40 Gbps hybrid fiber optic over FSO based latency aware ring architecture with intra-ODN transmission capability

Nowadays, the designing and development of next-generation 5G communication systems are in their infancy stage. The incorporation of survivability, reliability, and transmission latency awareness are the major challenges while designing networks. Passive optical networks (PONs) are considered one of the prominent solutions to support next-generation networks. The paper proposes and demonstrates a hybrid single-mode fiber/free space optics (FSO) wavelength division multiplexed gigabit PON architecture that has the capability of fault protection and can transmit direct internetworking data. The proposed architecture also has the capability to transmit inter-optical distribution network (ODN) and intra-ODN data along with broadcasting, i.e., a particular optical networking unit (ONU) can broadcast its message to all other ONUs residing inside the ODN. The proposed architecture can reduce a minimum of 55% of transmission latency for inter-ODN transmission. Noise tolerance against Rayleigh backscattering is also enhanced by enabling the downstream and upstream transmission only in one direction. Additionally, the proposed architecture is also capable of transmitting high data rates over long distances irrespective of adverse geographical conditions or obstacles like a big mountain, wider river, etc. using a hybrid optical fiber (OF)/FSO link at the distribution network. The received optical power for 200 m of FSO length varies from −25.52 to −24.14 dBm under different atmospheric conditions in moderate and high turbulence regime. For a hybrid fiber-FSO link, the maximum power penalties of 1.5 dB can achieved. Massive high speed and reliability against link failure using a proposed hybrid OF/FSO architecture makes it more attractive for supporting the next generation of communication systems.