Abstract:
A method for data processing in an optical network includes providing at least one main wavelength and processing a subcarrier modulation for the at least one main wavelength, wherein a portion of the subcarrier modulated signal is suppressed. An optical network component and a communication system having such an optical network component are also provided.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to a method for data processing in an optical network, to an optical network component and to a communication system comprising such optical network component. 
     A passive optical network (PON) is a promising approach regarding fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), fiber-to-the-business (FTTB) and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) scenarios, in particular as it overcomes the economic limitations of traditional point-to-point solutions. 
     The PON has been standardized for FTTH solutions and it is currently being deployed by network service providers world-wide. Conventional PONs distribute downstream traffic from the optical line terminal (OLT) to optical network units (ONUS) in a broadcast manner while the ONUS send upstream data packets multiplexed in time to the OLT. Hence, communication among the ONUS needs to be conveyed through the OLT involving electronic processing such as buffering and/or scheduling, which results in latency and degrades the throughput of the network. 
     Upstream signals can be combined using a multiple access protocol, i.e. invariably time division multiple access (TDMA). The OLTs “range” the ONUS to provide time slot assignments for upstream communication. Hence, the data rate is distributed among several subscribers, whereas the single ONU needs to be capable of handling data rates that are significantly higher than the average data rate utilized by such ONU. 
     Future traffic is assessed to amount to ca. 1 Gb/s per subscriber regarding the majority of subscribers. A small portion of subscribers (compared to the number of total subscribers) will be provided with a data rate in the range of ca. 10 Gb/s. It would be very cost-ineffective and a plain waste of resources to equip all subscribers with ONUs that are capable of processing high data rates of, e.g., 10 Gb/s, wherein only a small portion of subscribers will actually receive such high data rates. 
     2. Brief Summary of the Invention 
     The problem to be solved is to overcome the disadvantages stated above and in particular to provide a flexible and cost effective optical network, e.g., a passive optical network or an optical access network. 
     This problem is solved according to the features of the independent claims. Further embodiments result from the depending claims. 
     In order to overcome this problem, a method for data processing in an optical network is provided comprising the steps
         (a) providing at least one main wavelength;   (b) processing a subcarrier modulation for said at least one main wavelength, wherein a portion of the subcarrier modulated signal is suppressed.       

     Suppressing a portion, e.g., a side band of the subcarrier modulated signal allows to efficiently utilize the optical power and to economically supply a huge number of subscribers. 
     It is noted that the approach provides for coherent data transmission in a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint optical network. 
     The optical network may comprise various structures, e.g., a ring or a bus topology or mixtures thereof. 
     According to an embodiment, the at least one main wavelength is an optical carrier that is in particular provided by at least one optical comb generator and/or by several light sources, in particular by several lasers. 
     In particular, several optical comb generators can be used to provide interleaving main wavelengths, wherein each such wavelength can be further utilized for subcarrier modulation. 
     In another embodiment, the subcarrier modulation comprises an optical and/or an electrical modulation. 
     Hence, subcarrier modulation can be done either optically and/or electronically. For example, a set of subcarriers can be generated by optical modulation of a main wavelength. 
     It is noted that various types of modulation may be applicable, e.g., OOK, QAM, QPSK, etc. 
     Integrated modulators can be used in particular deployed as an array structure to combine the user data with the subcarriers. 
     In a further embodiment, in step (b) the subcarrier modulation suppressing a portion of the modulated signal comprises substantially a single sideband modulation. 
     Hence, via single sideband modulation a portion of said subcarrier modulated signal is suppressed. 
     In a next embodiment, in step (b) an optical filtering is performed in order to suppress a portion of the subcarrier modulated signal, in particular in order to suppress substantially at least a portion of the side band. 
     Thus, as an alternative, filtering may apply in order to suppress said portion of the subcarrier modulated signal. Such can be achieved, e.g., by means of an optical filter. 
