Symmetric Wavelength Reused Bidirectional RSOA
Based WDM-PON with NRZ Data in Downstream
and Upstream
Puza Roy Susmita Ghosh
Department of ECE Junior Project
Khulna University of Coordinator,
Engineering & Technology Technology Division,
Khulna, Bangladesh BRAC
puzaroyece@gmail.com Dhaka, Bangladesh
ghoshs341@gmail.com
Abstract— Wavelength Division Multiplexing-Passive
Optical Network (WDM-PON) is an optical network technology
that has significantly changed the carrier infrastructures. It
creates a wavelength-based logical point-to-point architecture
upon point-to-multipoint fiber connection by using multiplexing
and demultiplexing technology to ensure that the data signals
can be transmitted and received at the same time over a high
data rate. It also ensures higher bandwidth. In downstream,
differential phase shift keying (DPSK) data and non-return to
zero (NRZ) data have been used for different bit rates to
compare which one is better to use in downstream. In upstream,
Reflective Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (RSOA) has been
used as it uses remodulation technique.
Keywords—WDM-PON, DPSK, MZM, NRZ, RSOA,
Remodulation, Bandwidth, US, DS, SMF, Optical fiber
I. INTRODUCTION
A Passive Optical Network (PON) is a great technology
in the telecommunication sector used to administer fiber
communications which utilize one point to different multiple
point architecture, in which non powered fiber optical splitters
are used to permit one optical fiber to provide different
numbers of end-points. All PON systems have essentially the
same theoretical capacity at the optical level [1]. Therefore,
the IEEE standard 802.3av 10GE-PON has been determined
by a full service access network which keeps up the symmetric
10Gbps sufficiency in both downstream (DS) and upstream
(US) signal transmission [2]. Wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM) is a similar type of FDM (frequency
division multiplexing) technique where various wavelengths
of optical signals are merged, transmitted simultaneously in
multiple channels and divided again to recover the data with
slightly different wavelengths. The transmission capacities of
optical fibers can be extended so explosively that it increases
the efficiency of both the fibers as well as the main parts like
optical amplifiers. WDM breaks up the signals into various
color wavelengths and also it utilizes only one fiber while
transmitting the signal. These different signal wavelengths
specify that contrasting quantities of data are being
transmitted at once which shows an extension in capacity and
enables bidirectional connection over any single fiber optical
link. WDM technology is so appealing to multiple
telecommunication companies because it decreases the
number of fibers instead of laying more fibers and permits
them to transmit much more data over those links. This
property of WDM expands the possibility of 10Gbps data rate
to a data rate of over 1.6TBps over one fiber with a
tremendous speed [3]. An existing symmetric bidirectional
XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE
Sejuti Zaman Ebtidaul Karim
Lecturer, Deparment of Lecturer, Department of
EEE ECE
European University of Khulna University of
Banglasesh Engineering & Technology
Dhaka, Bangladesh Khulna, Bangladesh
sejuti2k13@gmail.com ebtikarim@ece.kuet.ac.bd
WDM-PON is demonstrated based on a cross wavelength
reuse. So, to increase PON bandwidth, WDM is one of the best
possible ways. Though WDM-PON is so costly and
administration is hard, Reflective Semiconductor Optical
Amplifier (RSOA) can increase 1GHz bandwidth in this case
[4]. The existed architecture uses a WDM-PON with RSOA
in DS and the remodulation technique in US. Isolated sub-
networks reuse the wavelengths which reduce the cost of
WDM components in the network [5]. This work has been
done on a 10Gbps wavelength reused bidirectional RSOA
based WDM-PON in DS, where we used DPSK signals and
then non return to zero (NRZ) signals with a different
frequency to compare which provide better performance for
DS and in US, the architecture uses orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) modulated signals [6].
II. PROPOSED METHOD FOR DS SIGNAL IN SYMMETRICAL
WDM-PON
A. Architectures for Downstream & Upstream Modulation
In the downstream transmission of signal, we have
generated the NRZ signal by using Pseudo random bit
sequence (PRBS) generator and the optical carrier signal is
generated by continuous wave (CW) LASER and modulation
is done by Mach Zehnder Modulator (MZM).
In Fig 1, the DS transmission process is shown done for a
number of channels which are multiplexed in WDM
technology and thus it is sent through the fiber. Finally, these
DS signals are received by WDM demultiplexer and thus one
part of the signal is received by the photodiode and thus sent
to the lowpass filter to recover the input NRZ data and the
performance analysis are done by calculating bit error rate
(BER) with the received power.
The US data transmission process is shown in Fig 1. which
has separate optical fiber and the optical carrier is taken from
one portion of DS signal. In US transmission, there is no
modulation technique used. RSOA is used to amplify the US
signal. The US data is given input in the RSOA so that by
using the same carrier used by the DS; NRZ data of the US is
sent to the required user. The receiver side is the same as the
DS signal receiver. The performance is also analyzed by
calculating the BER of the received signal.
