Design of AWG-Based WDM-PON Architecture With Multicast Capability

Recently, the Triple Play Service (TPS) has been considered to be a promising business model or application. Thus, the capability for multicast transmission has become a very important requirement for access networks. However, unlike existing Passive Optical Networks (PONs), the Arrayed-Waveguide Grating (AWG) based Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM)-PON does not have multicast capability because it is a P2P network for the downstream direction, from Optical Line Terminal (OLT) to Optical Network Units (ONUs). In this paper, AWGbased WDM-PON architecture with multicast capability is proposed.