World's First Field Trial of Flexible 100 Gbit/s Passive Optical Network (FLCS-PON)

We summarize the world's first field trial of flexible passive optical network (FLCS-PON), which delivers bitrates up to 100 Gbit/s and allows for flexible line and code rate to match users' channel conditions and optimize throughput. FLCS-PON builds on top of ecosystem which will be developed for G.9804 High-speed PON (HSP) and employs three differentiating ingredients: optical network unit (ONU)/codeword (CW) grouping, flexible modulation format, and flexible code rate. Together, these techniques allow to realize a system independent, but still able to support a full array of deployed fiber corner cases, while allowing for twofold capacity increase compared to the upcoming G.9804 HSP, and benefit from, rather than be limited by, distribution network (ODN) statistics. In this paper we explain the details of the enabling techniques of FLCS-PON, and perform actual measurements of achievable capacity over a deployed fiber in a system consisting of one FLCS-PON OLT and two ONUs. We demonstrate improvements of our approach over what HSP can provide, and additionally realize a record-high 31.5dB loss budget for 100 Gbit/s transmission using a direct-detection ONU with an optical preamplifier.