 Downstream Part
PRBS
Generator
NRZ Signal
Mach Optical
PIN Low Pass
CW Laser Zehnder Fiber +
Receiver Filter
Modulator Attenuator
RSOA
Optical
PIN
NRZ Signal Fiber +
Modulator
Attenuator
Receiver
PRBS
CW Laser
Generator Upstream Part
Fig 1. Architecture for downstream and RSOA based
upstream
B. Existing WDM-PON Based on RSOA
This research work is motivated by the symmetrical
bidirectional WDM-PON where differential phase shift
keying (DPSK) data at the DS and OFDM at the US. Fig 2
shows a symmetrical bidirectional WDM-PON that uses
10Gbps DPSK signals for each wavelength at the DS and at
the US, RSOA is used at the receiver and OFDM method is
used for transmission. The spectrums are multiplexed by
WDM at the transmitter and coupled into the feeder fiber. At
the receiving node (RN), the lights are demultiplexed by a
WDM demultiplexer and transmitted toward each optical
network unit (ONU) by the optical fibers.
Fig 2. Existing bidirectional WDM-PON [6]
By directly modulating through the RSOA, the amplified
and reflected US signals are then multiplexed by another
WDM at the RN, which is demultiplexed by another WDM
demultiplexer by another arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG)
at the RN and detected by the receivers at the transmitter.
The optical network terminal receives the optical signal
split by an optical coupler which is situated forward to the
RSOA and DS receiver. The split signals go in two ways- one
part to the RSOA and the other part to the DS. The optical
network terminal assures in two conditions- a) For adequately
low input power levels, it ensures gain from saturation & b)
For DS signal, it shows high gain from saturation which will
be amplified and then reused for the transmission in US as it
includes RSOA there. The signal is amplified through RSOA
and the output wavelength is similar to that of DS wavelength
and can be modulated with US data right away.
III. SIMULATION PARAMETERS & MODEL
For the simulation purpose, we have used the software
called OptiSystem. It is an optical communication system
simulation software that helps to design, evaluate and boost
any different kind of optical systems and enables to test of the
physical layer of modern optical networks. It provides a broad
range of applications of WDM network, transmitter, channel,
amplifier, and receiver design.
A. Architecture for Downstream
BER
Analyzer
The architecture of the system and its functionalities are
based on modulators, WDM and WDM demultiplexers,
optical receivers, demodulators and the RSOA. These are the
Low Pass primary parts of the optical system. The architecture shown in
Filter Fig 3, is the proposed WDM-PON where a series of CW
LASERs with multiple wavelengths are modulated in the DS
BER by pulse modulators where a PRBS generator generates NRZ
Analyzer
data to produce the desired signal in DS which is sent over the
single mode fiber (SMF). It uses different data rates such as
1.25Gbps, 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps and 10Gbps.
PRBS
NRZ Signal
Generator
Mach Optical
PIN Low Pass BER
CW Laser Zehnder Fiber +
Receiver Filter Analyzer
Modulator Attenuator
Fig 3. Block diagram of the existing system for
downstream
So, the existed paper has been used DPSK signal for DS
but there are some complexities to generate the DPSK and
because of this NRZ signal is used to analyze the results. And
the PIN receiver is used to reconstruct the original signal by
using a photodetector from this affected modulated signal.
The performance of the NRZ signal between the optical fiber
and back-to-back connection at DS has been compared. Back-
to-back is a connection process where a transmitter and a
receiver are directly connected and reduces the effect of the
channel where the signal is passed through. Again, in the
optical fiber, there are possibilities of data loss and noise. So,
the back-to-back connection is a standard unit to compare how
the optical fiber performs with increasing bit rate.
B. Simulation Parameters
In the simulation, to design the transmitter and receiver,
we have used different types of optical transmitters, receivers,
modulators, optical fibers etc. At the transmitter, we used CW
LASER to transmit optical signal with power input 1mW,
frequency 193.1THz. We used a photodetector as a receiver at
the downstream with radiant sensitivity (responsivity) 1A/W
and dark current 10nA for better performance. To get the
original signal we have used a Butterworth low pass filter with
wavelength 1552nm and bandwidth of 3 times the bit rate. To
connect the transmitter and the receiver, we used a 25km
optical fiber with 0.2dbm attenuation and dispersion of
16.5ps/nm/km. Here, the phase of the signal is changed, for
that, a normal photodetector cannot detect it. So, a Gaussian
optical amplifier has to be used to transform the phase
modulated signal to an electrical signal that can be detected
using the photodetector. Its bandwidth is 3 times the system’s
bit rate. It is known that the bandwidth of a system is twice the
bit rate. Here it is used 3 times because the system is designed
for very high data transmission and reception and more
bandwidth help to obtain a maximum data rate.
So, a lowpass filter has to be used to get the signal which
is optically modulated to an electrical signal so that it can be
analyzed through a BER analyzer.
C. Simulation Model
The schematic design for DS with NRZ data at the
transmitter has been simulated which is shown in Fig 4. Here,
at the transmitter a 4×1 WDM multiplexer has been used and
a PRBS generator has used for generating bit sequences of
1024 bits and a NRZ generator has been used to generate
NRZ signal. MZM has been used to produce the optical signal
for transmission by using an optical fiber of 25km. An
attenuator has been added to the optical fiber for obtaining
BER at the receiver.
