Architectures for low-cost Gbit/s POF links for home networking

This paper reports on the recent results of the EU project "POF-PLUS", financed in the EU VII Framework Program and started on the 1st of May 2009. This project is fully focused on innovative transmission and component solutions for high speed links based on large core plastic optical fibers (POF). Two main applications are the target of POF-PLUS: next generation high-speed home networking solutions, with primary focus on 1Gbps POF transmission over a 40-50 meters target distance, and low-cost optical interconnects in large data centres and storage area networks running at multi-Gbps. This paper focuses on the first of the two tasks (1Gbps POF transmission over 40-50 meters) and reports the technical status of the research in POF-PLUS after 18 months from its beginning. We give a detailed proposal for solutions based on binary modulation at the transmitter and two different types of electronic equalization at the receivers. We present the two architectures, showing their pros and cons, and some recent experimental results.