Experimental Investigation of Bit and Power Loading in 10 Gbit/s Next Generation Optical OFDM Access Networks

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based passive optical networks (PON) is a possible candidate for next generation optical access (NGOA) where due to cost constraints most likely intensity modulation (IM) and direct detection (DD) will be used. In combination with the dispersive optical channel it will result in a frequency selective system if double sideband (DSB) instead of the commonly employed single sideband (SSB) modulation is used. We will show experimentally that using bit loading (BL) and power loading (PL) can obviate the need for an optical single sideband filter (SSBF) therefore reducing the hardware expense in the cost sensitive access network.