RICHARDSON, Texas -- Fujitsu Network Communications Inc., a leading supplier of IT and wireline/wireless networking solutions, today announced a new Hybrid Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) architecture and industry vision that extends well beyond legacy Broadband Passive Optical Networking (BPON) capabilities and recent GPON RFP requirements. This innovative architecture allows current GPON networks to be easily upgraded to provide higher bandwidth in the future, without billion dollar overbuilds or upgrades.

“The new GPON standard incorporates several enhancements, including higher downstream/upstream speeds, support for native transport of Ethernet and TDM services via Generic Encapsulation Method (GEM), and the option to eliminate legacy ATM protocols,” said Doug Saylor, senior vice president of planning and development at Fujitsu Network Communications. “With the new Hybrid GPON architecture, Fujitsu is staking a GPON technology leadership role far beyond these improvements.”

The Fujitsu Hybrid GPON architecture allows cost-effective and efficient capacity upgrades without requiring changes to previously deployed GPON Optical Network Terminals (ONTs). Since most of the cost of a PON architecture is in residential ONTs and associated installation and labor costs, substantial savings are produced by eliminating the requirement to upgrade the ONTs.

Current PON deployments rely on BPON technology that provides 622 Mbps of bandwidth toward subscribers (i.e. downstream) and 155 Mbps of bandwidth from subscribers (i.e. upstream). The newer GPON technology supports 2.488 Gbps downstream and 1.244 Gbps upstream, allowing for residential speeds of up to 75 Mbps per home. Many service providers are projecting the need for this bandwidth to support their IPTV services, Video on Demand (VOD) and High Definition Television (HDTV) programming. While it’s hard to predict future bandwidth demands, it is highly unlikely that a customer’s insatiable appetite for bandwidth will be satisfied for a prolonged period. After spending billions to upgrade their networks to GPON Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) architectures, telcos could be faced with yet another round of expensive and disruptive overbuilds in five to ten years.

Fujitsu has developed a simple and efficient method to grow beyond current GPON speeds without replacing ONTs or requiring residential truck rolls. The Fujitsu Hybrid GPON approach allows service providers to dramatically increase network capacity in the future with minimal impact and investment. No residential ONT changes are required, and the upgrade can be implemented in a modular fashion as required by a specific area or neighborhood. Available as part of the initial GPON product release, the Fujitsu Hybrid GPON option is fully G.984 compliant, utilizing the same GPON protocol, downstream rates, and upstream rates.

Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.