Optical frequency comb locking for a flexible passive optical network

A method, comprising:

• generating an optical frequency comb for an optical line terminal (OLT) supporting a set of N optical network units (ONUs), wherein the optical frequency comb includes a set of optical frequency lines, wherein the set of optical frequency lines includes a set of seed optical frequency lines and a set of 2N communication optical frequency lines configured to support communications between the OLT and the ONUs, wherein the set of seed optical frequency lines and the set of 2N communication optical frequency lines are mutually exclusive;
• transmitting the set of seed optical frequency lines downstream from the OLT toward the ONUs;
• transmitting downstream data signals from the OLT toward the ONUs based on a first subset of the communication optical frequency lines including N of the communication optical frequency lines;
• and
• receiving upstream data signals at the OLT from the ONUs based on a second subset of the communication optical frequency lines including N of the communication optical frequency lines, wherein the first and second subsets of communication optical frequency lines are mutually exclusive.

An apparatus, comprising:

• an optical frequency comb regenerator configured to receive a set of seed optical frequency lines of an optical frequency comb and regenerate, based on the set of seed optical frequency lines, a regenerated optical frequency comb, wherein the regenerated optical frequency comb includes a set of optical frequency lines, wherein the set of optical frequency lines includes the set of seed optical frequency lines and a set of communication optical frequency lines configured to support communications between an optical network unit (ONU) and an optical line terminal (OLT);
• wherein the apparatus is configured to transmit upstream data signals from the ONU toward the OLT based on a first subset of the communication optical frequency lines;
• and
• wherein the apparatus is configured to receive downstream data signals from the OLT based on a second subset of the communication optical frequency lines.

A method, comprising:

• receiving a set of seed optical frequency lines of an optical frequency comb;
• regenerating, based on the set of seed optical frequency lines, a regenerated optical frequency comb, wherein the regenerated optical frequency comb includes a set of optical frequency lines, wherein the set of optical frequency lines includes the set of seed optical frequency lines and a set of communication optical frequency lines configured to support communications between an optical network unit (ONU) and an optical line terminal (OLT);
• transmitting upstream data signals from the ONU toward the OLT based on a first subset of the communication optical frequency lines;
• and
• receiving downstream data signals from the OLT based on a second subset of the communication optical frequency lines.