CATV, LTE and Data Convergence Test in

Optical Access Networks

Milton N. Tipán, Germán V. Arévalo, Iván N. Cano, Ferney Amaya-Fernández


Abstract— An optical access network with LTE, optical data, and
CATV signals is experimentally studied. Rx sensitivities of -27.5 II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
dBm, -26 dBm, and -24 dBm were obtained at bitrates of 1.25
Three signals were transmitted simultaneously in the
Gb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s at BER=10-4; whereas Rx optical
power of -27 dBm is needed at an EVM of 28.2% for LTE. The
experiment: LTE, optical data, and CATV. The three
minimum spectral separation is also measured showing the effect transmitters (Tx) were based on optical intensity modulation.
of the high power CATV on the other two signals. The LTE signal was produced by a vector signal generator. The
modulation inside the LTE was quadrature phase shift keying
Index Terms— optical access networks, PON, CATV, LTE, (QPSK) with binary phase shift keying (BPSK) pilot tones at a
convergence. bit rate of 8.4 Mb/s. The signal was upconverted to an electrical
intermediate frequency of 1.9 GHz. It then modulated the light
I. INTRODUCTION produced by a distributed feedback laser (DFB) through a
Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) biased at the quadrature
I n recent years the demand on capacity in access networks is
increasing rapidly due to the provisioning of voice, video,
data, mobility with high number of user [1]. In particular, the
point. The DFB emitted at 1553.33 nm and the optical power
was limited to 0 dBm. The CATV consisted of 100 analog
signal channels; each with 6 MHz bandwidth (BW) starting at
transmission of both wired and wireless signal has become 55.25 MHz generated with an arbitrary waveform generator
attractive for the cost-effective implementation of the access (AWG). It modulatde a DFB laser by means of a MZM. The
network in the context of offering quintuple-play services in the DFB emitted at 1554.13 nm. The optical signal was amplified
same network [2]. Radio over fiber (RoF) offers a combination with an erbium doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) to obtain an
of high capacity and low attenuation within optical fiber optical power of 10 dBm. Such power emulated a typical
together with the flexibility of wireless networks. Moreover, in CATV signal. For the third signal, a pseudo-random binary
order to reduce the complexity of remote antenna unit (RAU), sequence (PRBS) of 231 was used to modulate a DFB through a
the infrastructure and equipment can be shared between several MZM also biased at the quadrature point. Bit rates of 1.25 Gb/s,
base stations (BS) through passive optical network (PON) 2.5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s were used to emulate current optical
architecture [3-4]. access networks standards. The DFB launched light at 1554.94
Recently, high video quality requirement for fiber optical nm and the modulated optical signal power was limited to 0
cable television (CATV) transport systems has becoming dBm. Fig 1 depicts the block diagram of the setup.
widespread throughout the cable industry. However, The three optical signals were joined with a 4:1 optical
transmitted optical power level for CATV signals typically coupler and were launched together through 25 km of single
need to be ≥ 10 dBm [5]. This high optical power level will mode optical fiber (SMF). The inset in Fig. 1 shows the optical
spectrum in the fiber with the three signals coexisting.
induce a variety of nonlinear effects and to limit coexist with
After the SMF, a variable optical attenuator (VOA)
other services signals.
emulated the splitting in an access network. It was followed by
In this paper we study the effect of CATV signal over
an optical amplifier (OA) to compensate for the optical losses.
long-term evolution (LTE) and data signal in wavelength The OA was a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and it
division multiplexing (WDM) access networks base on was needed because of the low responsivity of the photodiodes
intensity modulation and direct-detection by means varied (PD). An optical demultiplexer separated the signals for
channel spectral separation. The results indicate that the individual detection. Only the LTE and optical data were
minimum measured channel spectral separation was 0.43 nm detected as the objective was to observe the effect of the CATV
for to avoid any penalty. on them. The optical receiver (Rx) of both the LTE and optical
data was based on direct-detection with a single PD. The PD
used had 10 GHz BW and 0.25 A/W responsivity. The
Milton N. Tipán and Germán V. Arévalo are with Grupo de Investigación en electrical signals were then electrically amplified. For the LTE
Electrónica y Telemática, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, 170525, Quito, signal, an electrical mixer downconverted the waveform to
Ecuador (e-mail: mtipans@ups.edu.ec).
Ferney Amaya-Fernandéz is with Grupo de Investigación de Desarrollo y baseband. The LTE frames were then detected and the error
Aplicaciones en Telecomunicaciones e Informática, Universidad Pontificia vector magnitude (EVM) was measured. For the optical data,
Bolivariana, 56006, Medellín, Colombia (ferney.amaya@upb.edu.co) after electrical amplification, the signal was low-pass filtered at
Iván N. Cano is with the Department of Signal Theory and Communication, 0.8 the bitrate. Finally, the bits were detected and the bit error
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08034 Barcelona, Spain (e-mail:
ivan.cano@tsc.upc.edu). rate (BER) was computed, by each bit rate transmission.
978-1-5090-5137-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Fig. 1 Setup schematics. The inset shows the optical spectra in the SMF (IM: intensity modulator, IF: intermediate frequency, BERT: bit error rate tester)