Rx power of the system and BER for the system’s bit rate. We
compare the result between a 25 km fiber cable and a back-
to-back at 1.25Gbps, 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps and 10Gbps,
respectively.
In Fig 8, the curve Rx power and BER for 1.25Gbps, we
observe that there was slight disruption when the BER rate is
between 10−2 to 10−3 . The reason is because of the high data
rate. The more the received power decreases, the more the
BER rate increases. And also, there are some losses in the
optical fiber, due to this disruption was shown.
In Fig 9, the Rx power vs. BER shows the result for the
bit rate 2.5Gbps, where the nonlinearity is showed when the
BER is 10−4 to 10−6 . We see that when the back-to-back
connection is used, there is nonlinearity and BER is
increased. But with the increase of bit per second, the
performance of optical fiber is great comparing with back-to-
back connection.

Fig 4. Schematic diagram for NRZ in DS transmitter

The receiving part of the downstream where a 4×1 WDM
demultiplexer has been used for reception of the optical signal.
Thus a photodetector PIN has been applied to transform the
optically modulated signal into the electrical signal. A
Butterworth low pass filter has been used to get the
transmitted signal. A BER analyzer was added at the receiver Fig 6. RF spectrum at the input
side to calculate the BER according to change of the receiver
power (Rx power) at the receiver end. The schematic design is
shown in Fig 5.

Fig 5. Schematic diagram for NRZ in DS receiver

D. Simulation Result & Analysis Fig 7. Optical spectrum at the modulator
In following Fig 6. shows the radio frequency (RF)
spectrum of the transmission part obtained through
simulation and in Fig 7. optical spectrum of the optically
modulated NRZ signal by MZM modulator at the transmitter
section.
We plotted graphs using Rx power against BER for
different data rates. BER is the number of bits per time which
is used to compare the ratio of received bits and transmitted
bits. So, BER shows the quality of the received signals. The
smaller the BER value, the better the performance of the
network. Finally, the BER analysis is done by attenuating the
 Fig 8. BER vs. Rx power at the DS NRZ data for 1.25Gbps
Fig 9. BER vs. Rx power at the DS NRZ data for 2.5Gbps
Fig 10. BER vs. Rx power at the DS NRZ data for 5Gbps
Now in Fig 10, the same formation of downward spike is
showed between 10−4 to 10−7 for bit rate 5Gbps when
optical fiber connection is used. But the spike that has
occurred between 10−6 to 10−7 in back-to-back connection.
It shows that between those spikes the BER decreases. Again,
the optical fiber shows better performance with increasing
data rates.
Fig 11. BER vs. Rx power at the DS NRZ data for 10Gbps
In Fig 11, the curve shows for 10Gbps bit rate, the
nonlinearity showed twice in the curve and when the back-to-
back connection was used. In this figure, this is observed that
the spike occurred in the back-to-back connection otherwise
with the optical fiber, it shows better performance. If the
curves for different bit rates are compared, the 10Gbps curve
when optical fiber was used shows a better and smooth
performance.
There are some types of receiver noise such as thermal
noise, shot noise and quantum noise where the incident optical
radiation produces a number of electrons. We have attenuated
the optical fiber for each different data rate to get the received
power and an attenuator also produces noise in terms of input
power which is called excess noise that causes the disruption
shown in the graphs.
IV. CONCLUSION
This research work introduces a bidirectional WDM-PON
network where different date rates of 1.25Gbps, 2.5Gpbs,
5Gbps and 10Gbps signals are used for NRZ downstream and
for upstream using a conventional PRBS and NRZ signal.
Here slight disruption with higher data rates is found. The
reason for these disruptions is different types of receiver
noises such as thermal noise, shot noise and quantum noise
and excess noise causes by attenuators and amplifiers.
So, we conclude that NRZ signals in the DS do not give
us a very perfect result but it decreases the complexity in
using the NRZ signal rather than using other complicated
modulation technique for transmission. This system is
sufficiently adequate for wired networks because of its
growing application for a genuine and cost-effective multi-
service broadband access operation. This network will be
able to cope up with the expanding demand for high-
bandwidth services that can provide support from anywhere
at any time through any channel.
FUTURE WORK
In this research work, the DS part of the network has been
considered and analyzed the performance for different bit
rates. The US part with NRZ data was not done. So, the US
part could be done to measure the efficiency of the whole
network.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT back scattering and maximize band usage” Electron
Lett.45(25)(2009)13431345.
This work is authorized by the department of Electronics [4] P.Tevydis, R.Jankuniene, “A Problem Analysis of RSOA-Based
& Communication Engineering (ECE) of Khulna University Optical Access” ELEKTRONIKA IR ELEKTROTECHNIKA,
of Engineering & Technology. ISSN1392-1215,VOL.22,NO. 2, 2016.
[5] K. Y.Cho, Y. J. Lee, H. Y. Choi, A. Murakami, A. Agata, Y.
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