Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) based passive optical network (PON) architecture and its extension to long distance

1. A passive optical network (PON) device, comprising:

an optical line terminal (OLT) receiver configured to receive multiple signals at different optical wavelengths simultaneously and enable multiple transmitters to operate at the same time during one upstream time slot, wherein the OLT is coupled to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) and the ONUs are each assigned a different wavelength;

wherein the optical line terminal employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) to transparently support a plurality of applications and enable dynamic bandwidth allocation among these applications where the bandwidth is allocated in two dimensional frequency and time space, such that bandwidth for a given frequency is allocated across multiple optical wavelengths and

wherein the OLT and the ONUs exchange OFDMA frames that include allocated areas in both time and frequency for each ONU.

2. The device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the OLT includes a directly modulated laser (DML) for each of a plurality of wavelengths.

3. The device as recited in claim 2 , wherein the (DML) transmits signals over at least 80 kilometers without dispersion compensation.

4. The device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the OLT achieves 10 Gb/s operation using 2.5 Gb/s components.

5. The device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the OLT includes an inverse fast Fourier transform for scheduling bandwidth in accordance with ONU requirements.

6. The device as recited in claim 1 , wherein the optical wavelengths are spaced to avoid beating noise.

7. A passive optical network (PON) network, comprising:

an optical line terminal (OLT) receiver configured to receive multiple signals at different optical wavelengths simultaneously and enable multiple transmitters to operate at the same time during one upstream time slot;

a plurality of optical network units (ONUs) coupled to the OLT over a fiber link, each ONUs associated with an application and assigned a different wavelength;

wherein communications between the OLT and the ONUs employ Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) to transparently support the applications and enable dynamic bandwidth allocation among these applications where the bandwidth is allocated in two dimensional frequency and time space, such that bandwidth for a given frequency is allocated across multiple optical wavelengths, and

wherein the OLT and the ONUs exchange OFDMA frames that include allocated areas in both time and frequency for each ONU.

8. The network as recited in claim 7 , wherein the OLT includes a directly modulated laser (DML) for each of a plurality of wavelengths.

9. The network as recited in claim 8 , wherein the (DML) transmits signals over at least 80 kilometers without dispersion compensation.

10. The network as recited in claim 7 , wherein the OLT achieves 10 Gb/s operation using 2.5 Gb/s components.

11. The network as recited in claim 7 , wherein the OLT includes an inverse fast Fourier transform for scheduling bandwidth in accordance with ONU requirements.

12. A method for communication over a passive optical network (PON), comprising:

providing an optical line terminal (OLT) receiver configured to receive multiple signals at different optical wavelengths simultaneously and enable multiple transmitters to operate at the same time during one upstream time slot that is coupled to a plurality of optical network units (ONUs);

assigning a different wavelength to each of the plurality of optical network units (ONUs) in communication with the OLT; and

forming Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) frames to transparently support a plurality of applications and enable dynamic bandwidth allocation among these applications where the bandwidth is allocated in two dimensional frequency and time space, such that bandwidth for a given frequency is allocated across multiple optical wavelengths, and

wherein the OLT and the ONUs exchange OFDMA frames and further comprising allocating areas in both time and frequency for each ONU.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 , wherein the OLT includes a directly modulated laser (DML) for each of a plurality of wavelengths and further comprising transmitting signals over at least 80 kilometers without dispersion compensation.

14. The method as recited in claim 12 , wherein the OLT includes an inverse fast Fourier transform, and further comprising for scheduling bandwidth in accordance with ONU requirements.