BER=10-3 which is enough for forward error correction (FEC)

III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION techniques [3]. At the aforementioned EVM limit, the Rx
Firstly, the optical data and LTE signals were characterized optical power needed was -27 dBm. This value was expected as
independently. For this, the CATV was disconnected. The the intermediate frequency (IF) was set at 1.9 GHz. Hence, the
results of the optical signal at 1.25 Gb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s overall BW and performance was similar to the 1.25 Gb/s
are plotted in Fig. 2. For a bitrate of 1.25 Gb/s the Rx sensitivity optical data signal.
at BER=10-9 and BER=10-4 was -25 dBm and -27.5 dBm Since both the LTE and optical data signal had the same Tx
respectively. For 2.5 Gb/s, a penalty of 2 dB was observed at values, a slight penalty in the performance could be expected
both BER reaching Rx sensitivities of -23 dBm and almost -26 when transmitted together. Moreover, as the optical spectral
dBm at BER=10-9 and BER=10-4. A higher penalty was separation between them was 1.6 nm (almost 200 GHz), the
expected for the 10 Gb/s signal due to the BW limitation of the interference among the signals was very limited. Considering
components. However, Rx sensitivities of -21 dBm and -24 an optical data signal of 1.25 Gb/s, the system could serve up to
dBm at BER=10-9 and BER=10-4 were obtained indicating 64 users. On the other hand, for a 10 Gb/s, only 32 users could
penalties of just 4 dB compared with 1.25 Gb/s. have service.

Fig. 2 BER against Rx optical power for the optical data signal at 1.25 Gb/s, 2.5 Fig. 3 EVM against Rx optical power for the LTE signal. The insets from right
Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s. The inset shows the eye-diagram measured at BER=10-9. to left show the detected constellations at EVMs of 8 %, 27 %, and 65 %.

The LTE signal was also tested individually. The Having characterized the optical data and LTE signals, both
performance in terms of the EVM against Rx optical power is were coupled and transmitted with the CATV one through the
presented in Fig. 3. For this signal, the bitrate was left constant fiber. Initially, there was no effect as the three components
at 8.4 Mb/s. An EVM of 28.2 % (dotted line in Fig. 3.) was were spectrally separated by 100 GHz approximately. Then, the
considered as a limit value because it corresponded to CATV wavelength was first tuned towards the optical data. The
optical Rx power was left constant at -25.5 dBm, -23.6 dBm,
and -22 dBm for 1.25 Gb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s respectively.
These values guaranteed a BER = 10-8. Fig. 4 presents the
performance in terms of the BER against the optical spectral
separation (Δλ) between the optical data and CATV. We want
to point out that the LTE signal was also transmitted during this
test.

Fig. 5 EVM against optical spectral separation between the LTE and CATV
signals. The insets show the Rx constellations at EVM of 61%, 28%, and 7%.

It was observed that for both LTE and optical data signals,
the required Δλ was higher than four times the occupied BW.
This value limits the available spectral occupation in the whole
spectrum. The penalty is expected due to the high power of the
Fig.4 BER against optical spectral separation between the optical data and the CATV signal. Lower Δλ are presumed with a weaker CATV
CATV signals at 1.25 Gb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s. The insets show the Rx which is left for a future experiment towards a fully convergent
eye-diagram at BER=10-3. optical access network.

The plots for bitrates of 1.25 Gb/s and 2.5 Gb/s show a IV. CONCLUSION
similar behavior. For a Δλ of 0.38 nm (47.5 GHz @ 1550 nm)
there is no penalty in the BER for the aforementioned bitrates. An optical access network transmitting simultaneously LTE,
Considering a penalty of 1 dB (passing from BER=10 -8 to optical data, and CATV signals was experimentally tested. Rx
BER=10-6), the minimum Δλ is 0.375 nm (46.9 GHz). In other sensitivities of -27.5 dBm, -26 dBm, and -24 dBm were
words, a reduction of just 625 MHz is sufficient to cause a 1 dB measured at 1.25 Gb/s, 2.5 Gb/s, and 10 Gb/s at BER=10 -4;
penalty in the performance. If a limit BER=10 -4 is considered, whereas Rx optical power of -27 dBm was obtained at an EVM
then the minimum Δλ tolerated is 0.37 nm (46.25 GHz). of 28.2% for the LTE signal. When the three signals were
In the case 10 Gb/s, the minimum separation for BER=10-4 is transmitted, a minimum optical separation of 0.43 nm is needed
0.378 nm (47.25 GHz). This value is relatively small compared to avoid any penalty, and for keeping the performance below
with the 0.43 nm (53.75 GHz) needed for BER=10 -8. However, the FEC level, an optical spectral separation of 0.375 nm and
the slope of the curve changes at BER=10-6 suggesting that a 0.385 nm was measured for optical data and LTE respectively.
BER floor could appear below BER=10 -8. The main cause for A weaker CATV signal is expected to reduce the penalty and
this effect is the high power of the CATV signal which reduces permit shorter spectral separation.
the optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR) of the optical data. As a
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