KATIA SAFONOVA PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORKS
THE EVOLUTION OF PON TECHNOLOGIES Driven by more remote work, the demand for higher bandwidth is increasing. This applies to download speeds as well as upload speeds – the latter applies especially to residential areas because remote workers today need to upload larger amounts of data from their home offices than before the pandemic. An enormous challenge for network operators, who need to expand their networks faster and more efficiently to meet the demand. With standardised and interoperable components, installation is simplified, maintenance costs reduced and upgrades can be made quicker and easier. This leaves operators with a choice to make: Do they want their networks to be fibre rich or fibre lean? Do they want to install more optical fibres in the ground or utilise and maximise the ones they already have by multiplexing the existing fibres, asks Katia Safonova , Market Development Manager, Corning Optical Communications.
P assive optical networks (PON) are also evolving to satisfy the need for higher speeds and lower latency of the end users. But where are we at right now? And how can the evolution of PON help network providers to connect more homes faster and more cost-effective than before? The decision around which PON to use will have a direct effect on the revenue of the providers as users decide which contract to sign based on the speed provided for them. With the EU’s push towards the Gigabit Society targeting 100 Mbps for all European households by 2025 the previous PON
aren’t providing the necessary speed, making additional investments all the more pressing. THE MOVE PAST 10G TO 50G+ The growing demand for higher bandwidth connections has driven a need for continuous evolution in PON technologies. From 10G to 50G+ there have been many improvements over the last years. Let’s take a look at the existing PON technologies and where they are headed. GPON is an ITU domain with a single upstream and downstream wavelength, while the 10G-PON comes in the forms of XGPON-1 and XGS-PON, both of which are ITU standard and
have single upstream and downstream wavelengths. They are working with symmetrical or asymmetrical line rates and due to a lower upstream rate can use more cost-effective Optical Network Units (ONUs). XGS-PON works on the same wavelengths as XG-PON and 10 Gbps EPON. The 10G-PON has surpassed GPON in ports sold. This leads to commercial launches of 2-to-5Gig residential services in 2022. The forecast for XGS-PON deployments continues to ramp through 2026, as a growing number of operators around the world are moving forward with XGS-PON as their next-generation PON technology.
Figure 1: Understanding available spectrum for PON coexistence. (Image: Corning Optical Communications)
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| ISSUE 37 | Q2 2024
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