Fault Tolerant Spectral/Spatial Optical Code Division Multiple Access Passive Optical Network.

High-capacity communication networks are built to provide high throughput and low latency to accommodate the growing demand for bandwidth. However, the provision of these features is subject to a robust underlying network, which can provide high capacity with maximum reliability in terms of the system's connection availability. This work optimizes an existing 2D spectral-spatial optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) passive optical network (PON) to maximize connection availability while maintaining desirable communication capacity and capital expenditure. Optimization is performed by employing ring topology at the feeder level, which is used to provide a redundant path in case of connection failures. Furthermore, high transmission capacity is ensured by utilizing a pseudo-3D double-weight zero cross-correlation (DW-ZCC) code. The analysis is performed with Optisystem simulations to observe the performance of the system in terms of bit error rate (BER), received power, and eye openings. It is observed that the introduction of ring topology at the feeder level of the PON does not impact the overall transmission capacity of the system. The system can still support maximum transmission capacity at receiver sensitivities of up to -19 dB. Reliability analysis also shows that the optimized ring-based architecture can provide desirable connection availability compared to the existing system.