Remote Power of Rural Network Nodes for Future Optical Networks

Broadband Internet access is highly demanded by end users and it is now widely available in urban areas, primarily using optical networks. However, delivering reliable broadband network access in remote areas is still challenging, due to the limitations faced by network node locations, where the local power supply required by the network node may be not available. To solve this issue, in this paper we study the remote power scheme, where the power required by the off-grid network node can be delivered remotely in the format of optical pump. In this scheme, the optical pump will propagate together with the data-carrying signal through the same optical fiber, and it is then converted to the electrical domain to power the remote network node. The selection of optical pump wavelength, the impact of optical pump on the performance of the data signal, and the new multiple optical pumps scheme to increase the total amount of power delivered to the remote network node are studied here. Results show that the use of multiple 1550 nm band optical pumps located at different sides of the data signal (in the spectrum) provides the optimum remote power performance. The remote power scheme enables off-grid network nodes and their flexible locations, and hence, it provides a promising solution to the network design to deliver reliable broadband network access to remote areas.