Flexible TWDM PON with WDM overlay for converged services

摘要

This paper reviews recent developments of flexible TWDM PON (time-and wavelength-division multiplexed passive optical network) with pluggable transceivers for pay-as-you-grow deployment, load balancing, channel protection and power saving. Different architectures for TWDM PON with WDM (wavelength division multiplexed) overlay for converged broadband services are discussed and experimental results are presented for WDM overlay using low-cost self-seeded RSOA (reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers). Challenging issues and possible solutions for future evolution toward software defined flexible PONs (FlexPONs) are also discussed with respect to dynamic lambda flow, elastic bandwidth and flexible reach. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.