Real-time in-service ODN monitoring based on receiver-side DSP for next-generation PONs

Increased delivery of more premium access services over passive optical networks (PONs) has made in-operation optical distribution network monitoring and fault detection a new requirement from operators. In addition to fiber infrastructure monitoring and fault detection, the newly developed monitoring technology can also be used to turn the PON into an intelligent sensing network. Using a PON as a sensing network can provide a range of new sensing applications, which might also result in new business cases for operators. In this paper, we propose to employ digital signal processing on the receiver side, which has become available in the latest standardized 50G PON, as a platform for enabling monitoring and the use of a PON as a sensing network.