On-the-field performance of quintuple-play

long-reach OFDM-based WDM-PON optical

access networks
Roberto Llorente,1,* Maria Morant,1 Eloy Pellicer,1 Milan Herman,2 Zsolt Nagy,2
Tiago Alves,3 Adolfo Cartaxo,3 Javier Herrera,4 Jose Correcher,5 Terence Quinlan,6
Stuart Walker,6 Cludio Rodrigues,7 Pierre Cluzeaud,8 Axel Schmidt,9
Radoslaw Piesiewicz,10 and Rakesh Sambaraju11
1

Valencia Nanophotonics Technology Center, Universitat Politcnica de Valncia, Spain

2
Towercom a.s., Bratislava, Slovakia
3
Instituto de Telecomunicaes, Instituto Superior Tcnico, Lisboa, Portugal
4
Fibernova Systems S.L., Valencia, Spain
5
DAS Photonics S.L., Valencia, Spain
6
School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
7
PT Inovaao, Aveiro, Portugal
8
THALES Communications, Gennevilliers, France
9
Hochschule fr Technik und Wirtschaft Dresden, Dresden, Germany
10
Wrocawskie Centrum Badan EIT + sp. Wrocaw, Poland
11
CORNING Incorporated, Corning, NY, USA
*
rllorent@ntc.upv.es

Abstract: In this paper the on-the-field performance of a WDM-PON

optical access providing quintuple-play services using orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation is evaluated in a real fiber-tothe-home (FTTH) network deployed by Towercom operator in Bratislava
(Slovakia). A bundle of quintuple-play services comprising full-standard
OFDM-based signals (LTE, WiMAX, UWB and DVB-T) and an ad-hoc
OFDM-GbE signal is transmitted in coexistence per single user. Both
downstream and upstream transmission performances are evaluated in
different on-the-field long-reach optical link distance configurations. Four
wavelength multi-user transmission of quintuple-play OFDM services is
demonstrated exceeding 60.8 km reach in standard single mode fiber.
2013 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (060.2330) Fiber optics communications; (060.4510) Optical communications;
(060.4250) Networks.

References and links

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.
7.

M. Morant, T. Quinlan, R. Llorente, and S. Walker, Full standard triple-play bi-directional and full-duplex
CWDM transmission in passive optical networks, in Optical Fiber Communication Conference/National Fiber
Optic Engineers Conference 2011, OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, 2011), paper OWB3.
C. Rodrigues, A. Gamelas, F. Carvalho, and A. Cartaxo, Evolution of FTTH networks based on radio-overfibre, in Proceedings of International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks ICTON (2011), paper
Tu.B6.6.
A. M. J. Koonen, A. Ngoma, G. J. Rijckenberg, M. Garcia Larrode, P. J. Urban, H. de Waardt, J. Yang, H. Yang,
and H. P. A. van den Boom, How deep should fibre go into the access network? in Proceedings of European
Conference on Optical Communications ECOC2007, (IEEE, 2007) paper Mo1.1.4.
Motorola, The business benefits of deep fiber: Delivering Ultra-Broadband Services, white paper, (2007).
T. Alves, M. Morant, A. Cartaxo, and R. Llorente, Wired-wireless services provision in FSAN NG-PON2
compliant long-reach PONs: performance analysis, in Optical Fiber Communication Conference/National
Fiber Optic Engineers Conference 2013, OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, 2013), paper
OM3D.3.
ETSI EN 300 744 V1.6.1, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB): Framing structure, channel coding and
modulation for digital terrestrial television, (2009).
R. Llorente, M. Morant, M. Beltrn, and E. Pellicer, Fully converged optical, millimetre-wave wireless and
cable provision in OFDM-PON FTTH networks, in Proceedings of International Conference on Transparent
Optical Networks ICTON (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2013), paper Tu.A4.6.

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Received 7 Oct 2013; revised 29 Nov 2013; accepted 1 Dec 2013; published 10 Mar 2014
24 March 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 6 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.006203 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6203

8.

3GPP TS 36.101v8.8.0 3rd Generation Partnership Project; technical specification group radio access network;
evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA), user equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception
(Release 8), (2009).
9. IEEE 802.16 Standard for local and metropolitan area networks, Part 16: Air interface for broadband wireless
access systems, (2009).
10. ECMA-368 standard: High rate ultra wideband PHY and MAC standard, (2008).
11. M. Morant, T. Alves, A. Cartaxo, and R. Llorente, Transmission impairment compensation using broadband
channel sounding in multi-format OFDM-based long-reach PONs, in Proceedings of Optical Fiber
Communication Conference, OSA Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, 2012), paper OW3B.2.

