Emerging PON Technologies

Abstract

This chapter focuses on recent advances in optical access networks, which are also commonly termed fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) (fiber-to-the-home) or passive opticalnetwork (PON) (passive optical networks). The last decade has seen dramatic growth in these networks; they have gone from being almost nonexistent to being a worldwide presence, providing true broadband Internet connections to end users. In recent years, research and development efforts have been directed into enhancing fiber resources and increasing the number of users and the aggregate capacities of PONs. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first (Sects. 28.1–28.3) discusses the second generation of PONs (NG-PON2), which improve upon the first generation by enabling increased bit rates and including a WDM overlay. The second part (Sects. 28.4–28.6) explores proposed longer-term approaches (a future third generation of PONs) with higher scalability and flexibility that have undergone proof-of-concept testing.