     As another alternative, electronic filtering may apply. Advantageously, optical and electronic filtering may be combined in order to suppress said portion of the subcarrier signal. 
     It is also an embodiment that the main wavelength is suppressed, in particular by means of destructive interference. 
     This can be achieved by feeding the main wavelength to a modulator and to a 180° phase shifter and combining the outputs of such modulator and the phase shifter thereinafter. This allows to obtain the modulated signal without the main wavelength. 
     In an embodiment, subcarriers for said subcarrier modulation are provided optically and/or electronically in particular based on each said at least one main wavelength. 
     Preferably, an array of modulators can be utilized in order to process the at least one main wavelength and to provide the modulated signal(s). 
     Advantageously, each subcarrier may carry user data and is supplied to at least one subscriber. 
     Pursuant to another embodiment, the at least one subcarrier or a set of subcarriers is assigned to one subscriber or to several subscribers. 
     Hence, one subscriber may sign up for a higher bandwidth thereby being provided with several subcarriers to convey user data. As an alternative, the spacing between subcarriers may vary in order to allow higher bandwidth to be conveyed to the subscriber. 
     This concept advantageously applies in downstream direction as well as in upstream direction. 
     Preferably, in downstream direction, an optical line terminal (OLT) supplies several optical network units (ONUs), wherein in upstream direction traffic is conveyed from the ONUS towards the OLT. 
     It is possible to convey upstream traffic from several ONUS via overlapping or same wavelengths, but modulated at each ONU on different disjoint sub-carrier frequencies. 
     It is noted that one light source provided, e.g., by the optical comb generator or by an individual laser, is utilized as optical local oscillator for a set of ONUS. 
     According to an embodiment, different subcarriers are utilized for upstream and downstream data. 
     In particular, different subcarriers or sets of subcarriers can be assigned to different receiving units and/or to different transmitting units (at the OLT as well as at the ONU). This advantageously allows using the subcarriers in a flexible way to meet the subscriber&#39;s demand for bandwidth and to provide an effective and non-expensive optical network. 
     It is in particular of advantage to use disjoint subcarriers or disjoint sets of subcarriers in upstream and downstream direction. 
     It is noted that a transmitter at the ONU may be realized as a reflective transmitter. 
     According to another embodiment, the at least one main wavelength is provided by a local oscillator. The main wavelength provided by the local oscillator can further be utilized for receiving and transmitting purposes. 
     Hence, in particular at the ONU, the local oscillator signal can be used for receiving as well as transmitting purposes. 
     The problem stated supra is solved by an optical network component
         (a) arranged to provide at least one main wavelength;   (b) arranged to process a subcarrier modulation for said at least one main wavelength, wherein a portion of the subcarrier modulated signal is suppressed.       

     As an embodiment, the at least one main wavelength is an optical carrier that is in particular provided by at least one optical comb generator and/or by several light sources, in particular by several lasers. 
     The problem stated above is also solved by an optical network component comprising a and/or being associated with a processor unit and/or a hard-wired circuit and/or a logic device and/or optical components that is arranged such that the method as described herein. 
     According to an embodiment, the optical network component is a or is associated with an optical line terminal and/or an optical network unit. 
     The optical network component may be or it may be associated with a coherent receiver comprising
         means for electrical down-conversion to baseband of the signal received; and   means for detecting data symbols in particular via analog-to-digital conversion followed by digital processing.       

     A coherent receiver may also be arranged to separate subcarriers by electrical filtering and to detect data symbols via analog-to-digital conversion followed by digital processing. 
     The problem stated supra is further solved by a communication system, in particular a PON, comprising the optical network component as described herein. 
     It is an embodiment that at least one optical network unit is supplied by a signal from an local oscillator, said local oscillator being deployed external or internal to the optical network unit. 