1. Introduction
Next-generation optical access networks need to deal with high capacity services providing
high bitrate per-user to a continuously increasing number of users. The use of orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulated transmission has been proposed as a
good solution to achieve long-reach transmission altogether with high capacity in fiber-to-thehome (FTTH) access networks [1]. The radio-over-fiber (RoF) transmission of fully standard
OFDM-based radio signals in coexistence with wired OFDM data signal enables the
integration of wireless in the optical access, mutualizing network equipment at the central
office. This simplifies network operation and increases the added-value for
telecommunications operators [2]. In this paper, an optical architecture based on converged
optical access and in-building distribution forming a deep FTTH access network as depicted
in Fig. 1 is proposed. The integration of the in-building optical distribution with the FTTH
network enables an extended capacity of the access network [3]. Also, from the operators
point-of-view, deep FTTH decreases the OpEx costs by reducing the active elements in actual
cooper-based access networks [4]. In this work, several OFDM-based radio signals are
transmitted simultaneously including full-standard 3GPP long term evolution (LTE), IEEE
802.16 worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), ECMA-368 ultra-wide
band (UWB) and ETSI terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T). An ad-hoc I/Q OFDM
signal is transmitted in coexistence with these fully standard radio signals forming a OFDM
bundle to provide quintuple-play services comprising broadband wired Internet, voice, highdefinition TV, wireless data and home security services. The proposed access architecture
follows next-generation long-reach PON (NG-PON2) definition proposed by FSAN [5].
Using this approach, the optical network termination (ONT) is simplified as no re-modulation
or frequency upconversion is required. At the ONT, the wireless signals are radiated
following the relevant standard in the corresponding regulated frequencies and received by
fully standard devices. In this paper, the on-the-field operation of a multi-user wavelength
division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) with integrated in-building
optical and electrical distribution is demonstrated in a real FTTH network.
ONT

USER DATA

OLT

Feeder
fiber

DS
I/Q
OFDM TX

DVB-T

Distribution
fiber

Management

DS

LTE
WiMAX
UWB

In-building
ClearCurve
Fiber

(other services)

RX
Channel
sounding
message

Pilots
Generator

I/Q
OFDM
RX

Manager

US up to
100 km
SSMF

Remote
Node

TX

PIN

LTE, WiMAX, UWB

f
f

I/Q demod

channel sounding

data

OFDM-GbE

FPGA
CONTROL

Control message (information

from the extra RF-pilots)

I/Q mod
RX

up to
25 km
SSMF

adapter

DML US

DVB-T Legacy in-building coaxial network

and power-over-coax distribution

Fig. 1. FTTH application scenario for quintuple-play service provision including in-building
fiber distribution and DVB-T legacy coaxial network.

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Received 7 Oct 2013; revised 29 Nov 2013; accepted 1 Dec 2013; published 10 Mar 2014
24 March 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 6 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.006203 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6204

2. On-the-field demonstration
The FTTH network employed for the on-the-field demonstration is deployed in Bratislava by
Towercom operator and is currently providing service to approximately 14.000 households.
Figure 2 shows the map of the on-the-field tests where the OLT is located at Towercom tower
premises Fig. 2(a) and it is connected to the on-the-field fiber distribution Fig. 2(b) using
B-Lite MB SP1358 microcable containing 12 micro-bundles of 12 fibers each Fig. 2(c). At
the distribution point Fig. 2(d), the signal is routed to a test flat in Bratislava central district
where an open-house demonstrator Fig. 2(e) shows the quintuple-play functionalities as
represented in Fig. 2(f).
(a)

Bratislava
city map

(d) Distribution point

OLT
(c) Deployed fiber

Towercom
(b) OLT feeder
connections

Feeder
fiber
(e) Open-house demonstrator

Distribution
fiber
ONT
(f) Quintuple-play
service provision

Fig. 2. Map of the on-the-field demonstration in Towercom FTTH network deployed in

Bratislava. Insets: (a) Towercom operator main premises at broadcasting communication
tower, (b) OLT feeder connections to Bratislava, (c) deployed fiber, (d) distribution point
connecting the feeder with the distribution fiber, (e) open-house demonstrator, and
(f) quintuple-play service provision.

