The current generation of commercial WDM-PON systems based on reflective ONU technology is optimized for applications up to 20 km, 40 channels, and 1 Gbps per customer. Current research focuses on how to scale WDM-PON toward higher bit rates and longer reach. Forward error correction is a key technology for scaling the current generation of WDM-PON technology to higher bit rates, longer reach, tighter channel spacing, or a combination thereof. An important challenge is to package the technology in an MSA form-factor pluggable module to maintain its benefits in cost and compatibility with third-party equipment.

A typical requirement for next generation metro/access systems is to enable node consolidation. That means operators can reduce opex by closing down portions of their central offices; at the same time, this goal requires the optical signals to bridge longer distances than what is typical of the access networks of today. Thus, when routing WDM-PON signals through the metro part of the network, it becomes necessary to support ring architectures as an alternative to the basic tree structure.

In a ring structure, cascaded filters may decrease the effective channel passband. Since the spectral width of the WDM-PON signal is wider than the signals from a normal DFB source, such filtering effects may affect transmission.

In a recent evaluation project, a partnership between Transmode and Deutsche Telekom Hochschule für Telekommunikation of Leipzig, Germany, achieved 140-km long reach WDM-PON transmission over a ring-based access-network architecture. The partnership investigated the effects of using WDM-PON based on ASE-seeded wavelength-locked transmitters in a ring-based network architecture with cascaded OADM nodes. Transmission at 1.25 Gbps over 140-km singlemode fiber was demonstrated using an EDFA and dispersion compensation.

The results were first published at ECOC 2013 (In de Betou, Bunge, Åhlfeldt, and Olson, "140km Long-reach WDM-PON Test for Ring-based Access Network Architecture"). This partnership has investigated what opportunities could be provided by WDM-PON technology in such network topologies by studying experimentally the influence of narrow filtering and maximum reach.

The experimental testbed (in Leipzig) was built around Transmode's TM-Series iWDM-PON system to create an optical line terminal (OLT) (see Figure 2). The OLT has a transponder line card that hosts pluggable wavelength-locked Fabry-Perot transceivers, ASE seed light sources, dual circulators for up- and downstream, and a 40-channel multiplexer based on an AWG.

To reach distances beyond 100 km, amplifiers, dispersion compensation, and remote ASE seed sources were used. While an experimental field trial today, it shows that WDM-PON may well continue to evolve to support longer reach and more sophisticated network architectures in the future supporting a broader range of deployment scenarios.