10 Gbit/s Burst-mode Receivers for Next Generation PONs

Currently, broadband networks use a combination of optical and electrical networks to provide broadband access to the customers. The core network is an optical fiber network, but for the access network the operators re-use the existing copper infrastructure. However, this copper section to the customer, called the ’last mile’, introduces a speed bottleneck between the high speed core network and the high-speed devices and local area networks within the customer’s premises. Offering broadband access to the customer over optical fiber would enable the wide-spread use of new applications like HDTV, IPTV, videoconferencing, etc. Nextgeneration PONs would offer 10 Gbit/s both upstream and downstream which is an enormous increase in bit rate compared to the currently provided broadband services. The first burst-mode receiver (BM-Rx) presented here was designed for the PIEMAN (Photonic Integrated Extended Metro and Access Network) project [1]. This optical fiber system aims to deliver access bandwidths of up to 10 Gbit/s upstream and downstream to individual customers. At the same time it integrates access and metro networks into one system, thereby greatly simplifying the network architecture and management, and so significantly reducing the cost to deliver future broadband services to residential and SME customers. Another approach for next generation PON’s —————————————————– T. De Ridder, X.-Z. Qiu and J. Vandewege are with the department of Information Technology, Ghent University (UGent), Ghent, Belgium. E-mail: [email protected] . is to use avalanche photodiodes (APD). This is researched in IST project MARISE [2]. Within this project, INTEC is responsible for the design of a burst-mode transimpedance amplifier (TIA) with very high sensitivity and very large dynamic range.