Real-Time 10 Gbps Polarization Independent Quasicoherent Receiver for NG-PON2 Access Networks

In this paper, we propose and test experimentally a real-time 10 Gbps polarization independent quasicoherent receiver for NG-PON2 access networks. The proposed 10 Gbps quasicoherent receiver exhibits a sensitivity of -35.2 dBm after 40 km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) transmission with a commercial generic EML as transmitter. This sensitivity means a 14.9 dB improvement over a direct detection scheme with a photodiode after 40 km SSMF transmission. Therefore, the use of the proposed 10 Gbps quasicoherent receiver with the tested EML will provide a power budget of 35.64 dB (class E2) and a splitting ratio of 128 after the 40 km SSMF transmission. Finally, the proposed 10 Gbps quasicoherent receiver allows a colorless and optical filterless operation because wavelength selection is done by tuning the local oscillator wavelength and using electrical intermediate frequency filtering.