Abstract

The asymmetrical bidirectional optical branching amplifier (ABOBA) permits a bidirectional 1.55-μm overlay in tree-and- branch local-access networks that already use the 1.3-μm window for basic POTS/ISDN services. An example of such a network is a distributive hybrid fiber–coax system, providing CATV broadcast and compressed digital QAM video-on-demand services, with cascaded optical amplification between head-end station and curb cabinets. In such a system the upstream return channel transmits the video-on-demand selection requests of the end users back to the video server in the head-end station. Furthermore, it can be used for remote supervision and maintenance of the curb cabinets.

© 1995 Optical Society of America