title: Assessment of linear semiconductor amplifiers for upgrading WDM-PONs with wavelength reuse.
abstract: In this work we have assessed the capacity of a linear semiconductor optical amplifier to compensate the fiber and component losses present in a wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) evolution from fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) to fiber-to-the-home access. The evaluation measurements confirm that the presence of a semiconductor optical amplifier placed at the entry of a group of optical network units that share the same wavelength channel can raise the loss budget that the link can tolerate in the fiber, compensating for the losses of a passive splitter up to a 1:16 division rate, allowing the upgrade of existing WDM-PON FTTB structures to make the fiber reach the final user's home.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Optical Transmission and Broadband Technologies (TOYBA), Photonics Technology Group (GTF) of the i3A, Walqa Technology Park Cuarte (Huesca) 22197, Spain. jjosemar@unizar.es
authors.forename: Juan José
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Noemi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Merayo
authors.forename: Asier
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Villafranca
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Garcés