Experimental Demonstration of a 33.5-Gb/s OFDM-Based PON With Subcarrier Pre-Emphasis

Spectral efficiency is one of the critical issues in passive optical networks (PONs). Thus, next generation PON systems must employ advanced modulation techniques and channel compensation to improve the network performance and provide more bandwidth for end users. In this letter, we have experimentally demonstrated a spectral efficiency improvement in PONs based on the bandwidth scalable orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (BSOFDM-PON), considerably reducing the recommended optical guard band of such direct detection systems. The experimental results show that this efficiency can be achieved in a 33.5-Gb/s BSOFDM-PON on one wavelength channel when subcarrier pre-emphasis is used.