ICP2010-98

Simulation of 1.25 Gb/s Downstream

Transmission Performance of GPON-FTTx
Hesham A. Bakarman, Sahbudin Shaari, Member, IEEE, and Mahamod Ismail, Member, IEEE

data from a single optical line termination (OLT) toward

Abstract— In this paper, 1.25 Gb/s GPON downstream link is multiple optical network units (ONUs) or optical network
presented. All the optical distribution network (ODN) classes are terminations (ONTs). A burst-mode link in the 1310-nm
implemented, using Optisystem, to investigate the transmission window collects all ONU/ONT upstream traffic toward the
capability and performance of the proposed downstream physical
OLT as variable-length packets at a 1.25-Gb/s aggregate rate,
media (PM) GPON model. Some of the design constraints
involved in an optical network design such as fiber span analysis, in a P2MP time-division multiple-access (TDMA) scheme.
power budget and margin calculations are taken into This paper focuses on the downlink part only. It presents
consideration with worst case. The quality or performance of a transmission performance of downstream link GPON network
digital communication system is specified by its BER or Q value with 1.25 Gb/s bit rate.
with respect to other parameters such as receiver sensitivity. The
simulated model can support 18, 50 and 128 number of users for
classes A, B, and C respectively.

Index Terms— Bit error rate, fiber to the home, GPON,

passive optical network

I. INTRODUCTION

Tpassive
passive optical network (PON) technology is based on
HE
star fiber network and offers a cost effective
optical access solution with point-to-multipoint (P2MP)
nature. With rapidly growing customer bandwidth
requirements and proliferation of bandwidth in metro
networks, broadband passive optical networks (BPONs) [1],
[2] and the emerging gigabit-capable passive optical networks
(GPONs) are expected to prevail as the leading optical access
technology eliminating the bandwidth bottleneck in the last
mile. The full-services access networks (FSAN) GPON can Fig. 1. GPON network architecture for FTTx scenarios.
provide high bandwidth services to customers following
different fiber-to-the premises/ cabinet/building/home/user
(FTTx) scenarios [3]. II. GPON ACCESS NETWORK
Recently, the FSAN initiated GPON network
standardization via recommendations for the GPON physical- Due to the limitation of the ADSL (asymmetric digital
media-dependent (PMD) layer and the transmission subscriber line) service, which suffers from limited
convergence (TC) layer [4], [5]. Figure 1 illustrates a transmission speed and distance, because it uses conventional
symmetric 1.25 Gb/s GPON access system. metallic cables, optical access is expected to become the
A continuous downlink in the wavelength band of 1480– default broadband access system in the future. For this reason,
1500 nm carries 1.25 Gb/s time-division-multiplexed (TDM) ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union—
Telecommunication Standardization Sector) has discussed a
Hesham A. Bakarman is with the Photonics Technology Laboratory (PTL), standard for optical access systems called G-PON (Gigabit
Institute of Micro Engineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN) Universiti passive optical network), which is an optical access system
Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, 43600 UKM Bangi Malaysia (phone: 03-8736- with gigabit per second-class transmission capability; it is
0705; e-mail: hesham@ vlsi.eng.ukm.my).
Sahbudin Shaari , was with Photonics Technology Laboratory (PTL), suitable as the next-generation optical access system.
Institute of Micro Engineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN) Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, 43600 UKM Bangi Malaysia (e-mail: A. Previous Optical Access System Standards
sahbudin@vlsi.eng.ukm.my). ITU-T has created several standards for optical access
Mahamod Ismail is with the Electrical, Electronics and Systems
Engineering Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, 43600
systems. One of the most important is the BPON (Broadband
UKM Bangi Malaysia (e-mail: mahamod@vlsi.eng.ukm.my). PON) standard. PON is a network topology that shares a

978-1-4244-7187-4/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

ICP2010-98

single optical fiber among two or more customers. Figure 2

shows its basic structure. The main feature is that network
equipment, called OLT placed in a central office, is connected
to the optical network terminal equipment, called ONU
installed in a customer’s premises, via an optical splitter. Since
several customers share the optical fiber and OLT, PON can
offer economical services by reducing subscriber (or
customer) cost. For these reasons, a PON system is considered
to be eminently suitable for the future optical access system.

