Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The goal of this project is to improve the laboratory infrastructure quality which in turn will enable researchers to achieve world recognizable results in the field of photonics devices design, help to train highly qualified personnel to gain knowledge required in IT industry, and to bring the Photonic Technology Laboratory (PTLab) to the world leading position in photonics research. The project enhances the discovery, innovation and training capability of University of Ottawa researchers in the natural sciences and provides a better opportunity to students for pursuing new ideas in the field of telecommunications. This project will apply coherent detection techniques in PON applications in order to increase network reach and capacity enhancement in the framework of a next generation of PON. Cost effectiveness, reliability and higher capacity of the PON makes it a prime candidate for delivering a number of services such as cable TV (CATV), telephony, video on demand, High Definition TV (HDTV) and online gaming to public or private users, compared to the traditional technologies such as Digital Subscriber Line Technology (xDSL). This research is innovative because the drive for higher performance in optical fiber systems has renewed interest in coherent detection. Ultimately, the coherent detection technique leads to optical symbol communication instead of traditional bit communication. Therefore, a larger number of customers can be handled with the less expensive electronic hardware. The purchase of a vector signal analyzer will provide researchers and students an excellent opportunity to evaluate the functionality of different subsystems in the PON link and will enable PTLab to lead in Canadian innovation. This in turn will benefit Canada as a whole, by introducing a low-cost optical access network with an extended range and the ability to cover remote locations where network deployment has been abandoned in the past due to high cost of deployment and maintenance. It has the potential to create greater availability and access to online services, incite development in fields such as tele-education and tele-medicine, as well as provide an increase in research opportunities and collaboration both nationally and worldwide.