PON & FTTx Update

Even as DSL becomes the globally dominant, mass-market, broadband access technology, a potential DSL-killer is steadily creeping up on the market. This is the PON – the Passive Optical Network. Video is a major aspect of PONs and a key reason why telcos, keen to get into triple-play converged services to offset collapsing POTS revenues, are beginning to turn to PONs as a way of getting fiber bandwidth to the home.

Telcos and industry pundits have been talking of mass deployment of fiber in the access network for years, of course, and a whole alphabet soup of acronyms has appeared as the number of network approaches and technologies has multiplied. Generically, they take the form of Fiber to the Something (such as Home, Premises, Building, Business, Curb, Node) – or FTTx. What’s become so interesting recently is the adoption of PONs for real FTTx rollouts and the standardization of two improved and faster PON types – Ethernet PON (EPON) and Giga PON (GPON).

So has the tide finally turned in favor of mass-market FTTx? And for which X? And for which PON technology? And, to get practical: How easy are PONs to install? And what are the options for video over PONs? This report looks at these and other aspects to give a timely update on what’s going on in the PON and FTTx world, and why telcos need to think beyond DSL in the broadband stakes. Here’s a hyperlinked contents list:

• FTTx Defined
  The alphabet soup of fiber access networks

• PON & Fiber Plant Basics
  Simple idea, but it needs testing

• PON Activities Worldwide
  The rollout begins in earnest

• APON, BPON, EPON & GPON
  'Pon my word, a lot of standards

• Video on PONs
  What it's all about, really

Webinar

This report was previewed in a Webinar sponsored by Acterna Corp., Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA), and UTStarcom Inc. (Nasdaq: UTSIE). It may be viewed free of charge in our Webinar archives by clicking here.

Related Light Reading Webinar archives

• Advances in Testing Optical Networks
• Telco Video: Video-Specific Infrastructure
• FTTX: The Economics
• Telco Video: The Impact of Video on Network Architectures
• Optimizing Triple Play Service Quality

Related Heavy Reading reports

• Next-Generation Broadband in Europe: The Need for Speed

— Michael Howard, Principal Analyst and Cofounder, Infonetics Research Inc.