Fig. 3. GPON generic physical configuration of the optical distribution

network

Fig. 4. Reference physical medium model

Fig. 2. Basic composition of PON
Just above the purely optical layer there is a layer for
B-PON was developed as a PON system that uses ATM
electrical-to-optical and optical-to-electrical conversion; the
cells for transmission and has a maximum access speed of 155
electrical-to-optical conversion function is performed by a
Mbit/s upstream and 622 Mbit/s downstream. By using ATM
semiconductor laser diode, turning an electrical current signal
cells, B-PON can accommodate various services, such as
into an optical power signal. At the other side of the link, the
Internet or CATV services.
optical-to-electrical conversion is performed by an optical
receiver comprising a semiconductor photodiode and an
B. Network Architecture of the GPON electrical (pre) amplifier. A further layer is then added above
The PON access technology is a passive tree network in the analogue electrical layer for the conversion from/to the
which one OLT serves up to 128 customers [6]. Figure 3 electrical digital layer. Digital-to-analogue conversion is
depicts the reference points and the optical interfaces of the performed by the laser driver (including an electrical filter) in
generic physical configuration of the ODN (G.983.2). The two one direction and by the decision stage in the opposite
directions for optical transmission in the ODN (Optical direction. The digital layer is very useful for the link
Distribution Network) are identified for the symmetric GPON performance evaluation since it allows the BER evaluation.
as follows: This model can be used for every fiber optics digital
(1) Downstream direction for signals traveling from the transmission system [3].
OLT to the ONU(s):
D. 1.25 Gb/s Downstream PMD Layer Specifications
• Wavelength: 1480-1500 nm (basic band)
• Physical link rate: 1.24416 Gbit/s, TDM The optical parameters defined in [5] refer to values
(2) Upstream direction for signals traveling from the measured at S/R and R/S points, as shown in Figure 3. In this
ONU(s) to the OLT: paper, all the ODN classes are considered, therefore Class A,
• Wavelength: 1260-1360 nm bands Class B, and Class C parameters are reported.
• Physical link rate: 1.24416 Gbit/s, TDMA
III. NETWORK DESIGN AND MODELING
C. Physical Media Building Blocks
A network planner needs to optimize the various electrical
Figure 4 show the purely optical layer includes the optical and optical parameters to ensure smooth operations of an
fiber, splitters, WDM multiplexers/demultiplexers, connectors, optical network. Whether the network topology is that of a
attenuators, optical filters and optical amplifiers (not used in point-to-point link, a ring, or a mesh, system design inherently
this simulation). can be considered to be of two separate parts: optical system
design and electrical or higher-layer system design. This
section explores some of the design constraints involved in an
ICP2010-98

optical network design such as power budget and margin Simulation schematic in Optisystem software. In the left side,
calculations. where the OLT transmitter part is located, an external
To ensure that the fiber system has sufficient power for modulated transmitter is used. It consists of continuous wave
correct operation, network designer needs to calculate the laser source, Mach-Zehender modulator, NRZ pulse generator
span’s power budget, which is the maximum amount of power and pseudo random sequence generator. The right hand side
it can transmit [7]. From a design perspective, worst-case an ONT receiver should have photodiode, low pass filter and
analysis calls for assuming minimum transmitter power and clock and data recovery. The link, sometimes called channel,
minimum receiver sensitivity. This provides for a margin that is consists of 20 km of single mode fiber SMF28 and optical
compensates for variations of transmitter power and receiver attenuator so as to add the loss for all the ODN classes.
sensitivity levels

Power budget ( P ) = Minimum transmitte r power ( PT

b min ) − (1)
Minimum receiver sensitivit y ( PR min )

The span losses can be calculated by adding the various

linear and nonlinear losses. Factors that can cause span or link
loss include fiber attenuation, splice attenuation, connector
attenuation, chromatic dispersion, and other linear and
nonlinear losses

Span loss ( P ) = ( Fiber attenuatio n * Km ) + ( Splice attenuatio n * number of

s
splices ) + ( Connector attenuatio n * number of connectors ) + (2)
Fig. 5. GPON downstream simulation schematic in Optisystem
( In line device losses ) + ( Nonlinear losses ) + ( Safety m arg in )