     It is noted that said optical network may comprise or be an optical access network (OAN) that is in particular based on a tree topology and comprises at least one passive optical splitter and utilizes the transmission and/or receiving concept as described herein. Said OAN may comprise (coarse) WDM multiplexer, passive optical splitters, (bi-directional) optical amplifiers. 
     Embodiments of the invention are shown and illustrated in the following figures: 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  shows an optical comb generator providing several main wavelengths to a wavelength division multiplexer WDM which further feeds the wavelengths to a modulator array; 
         FIG. 2  shows a main wavelength that may be generated by an optical local oscillator, wherein this main wavelength is processed to a set of wavelength comprising the main wavelength and additional wavelengths; 
         FIG. 3  shows an exemplary receiver structure at the OLT; 
         FIG. 4  depicts an receiver/transmitter concept at the ONU comprising a local oscillator and a transmitter being deployed at each ONU; 
         FIG. 5  shows an efficient concept comprising a shared local oscillator that is utilized as transmitter laser for the ONUS; 
         FIG. 6  shows a receiver/transmitter concept at the ONU based on  FIG. 4 , wherein the local oscillator is utilized as transmission laser; 
         FIG. 7  shows an architectural option of a transmitter/receiver concept without additional amplification stage; 
         FIG. 8  shows an architectural option of a transmitter/receiver concept with a bi-directional amplifier deployed between an OLT and a passive splitter; 
         FIG. 9  shows an architectural option based on the structure of  FIG. 7 , wherein a bi-directional amplifier is deployed between the WDM splitter and the OLT. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The approach provided allows establishing an ultra-dense WDM (UDWDM) based optical access network (OAN) on a splitter-based structure enabling dynamic bandwidth allocation without any need for thousands of stabilized laser sources and without expensive optical UDWDM components. 
     This objective is met in particular by utilizing optical and/or electrical single-side-band RX/TX concepts based on coherent transmission and on subcarrier modulation. 
     UDWDM can be used in combination with coherent receivers and common optical local oscillators and transmitter lasers for at least one ONU, in particular for a subset of ONUS. All modulation formats in particular suitable for coherent detection can be utilized. In particular, on-off-keying (OOK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) can be combined with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) for modulation purposes. 
     UDWDM could provide channel spacing in the order of 1 GHz to 10 GHz. To each user a wavelength or a set of wavelengths can be assigned in particular without any sharing capacity and/or without time division multiplex (TDM). 
     Data rates per subscriber may amount from about 1 Gb/s for a standard subscriber to about 10 Gb/s or even more for subscribers with enhanced demand for transmission capacity. The spacing of the wavelength channels reflects this demand of bandwidth. Alternatively, a set of wavelengths is allocated to meet the enhanced capacity requirement and/or a higher order modulation format can be used as in wireless communications (see, e.g., EDGE). 
     The channel separation at the receiver can be done based on the frequency (wavelength) of the optical local oscillator combined with electrical low pass filtering. Electrical filtering with a tunable band pass allows using shared local optical oscillators for several receivers, in particular for a subset of receivers. Sharing the local optical oscillator reduces system costs. In practical applications, sharing up to a factor of about 10 or more is feasible without any need for fast electrical processing (and thus expensive components). 
     A receiver comprising a set of n electrical band pass filters can handle a total data rate per subscriber increased by a factor of n compared to data rate provided by a single wavelength. 
     At the OLT, at least one generator for providing optical frequency combs (“optical comb generator”) may be used instead of thousands of separate lasers. Optical comb generators with a span of 1 THz are known. 
     The number of optical light sources and electro-optical converters (modulators) can be reduced by utilizing optical single side band modulation in combination with electrical subcarriers. 
     Using sets of interleaved optical frequency comb generators enables separating and modulating optical carriers individually. For example, 25 times 25 GHz frequency combs interleaved with 1 GHz spacing or 10 times 25 GHz with 2.5 GHz spacing can be processed. 
