title: Experimental demonstration of cascaded AWG access network featuring bi-directional transmission and polarization multiplexing.
abstract: We present the first experimental demonstration of a bidirectional cascaded arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) access network combining one NxN AWG in the central office with multiple 1xN AWG's at the distribution points, such as to individually address N(2) users with only N wavelengths. Downstream and upstream data share the same optical path. BER curves were measured using 2.5Gb/s data stream in each direction, and error free transmission achieved for downstream and upstream, with only 0.3dB power penalty for simultaneous transmission. The addition of two orthogonal polarization-multiplexed channels per wavelength doubled the number of possible end users. Error free transmission was achieved with simultaneous upstream and downstream transmission of a composite signal featuring eight 2.5Gb/s channels (2 polarizations x 4 wavelengths).
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tsalamanis
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rochat
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Holburn