How to get a campus/estate-wide fibre network at a fraction of the cost
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Passive Optical Networks, or PON, are essentially point-to-multipoint fibre networks using a combination of time division multiplexing (TDM) and wave division multiplexing (WDM) to allow multiple client” switches to talk to a “parent” switch along the same single core of fibre, with passive optical prisms (splitters) being used to direct the light down multiple paths.
This allows for the network switches in the field (distribution switches) to be replaced with passive splitters, removing the expense and challenge of placing active hardware in cabinets and enclosures throughout a large campus or estate and at the same time greatly reduces the amount of fibre required to build a traditional point-to-point network.
Today speeds from one to 10 Gbps can be shared with up to 64 endpoints on a single fibre core over distances up to 20km from end to end.
There are two major PON standards, GPON and GEPON. With each of the two standards having their own merits in their field, it is easy to choose the right one for you.
GPON focuses upon delivering voice and other telecommunication standards, with many of the client switches integrating traditional telephone ports. It also has the ability to carry Ethernet traffic allowing for Internet and other IP services to be delivered across it. So if the primary focus of your PON installation is to deliver voice and other traditional telephony services, GPON is the right choice for you.
GEPON focuses upon delivering Ethernet networking, with most of the client switches providing only copper Ethernet ports. There are a growing number of vendors that are offering client switches with inbuilt IPTV decoders or VoIP gateways, however these are not yet the standard choice. If you are focused upon IP networking, delivering all of your voice and video and data via Ethernet, then you will find GEPON the perfect technology to aggressively extend your LAN.
As you may expect, telecommunication carriers with heavy existing investment in traditional telephony will make the choice of GPON. With most current network running at 2.5Gbps downstream and 1Gbps upstream, it gives them the bandwidth needed to carry traditional services with plenty of headroom for new IP based services to be encapsulated upon it. New standards already exist that will support up to 10Gbps on GPON, however the new standard can not co-exist on the fibre with switches running the old standard, so be sure not to mix and match.
But for those who are pure IP, such as large enterprise or ISP’s, GEPON brings all of the QoS and Multicast support of existing Ethernet LAN solutions, with the added benefit of many vendors integrating the GEPON “parent” options into the same network switches that are running their Carrier Ethernet Networking MPLS based solutions. And unlike the GPON standards, the existing 1Gbps hardware can co-exist and interoperate on the same fibre as the new 10Gbps standard, which provides easy migration paths for future bandwidth improvements.
So if you are a looking to build a PON network to invite your carrier to bring their GPON services direct to your estate, or you are looking to use GEPON to extend your high speed campus LAN, knowing that there is an alternative to the challenge of putting all of that hardware in the field is a refreshing bit of news.