FABULOUS will design, develop and characterize new Silicon Photonics components for application in next-generation passive optical networks (NG-PON2), particularly in a WDM/FDM architecture based on reflective ONU. These components will be integrated onto a multi-functional optoelectronic chip that will then be the core of a full-blown system demonstrator.

FABULOUS will address the following objectives:

• Design, fabrication, characterization, optimization and monolithic/hybrid integration of photonic and electronic components to implement a low-cost/low power consumption R-ONU, using Silicon Photonics, CMOS/BiCMOS and III-V-on-silicon technologies. The final packaged device will integrate RX/TX functionality, electronic functions and optical amplification into a single chip.
• Experimental study of the proposed NG-PON2 architecture and optimization of its many free parameters.
• Development of a full system PON prototype carrying real Ethernet traffic to demonstrate the architecture effectiveness and to showcase the potential of Silicon Photonic devices into a realistic system testbed.
• Disseminate the value of the proposed technology among the main equipment vendors because the electro-optic components developed in FABULOUS can find applications also in other PON architectures. The project already involves two external industrial partners (ZTE and NEC) that support this activity, interacting with the consortium partners and testing the FABULOUS electro-optic devices.

FABULOUS will demonstrate a cost- and energy-efficient solution for the NG-PON2 requirements set by Telecom operators within the FSAN group by addressing both components (through a potentially very low cost Silicon Photonic ONU) and system (through an architecture that allows each ONU to handle only its dedicated data traffic, and not the full aggregated bit rate, as in other NG-PON2 technologies). A part of the workplan is also dedicated to the interaction with relevant standardization bodies (in particular FSAN then ITU and potentially IEEE) to promote the proposed NG-PON2 solution.

Fabulous project