Field trial of multichannel EPON reach extenders employing tunable lasers based on polymer waveguides

We report the recent field trial of a DWDM-type 20-channel EPON reach extender. Combining O-E-O regeneration with colorless DWDM technology employing tunable lasers based on polymer waveguides, we were able to multiplex 20 EPON bidirectional optical signals into a single fiber and transport them over 50km without affecting any existing EPON equipments. We successfully installed its prototype in a KT's central office at Busan, Korea for a field trial to investigate the feasibility of metro-access network consolidation.