B. Bit Error Rate

The next calculation involves the power margin ( Pm ),
The worst-case probability of error (BER) as function of the
which represents the amount of power available after
received input optical power Pr is shown in figure 6. The
subtracting linear and nonlinear span losses ( Ps ) from the
curve given in this figure is usually referred as performance
power budget ( Pb ). A Pm greater than zero indicates that the curve or BER curve of a conventional optical transmission
power budget is sufficient to operate the receiver. The formula system with high intensity modulation and direct detection
for power margin ( Pm ) is as follows: (IM/DD). Due to intensity modulation, this system is
completely insensitive to laser phase noise. The dominant
(3) sources of noise are thermal noise and not shot noise, which
Power m arg in ( Pm ) = Power budget ( Pb ) − Span loss ( Ps )
considered being approximately Gaussian distributed [8].
The quality or performance of a digital communication
To prevent receiver saturation, the input power received by system is specified by its BER or Q value. The BER is
the receiver, after the signal has undergone span loss, must not specified as the average probability of incorrect bit
exceed the maximum receiver sensitivity specification identification. In general, the higher the received Q-value, the
( PR max ). This signal level is denoted as ( P Iin ). The lower the BER probability will be. Mathematically, equation
maximum transmitter power ( PR max ) must be considered as (5) gives the Q-factor of an optical signal.
the launch power for this calculation. The span loss ( Ps )
Q=
I1 − I 0 (5)
remains constant. I1 + I 0

Input power ( P ) = Maximum transmitte r powre ( PT ) − Span loss (4) where, I 1 is the value of the 1-bit current, I 0 is the value
in max
The design equation: of the 0-bit current, σ 1 is the standard deviation of the 1-bit
Input power ( P Iin ) <= Maximum receiver sensitivity current, and σ 0 is the standard deviation of the 0-bit current.
( PR max ) must be satisfied to prevent receiver saturation and The relationship of Q-factor to BER is defined as:
ensure system viability. If the input power ( P Iin ) is greater
BER =
1
erfc (
Q
) (6)
than the maximum receiver sensitivity ( PR max ), passive 2 2

attenuation must be considered to reduce signal level and

bring it within the dynamic range of the receiver. If noise is Gaussian, the BER is also expressed as [9]:

A. GPON Downstream Simulation Model

Figure 5 shows the proposed GPON Downstream
ICP2010-98

-30 -29 -28 -27 -26 -25 -24 -23 -22 -21 -20 every 1012 bits can be corrupted during transmission.
0.01 Figure 7 shows the minimum BER for class A, B and C
1E-06
1E-10
with transmitted power of –4, 1 and 5 dBm respectively.
1E-14 Typical requirements for optical receivers used in this
1E-18
1E-22 simulation are optimized to be BER < 10 −10 (less than one
BER

1E-26
1E-30
1E-34
error in 1010 bits).
1E-38 The receiver sensitivity is the minimum averaged received
1E-42
1E-46 optical power required to achieve BER = 10 −10 . From this
1E-50
explanation, it becomes evident why optical system design
Reveived input optical power
considers power budget and power margins (safety margins
Fig. 6. BER as a function of the received input optical power for a direct for good design) so important.
detection system

Q2
−
1 Q 1 e 2 (7)
BER = [1 − erfc ( )] ≈
2 2 2π Q

Based on this Q value of 6.1 corresponds to 10 −9 , and a Q

value of 7.2 to BER = 10 −12 .

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The specified optical levels at the optical interface Old / Fig. 7. Minimum BER obtained from BER analyzer
Ord as shown in figure 3, for each class are listed in Table 1.
The values take into account the worst case, for application in Figure 8 shows the relation between receiver sensitivity and
a single or dual fiber ODN (with or without coarse WDM). BER. It is obvious; to achieve the required BER a
photodetector should have sensitivity power of -26.5 dBm for
class A and B and -27.5 dBm for class C. In this range, even a
very small rise in optical signal power improves BER by some
order of magnitudes.

