IRZ-Manchester coding for downstream signal modulation in an ONU-source-free WDM-PON

Abstract Inverted return-to-zero (IRZ)–Manchester coding is proposed for optical downstream signal using amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulation in an optical network unit (ONU)-source-free wavelength-division-multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON), and ASK modulation is used for the optical upstream signal generation using remodulation over the optical downstream signal. With IRZ–Manchester coding, differential phase shift keying (DPSK) modulation can be overlaid on the downstream optical ASK signal for broadcasting services. Our experimental results show that the IRZ–Manchester coded optical ASK downstream signal has no modulation extinction ratio restrictions from the overlaid DPSK modulation, and that the remodulated optical upstream signal has very limited signal crosstalk from the downstream signals. In comparison with the conventional schemes using only Manchester coding or IRZ modulation, the proposed IRZ–Manchester coded modulation scheme shows better performance under different PON upstream and downstream traffic bit rate ratios.