Figure 3 shows the experimental setup installed in the operator premises for evaluating the
performance of the RoF provision of quintuple-play services using the integrated FTTH and
in-building network. The quintuple-play bundle comprises the following OFDM signals:
Two neighboring DVB-T channels generated with Ikusi MAC-401 generators at central
frequencies 762 MHz and 770 MHz (UHF ch57 and ch58) configured according to
ETSI standard with 8 MHz bandwidth, 8k 64QAM carriers, 1/32 guard interval and
7/8 code rate [6]. Each DVB-T channel provides four TV programs.
An OFDM-GbE signal generated with an I/Q OFDM modem developed by Fibernova
Systems S.L. to provide Gbit Ethernet (GbE) capabilities. The OFDM-GbE signal at
1.5 GHz occupies 1 GHz bandwidth [7]. This signal provides bi-directional GbE
connectivity and also includes the upstream management data.
A 3GPP LTE signal, working in frequency division duplex (FDD) [8], is generated in
the 2.6 GHz band with an Agilent E4438C electrical signal generator (ESG).
An IEEE 802.16 WiMAX signal [9] at 3.5 GHz, initially generated with a E4438C and
then with a Ruggedcom RuggedMAX WiN7200 base station for wireless data and
security provision via a wireless security camera installed at customer premises.
An ECMA-368 UWB channel at 3.96 GHz with 528 MHz bandwidth [10] generated
with a Wisair transmitter. UWB provides HD audio and video broadcasting.
With this configuration, the aggregated downstream (DS) bitrate per user is 1.45 Gbit/s.
Figure 4(a) shows the generated electrical spectrum for DS measured at point (1) of Fig. 3
that includes extra RF-pilots in the free-spectrum for channel sounding monitoring [11].

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Distribution
fibers

Optical Line Termination

DS1 DS2 DS3 DS4
(OLT)
(1)

8x1

MUXDS (3) Feeder

fiber
DS1
OSA

bias1

1x4

DVB-T
LTE
UWB
RF-Pilots
WiMAX
OFDM-GbE
FPGA
Centralized
Management

ONT #4

DS4

MUXUS

APD

3 dB
PIN

US2
OF

US3

EDFARN

US4

WiMAX,
DS UWB
LTE, UWB
OFDM-GbE (4)
Ethernet
OFDM-GbE cable
PILOTS
FPGA

DML

US1

DEMUXUS
US1
US2

(6)

PIN

In-building
100 m
ClearCurve

DS4

bias4

LTE, WiMAX
OFDM-GbE

ONT #3

DS3

OF
EDFARN

DS3

bias3

ONT #2

Remote Node
DEMUXDS DS1
DS2

DS2

bias2

ONT #1

US3

21 dB C
LPF
L

Adapter

US4

(2)

US

WiMAX
CPE
Coaxial
LTE
20 m DDPM
DVB-T
(5)
C

5.5 VDC

Power

DVB-T

Fig. 3. Experimental setup for the on-the-field testing installed in Towercom FTTH network.
LTE

-20

WiMAX
UWB

-50
-70
-90
-110

(a)

DVB-T OFDM-GbE

-30

PSD (dBm/MHz)

PSD (dBm/MHz)

-10

RF-pilots
0

0.6

1.2

1.8 2.4 3.0 3.6

Frequency (GHz)

4.2

4.8

-30

LTE
WiMAX

-50
-60
-70

(b)

OFDM-GbE

-40

0.6

1.2

1.8
3.0
2.4
Frequency (GHz)

3.6

4.2

Fig. 4. Electrical spectrum at: (a) downstream (DS) measured at point (1) of Fig. 3, and
(b) upstream (US) measured at point (2) of Fig. 3 (RBW = 1 MHz).

The different OFDM services are combined considering the specific power levels which
minimizes mutual interference. The bundle is pre-compensated to minimize the crosstalk and
improve the performance after long-reach optical transmission using the information
extracted from the RF-pilots and included in the upstream (US) OFDM-GbE, as proposed in
[11]. Figure 4(b) shows the US spectrum from the bi-directional OFDM-GbE, LTE and
WiMAX signals, measured at point (2) of Fig. 3. According to the regulated wireless bands,
the LTE US signal is located at 2.57 GHz and the WiMAX US at 3.47 GHz.
A multi-user demonstration is performed using 4 Mach-Zehnder modulators operating at
quadrature bias point fed by continuous wave lasers in the 100 GHz ITU grid at optical
channels ch33 (1550.92 nm), ch34 (1550.12 nm), ch35 (1549.32 nm) and ch36 (1548.51 nm).
These four wavelengths are combined by a thin film dense wavelength division multiplexer
with 100 GHz (0.8 nm) channel spacing. For the upstream direction, a directly modulated
laser (DML) working at the optical channel ch43 (1542.94 nm) is used. The DML has 4 GHz
bandwidth and threshold Ith = 8.1 mA and bias Ibias = 30 mA currents (Fitel FRL15DDAA).
At the remote node (RN) optical amplification using Erbium doped fiber amplifier
(EDFA) is included following FSAN long-reach extension definition. Optical amplification
can be avoided in short reach fiber deployments. Optical circulators are used to address the
downstream and upstream paths. At the RN, each user wavelength is demultiplexed to a
distribution fiber till customer premises.
As it can be observed in Fig. 1, an adapter is located at customer premises to connect the
access network to the in-building optical and electrical distribution networks. As depicted in
detail in Fig. 3, the adapter comprises a 3 dB optical power splitter to connect both the optical
and the electrical in-building networks. From one side, for the optical in-building network, the
adapter is directly connected to the in-home optical distribution comprising 100 m of Corning
ClearCurve bend-insensitive single mode fiber (BI-SMF). The optical in-building
distribution arrives to the ONT where the OFDM-GbE is received by the I/Q OFDM modem
including filtering (VLF-400+ and VHF-880+) and the LTE, WiMAX and UWB signals are
filtered (VHF-1500+) and radiated together to the final user (ensuring that the UWB spectral