     The approach provided further allows using the same lasers as optical local oscillators and as transmitting light sources. Thus, upstream and downstream signals can be separated by the electrical subcarrier, e.g., downstream can be assigned to odd numbers like 1, 3, 5, 7, . . . GHz subcarrier frequencies and upstream signals can be assigned to even numbers like 2, 4, 6, 8, . . . GHz subcarrier frequencies. Alternatively, downstream signals may utilize higher frequencies and upstream signals may utilize lower frequencies to save costs for modulation at the ONU. 
     It is further possible to provide and utilize single sideband modulation in the electrical domain. Together with optical single side band modulation, the spectral efficiency is enhanced by a factor of about four compared to double side band signals in the electrical and in the optical domains. 
     Another alternative is based on optical dual sideband modulation providing advantages regarding complexity of implementation. The subcarriers may then be electrically modulated either via single sideband or via dual sideband modulation. 
     The approach provided bears in particular the following advantages:
     1) There is no need for active components like lambda-agile switches at the local exchange.   2) No tunable narrow band optical filters are required at the ONU.   3) No burst mode and time slot management is needed.   4) Channel separation can be provided by electrical filtering and coherent detection.   5) Wavelength channels can be easily bundled in order to increase data rates for high value subscribers.   6) The coherent detection works at a very low optical power level.   7) The network itself can be purely passive without any optical inline amplifiers.   8) There is no need for expensive optical DWDM components (DEMUX, Filter).   9) The reduced data rate per wavelength allows digital processing with state of the art technology (e.g., OFDM), which in particular allows significantly reducing the costs for the ONUs.   10) Wavelength bands can be re-configured or upgraded without any need for changing existing infrastructure.   11) The OAN is compatible with today&#39;s GPON infrastructure.   12) Flexible modulation techniques or formats enable individual data rates for “normal” subscribers as well as for “high value” subscribers.
 
Transmitter/Receiver Implementations
   

     It is noted that advantageously receivers comprise polarization diversity based coherent receivers, which is in particular heterodyne, “pseudo”-homodyne or intradyne (an intermediate frequency is close to zero, there may be no optical phase synchronization between received light and local oscillator; the synchronization may be processed within the electrical domain.) 
     Transmitter at the OLT 
       FIG. 1  shows an optical comb generator  101  providing several main wavelengths  102  to a wavelength division multiplexer WDM  103 , which further feeds the wavelengths  102  to a modulator array  104 . Each modulator of the modulator array  104  generates via a single sideband modulation several 1 GHz data streams that are combined by a wavelength division multiplexer WDM  105  to an optical signal  106 . 
     The output of the modulators  104  comprises electrical subcarriers and electrical single side band information that may be created by analog and/or by digital means or a combination of both. 
       FIG. 2  shows a main wavelength  201  that may be generated by an optical local oscillator. This main wavelength  201  is processed to a set of wavelength comprising the main wavelength  201  and additional wavelengths  202 . The additional wavelengths  202  are preferably single side band wavelengths. As an option, the main carrier  201  can be suppressed by either optical or electrical means or both. 
     Receiver at the OLT 
       FIG. 3  shows an exemplary receiver structure at the OLT. At such a coherent receiver, one local oscillator  301  is utilized for a set of adjacent wavelengths (optical channels). 
     An upstream signal  301  is conveyed together with the output from the local oscillator  301  to a combiner  303  and is further fed to an optical/electrical (O/E) converter  304 . The analog electric signal provided at the output of the optical/electrical converter  304  is converted to a digital signal by an A/D converter  305  and the digital signal is further conveyed to a digital processing unit  306 . 
     The digital processing unit  306  provides an electrical signal conveyed to a LO frequency control  307  which sets the frequency of the local oscillator  301 . 
     The digital processing unit  306  further provides digital signals from different ONUS as an output. 
     In the electrical domain, each optical channel generates a data signal on an electrical carrier with a frequency substantially equal to the frequency difference between the frequency of the optical local oscillator and the frequency of the optical channel. 
