Hybrid WDM FSO Fiber Access Network With Rayleigh Backscattering Noise Mitigation

Abstract

In the paper, we present and investigate an integrated wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) free space optical (FSO) fiber access network for 51 km long-reach connection. Here, the proposed network architecture also can mitigate Rayleigh backscattering (RB) interferometric beat noise. We employ symmetric 4 x 10 Gbit/s on-off keying (OOK) WDM-FSO downstream and upstream wavelengths for demonstration. According to the simulated and experimental results, the free space transmission length of 400 to 940 m can be achieved based on various WDM-FSO downstream signals and their corresponding power budget, when the wavelengths are without optical amplification.