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Received 7 Oct 2013; revised 29 Nov 2013; accepted 1 Dec 2013; published 10 Mar 2014
24 March 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 6 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.006203 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6206

mask is met at the antenna). In addition, the signal quality is measured at the ONT with a realtime oscilloscope Agilent DSO91304A to ensure that the EVM at the transmitter antenna
meets the wireless standard requirements. From the other side, for the electrical in-building
distribution, the DVB-T signal is photodetected, filtered, amplified and directly transmitted
along the legacy coaxial network available in the building. In the on-the-field experiments, 20
m of 75 coaxial network is used. This approach enables the simultaneous low-power
distribution over coaxial to supply power to USB devices [7]. The signal is received with a
DVB-T distribution and low-power micro-module (DDPM) and measured using R&S ETL
TV analyzer. Low-power voltage (5.5 V) is distributed in the coaxial cabling supplying power
to a DVB-T receiver that can be connected to a legacy analog TV set.
3. Experimental results
3.1 Multi-user performance evaluation

(a)

10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
1530

DS @ OLT (3)
US @ OLT (3)

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1550.92 nm
(b) ITU ch33

OFDM-GbE
WiMAX
DVB-T ch57

LTE
UWB
DVB-T ch58

EVM (%)

Optical power (dBm)

The performance of the network in multi-user operation is evaluated using four downstream
wavelengths following the 100 GHz grid. Figure 5(a) shows the optical spectrum measured at
the OLT point (3) of Fig. 3. The quality of the OFDM-based signals is measured at
customer premises after 10.8 km FTTH access network. The OFDM-GbE and the fullstandard wireless signals are received at the ONT after 100 m of BI-SMF. The DVB-T signals
are transmitted through 20 m of coaxial cabling and connected to a television to receive the
TV programs. The EVM of the signals measured in each downstream wavelength in
simultaneous transmission is represented in Fig. 5(b) and we can observe only small
deviations between the different wavelengths. The maximum EVM deviation was obtained
for OFDM-GbE signal with a difference of 7.1% between optical channels ch35 and ch33 due
to the different laser performance and transmitter optical power levels as it can be observed in
Fig. 5(a) optical spectrum. This difference is smaller in WiMAX signals where the EVM
difference for the same channels is only 2%.

1535

1540

1545

1550

1555

1560

Wavelength (nm)

1550.12 nm
ITU ch34

1549.32 nm
ITU ch35

1548.51 nm
ITU ch36

Fig. 5. (a) Optical spectrum measured at point (3) of Fig. 3. (b) Measured DS EVM at 10.8 km
optical link for different optical channels in a multi-user configuration for OFDM-GbE, LTE,
WiMAX and UWB after 100 m of BI-SMF, and DVB-T ch57 and ch58 after 20 m coaxial.

3.2 Long-reach performance evaluation

The performance of the quintuple-play service provision when the network reach increases
was also evaluated by measuring the quality of the OFDM-based signals for different optical
links (L). The feeder and distribution fiber links were configured to have different FTTH
network distances: L = 10.8 km comprising Lfeeder = 5.4 km + Ldistribution = 5.4 km with
installed on-the-field fiber losses of 4.75 dB; L = 35.8 km with Lfeeder = 25 km + Ldistribution =
10.8 km and 12.5 dB total losses; L = 60.8 km with Lfeeder = 50 km + Ldistribution = 10.8 km
having 20.79 dB losses; and L = 85.8 km formed by Lfeeder = 75 km + Ldistribution = 10.8 km
giving 28.72 dB losses.
The measurements were done in multi-user configuration by transmitting simultaneously
four downstream signals as shown in Fig. 5(a). For simplicity, Fig. 6 shows the measured
EVM in the DS path at the center optical channel ch35 (wavelength DS = 1549.32 nm) for the
different optical links (L). The performance of the other channels follow the same behavior as

