RITE-Net: A Passive Optical Network Architecture Based on the Remote Interrogation of Terminal Equipment

Abstract

Current passive optical networks (PONs) utilize a splitter at the remote node (RN) to distribute signals from a central office (CO) to N subscribing optical network units (ONUs). Although commercially attractive for low rates [1], the bus’ optical loss hampers future upgrades and TDM/TDMA protocols add network vulnerability if violated. WDM PONs have been proposed [2,3], but have not been accepted due to costly wavelength-specific lasers and the complexity of locking their 2N wavelengths to a remote WDM's wavelength channels.