Coarsely sliced spectrum wavelength division multiplexing-passive optical networking for remote monitoring systems

We report the demonstration of the uplink of a low-cost passive optical network (PON), utilizing a superluminescent light emitting diode (SLED) as a broadband light source, a coarse wavelength division multiplexer (CWDM) to slice the spectrum into standard CWDM channels, and a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) as modulator and amplifier at the remote site. We demonstrate 2.5-Gbps transmission over 1 km of single-mode fiber for all four channels of the CWDM link (1511, 1531, 1551, and 1571 nm), with the bit rate error (BER) of the system measured to be below 10(-12). The main applications for this communication system are remote monitoring systems. (C) 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. [DOI: 10.1117/1.3454375]