A bandwidth scalable OFDM passive optical network for future access network

In order to reduce the cost for delivering the ever increasing broadband services, network providers need to simplify their network architectures and have a better control of the bandwidth. In this article, we propose a simple and cost-effective bandwidth scalable passive optical network (PON) based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (BSOFDM-PON). We report performance analysis in terms of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), bit-error-rate (BER), and error vector magnitude (EVM) of a PON system accommodating 32 optical network units (ONUs). Our simulations have successfully demonstrated that throughputs of 35.5 and 53.2 Gbps can be achieved using 16 and 64 QAM, respectively, within a total distance ranging from 20 to 30 km. It gives throughputs of 1.10 and 1.66 Gbps per ONU.