0.01
1E-06 Class A

1E-10 Class B

1E-14 Class C
1E-18
1E-22
BER

1E-26
1E-30
1E-34
1E-38
1E-42
1E-46
1E-50
-32 -31 -30 -29 -28 -27 -26 -25 -24 -23 -22
Receiver sensitivity (dBm)

Fig. 8. BER as a function of attenuation for PIN sensitivity measurement

A. Minimum BER and Receiver Resistivity Figure 9 shows the BER behavior as a function of the span
An optical link is designed by taking into account a figure loss, keeping the fiber length constant 20 Km and the
of merit, which is generally the bit error rate (BER) of the transmitter power constant (minimum values) for each class.
system. The signal entering the decision circuit fluctuates due BER of 10 −10 is obtained with over all span losses of 22.5 dB,
to the various noise mechanisms. It is the probability of 27.5 dB and 32.5 dB for class A, B and C respectively. Figure
incorrect bit identification by the decision circuit. For most 9 can be expressed in terms of number of users (ONTs). It is
practical optical networks, this requirement of BER is 10 −12 clear from figure 10 that GPON with 1.25 Gbit/s can provide
communication service from at least 18 up to 128 ONTs users
(~ 10 −9 to 10 −12 ), which means that a maximum one out of
with BER = 10 −10 .
ICP2010-98

customers, GPON is the most cost-effective solution.

0.01 This paper presented the downstream transmission
1E-06 performance of 1.25 Gb/s GPON bit rate. All the ODN classes
1E-10
1E-14
are simulated separately. A bit error rate BER ≈ 10 −10 with Q
1E-18
1E-22 values between 6 and 7 are obtained, which are convenient to
BER

1E-26 sustain a good communication.

1E-30
1E-34 Multiple customers who are connected to the PON share the
1E-38 Class A OLT costs. While EPON allows only 16 ONTs per PONs,
1E-42
1E-46
Class B
Class C GPON standard allows the OLT PON card to support up to
1E-50 128 ONTs. This makes the GPON solution 4 to 8 times more
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
Losses (dB)
cost effective. In this simulation, number of users (ONTs) of
18, 50 and 128 are obtained for classes A, B and C.
Fig. 9. BER as a function of loss for 1244 Mbit/s downstream GPON
REFERENCES
0.01
0.0001
[1] X. Z. Qiu, J. Vandewege, F. Fredricx, and P. Vetter, “Burst Mode
1E-06
1E-08
Transmission in PON Access Systems,” in Proc. 7th Eur. Conf.
1E-10 networks Optical Communication, 2002, pp.127–132.
1E-12
1E-14 [2] P. Vetter et al. “Study and Demonstration of Extensions to the Standard
1E-16
1E-18 FSAN BPON,” in Proc. Int. Symp. Services Local Access, 2002, p.119–
1E-20
1E-22 128.
1E-24 [3] Xing-Zhi Qiu. “Development of GPON Upstream Physical-Media-
BER

1E-26
1E-28
1E-30
Dependent Prototypes,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2004, Vol.
1E-32 22.
1E-34
1E-36 [4] ITU-T Recommendation G.984.1, “General characteristics for Gigabit-
1E-38
1E-40 Class A capable Passive Optical Networks” 2003.
1E-42
1E-44 Class B [5] ITU-T Recommendation G.984.2, “Gigabit-Capable Passive Optical
1E-46
1E-48
Class C Networks (GPON): Physical Media Dependent (PMD) Layer
1E-50 Specification ITU-T Recommendation G.984.3 “Transmission
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Convergence Layer for Gigabit Passive Optical Networks”, 2004.
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standards”, Flexlight-networks, (2004).
Fig. 10. BER as a function of number of ONTs users
[7] V. Alwayn, Optical Network Design and Implementation: Cisco Press,
(2004).
[8] J. H. Franze and V. K. Jain , Optical Communications: Components and
V. CONCLUSIONS Systems, Narosa Publishing House, (2000).
[9] T. Antony and A. Gumaste, WDM Network Design, Cisco Press, ch. 4,
Due to its unprecedented offered bandwidth, GPON is the (2003).
ideal technology for large-scale FTTH applications where
multiple end-users are requiring an ever-growing bandwidth.
Moreover, in areas populated by both business and residential