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Received 7 Oct 2013; revised 29 Nov 2013; accepted 1 Dec 2013; published 10 Mar 2014
24 March 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 6 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.006203 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6207

EVM (%)

depicted in Fig. 5(b). As shown in Fig. 6(a), all the wireless signals analyzed at the ONT meet
the quality requirements defined at the antenna by the different wireless standards
(EVMLTE<12.5% [8], EVMWiMAX<6% [9], EVMUWB<18.84% [10]) after 60.8 km of SSMF
and integrated 100 m BI-SMF in-building distribution. In addition, the OFDM-GbE measured
bit error rate (BER) was 5.5103 for this distance.
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

(a)

OFDM-GbE
WiMAX
DVB-T ch57

10

20

30

DVB-T ch57

DVB-T ch58

OFDM-GbE

EVM=4.9%
LTE

EVM=4.68%
WiMAX

EVM=21.8%
UWB

LTE
UWB
DVB-T ch58

40

50

60

70

80

90

L (km)

(b)

EVM=4.33% EVM=5.62% EVM= 17.18%

Fig. 6. (a) Measured DS EVM at DS = 1549.32 nm (ch35) for different optical reaches for
OFDM-GbE, LTE, WiMAX and UWB after 100 m of BI-SMF measured at point (4) of Fig.
3, and DVB-T ch57 and ch58 after 20 m coaxial measured at point (5) of Fig. 3.
(b) Measured constellations after 60.8 km optical transmission and in-building distribution.

At the DDPM, the DVB-T signals are also received correctly after 60.8 km FTTH
network with integrated in-building electrical distribution of 20 m legacy coaxial with a
EVMDVB-T<5.83% (which gives a modulation error ratio MER<21 dB at the TV plug). The
measured DVB-T BER was 1.6106 and the audio and video programming was received
properly at the TV. Figure 6(b) shows the measured DS constellations for all the services after
60.8 km of optical transmission.
In the US, the signals are detected with a 10 Gb/s APD-TIA receiver. Figure 7 shows the
US results and received constellations. Adequate performance of the upstream operation is
confirmed after 60.8 km enabling bi-directional communication through the network.
30
OFDM-GbE
LTE
WiMAX

EVM (%)

25
20

OFDM-GbE

15

LTE

WiMAX

10
5
0

10

(a)

20

30

40

L (km)

50

60

EVM= 21.9%

70

EVM= 2.15% EVM= 4.04%

(b)

Fig. 7. (a) Measured US EVM at US = 1542.94 nm (ch43) for different optical reaches and
(b) measured US constellations for signals after 60.8 km optical transmission at point (6) of
Fig. 3.

4. Conclusion
This paper reports the first on-the-field WDM-PON multi-user transmission of quintuple-play
OFDM-based services in a real FTTH network of Towercom operator in Bratislava
(Slovakia). Radio-over-fiber transmission in deep FTTH access networks enables the
provision of an ad-hoc I/Q OFDM with GbE capabilities with simultaneous full-standard
OFDM-based signals (DVB-T, LTE, WiMAX and UWB) meeting the wireless spectral mask
with EVM-compliant levels at the transmitter antenna.
Multi-user operation is demonstrated in a four downstream wavelength configuration
operating in the 100 GHz ITU grid with excellent performance. The experimental results
confirm the successful service provision at 60.8 km optical reach including integrated optical

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(C) 2014 OSA

Received 7 Oct 2013; revised 29 Nov 2013; accepted 1 Dec 2013; published 10 Mar 2014
24 March 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 6 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.006203 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6208

and electrical deep in-building distribution including 100 m BI-SMF and 20 m for DVB-T
distribution in the coaxial cabling already deployed at costumer premises.
Acknowledgment
This work was partly funded by the European Commission FP7 ICT-4-249142 FIVER
project. Support from Spain National Plan project MODAL TEC2012-38558-C02-01 and
Generalitat Valenciana VALi+D postdoc program APOSTD/2013/030 is acknowledged.

#199103 - $15.00 USD

(C) 2014 OSA

Received 7 Oct 2013; revised 29 Nov 2013; accepted 1 Dec 2013; published 10 Mar 2014
24 March 2014 | Vol. 22, No. 6 | DOI:10.1364/OE.22.006203 | OPTICS EXPRESS 6209