     Separation, down-conversion to baseband and detection of the data signal and/or symbols of the channels in the electrical domain may be provided by electrical band pass filtering and manipulation or by analog to digital conversion followed by digital processing like FFT, etc. 
     Depending on bandwidth allocation, each of the digital data streams or each set of digital data streams is assigned to at least one corresponding ONU. 
     Receiver at the ONU 
     The receiver at the ONU is basically similar to the receiver at the OLT. One difference is that the ONU may only process at least one subcarrier or a set of subcarriers that is/are assigned to this particular ONU. It is another difference to the OLT receiver that an optical local oscillator may be deployed with each ONU or it may be provided for a set of ONUS. 
     Transmitter at the ONU 
     Two examples as how to implement an ONU are shown in  FIG. 4  and in  FIG. 5 . 
       FIG. 4  depicts an receiver/transmitter concept at the ONU comprising a local oscillator and a transmitter being deployed at each ONU. 
     An OLT  401  is connected to a 1:n splitter  402  which is further connected to n ONUS. In  FIG. 4  two ONUS ONU_ 1   403  and ONU_n  404  are shown. The ONUS preferably comprise a similar structure. Hereinafter, the structure of ONU_ 1   403  is described. 
     ONU_ 1   403  is connected to the splitter  402  via a circulator  405  being used for receiving and for transmitting purposes. The receiving path is fed from the circulator  405  to a wave division multiplexer WDM  406 . The signal from a local oscillator  407  is also conveyed to the input of the wave division multiplexer  406 . The output of the wave division multiplexer WDM  406  is conveyed to an O/E converter  408  and further processed by a processing unit  409 . Said processing unit  409  provides upstream and downstream signal, i.e. processes downstream signals provided by the OLT  401  and arranges upstream signals to be conveyed to said OLT  401 . 
     The upstream signal is fed to a modulator  410  where it is modulated with an optical carrier provided by a laser diode TX LD  411 , the output of said modulator  410  being connected to said circulator  405 . 
     It is noted that for upstream data signals a particular wavelength band, e.g., the C-band-red and for downstream data signals a different wavelength band, e.g., the C-band-blue, can be used. Hence, the local oscillator  407  provides a C-band-red frequency and the laser diode TX LD provides a C-band-blue frequency. 
       FIG. 5  shows an efficient concept comprising a shared local oscillator that is utilized as transmitter laser for the ONUS. Upstream and downstream as well as ONU separation is achieved by assigning specific electrical subcarriers. 
     An OLT  501  is connected to a 1:n splitter  502 , one output of which is connected to a 2:5 splitter  503 . A signal from a local oscillator  504  is also fed to said 2:5 splitter. In  FIG. 5  two ONUS ONU_ 1   505  and ONU_ 5   506  are shown. The ONUS preferably comprise a similar structure. Hereinafter, the structure of ONU_ 1   505  is described. 
     ONU_ 1   505  is connected to the splitter  503  via a circulator  507  being used for receiving and for transmitting purposes. The receiving path is fed from the circulator  507  to a 1:2 splitter  508 , which first output is conveyed to an O/E converter  509  and to a modulator MOD  511 . The O/E converter  509  is further connected to a processing unit  510  processing upstream and downstream signals. 
     For example, subcarriers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 GHz are used for upstream data and subcarriers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 GHz are used for downstream data. Utilizing lower frequencies for upstream data further reduces the costs of the ONU. 
     As an example, ONU_ 1   505  in  FIG. 5  may utilize 6 GHz bandwidth for downstream and 1 GHz bandwidth for upstream, whereas ONU_ 5   506  may utilize 10 GHz for downstream and 5 GHz for upstream. 
     The bandwidths utilized in each ONU can be configured centrally, e.g., via OAM messages. Advantageously, parameters at each ONU can be remotely accessed and set according to the subscriber&#39;s demands. This allows flexible and easy administration at low cost, because no hardware has to be changed and no changes have to be (manually) done on each customer&#39;s premises. 
