 km fiber length.