     The output of the processing unit  510  is fed to the modulator MOD  511  which is provided with the optical carrier by said splitter  508 . The output of modulator MOD  511  is conveyed to the circulator  507  and further transmitted towards the OLT  501 . 
     It is noted that the optical power level of the local oscillator  407  is several orders of magnitude higher than the received signal. This enables splitting the incoming data signal and the local oscillator signal for reception purposes (decoding the information received) as well as optical source (oscillator signal) for modulating the signal to be transmitted back to the OLT. 
     It is noted that the transmitters can be realized as reflective transmitters. 
       FIG. 6  shows a receiver/transmitter concept at the ONU based on  FIG. 4 , wherein the local oscillator is utilized as transmission laser. 
     An OLT  601  is connected to a 1:n splitter  602  which is further connected to n ONUS. In  FIG. 6  two ONUS ONU_ 1   603  and ONU_n  604  are shown. The ONUS preferably comprise a similar structure. Hereinafter, the structure of ONU_ 1   603  is described. 
     ONU_ 1   603  is connected to the splitter  602  via a circulator  605  being used for receiving and for transmitting purposes. The receiving path is fed from the circulator  605  to a 2:2 splitter  606 . The signal from a local oscillator  607  is also conveyed to the input of the 2:2 splitter  606 . One output of the 2:2 splitter  606  is conveyed to an O/E converter  608  where it is further processed by a processing unit  609 . The other output of said 2:2 splitter  606  is fed to a Modulator MOD  610 . 
     Said processing unit  609  provides upstream and downstream signal, i.e. processes downstream signals provided by the OLT  601  and arranges upstream signals to be conveyed to said OLT  601 . 
     The upstream signal is fed to the modulator MOD  610  where it is modulated with an optical carrier that is provided by said 2:2 splitter  606 . The output of said modulator  610  being connected to said circulator  605 . 
     FURTHER EXAMPLES AND OPTIONS 
       FIG. 7  shows an architectural option of a transmitter/receiver concept without additional amplification stage. An OLT is connected to a WDM splitter that splits four sets of bandwidths each to a passive splitter. Each passive splitter is further connected to several user terminals. 
       FIG. 8  shows an architectural option of a transmitter/receiver concept with a bi-directional amplifier deployed between an OLT and a passive splitter, wherein the passive splitter is further connected to several user terminals. 
       FIG. 9  shows an architectural option of a transmitter/receiver concept combining the approaches depicted in  FIG. 7  and  FIG. 8 . Hence, based on the structure of  FIG. 7 , in  FIG. 9  a bi-directional amplifier is deployed between the WDM splitter and the OLT. 
     It is a further option of the approach provided herein that the optical oscillator may be locked on one of the subcarriers instead of the optical main wavelength (main carrier). 
     Advantageously, the main wavelength can be suppressed. This would result in an 3 dB reduction of optical power without any loss of information or signal performance. The main wavelength would otherwise carry about 50% of the total optical power, wherein such main wavelength is not required at the receiver (ONU) because of its (local or common) oscillator. In upstream direction, such main wavelength is advantageously to be suppressed in order to avoid interference with other upstream data provided by various ONUs using the same main wavelength which—due to cable differences and varying transmitting distances—would be received at the OLT not as one main wavelength but as several similar wavelength interfering with each other thereby deteriorating the signal. 
     LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 
     A/D Analog-to-Digital 
     CWDM Coarse WDM 
     LO (optical) Local Oscillator 
     OAN Optical Access Network 
     OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing 
     OLT Optical Line Terminal 
     ONU Optical Network Unit 
     OOK On-Off-Keying 
     QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation 
     O/E Optical-to-Electrical 
     PON Passive Optical Network 
     TDM Time Division Multiplex 
     UDWDM Ultra Dense WDM 
     WDM Wavelength Division Multiplex(er)