High-speed Broadband Over Fiber Networks

PON – or passive optical networking – is a point-to-multipoint fiber to or near the premises network architecture where single optical fibers serve multiple dwellings. These networks are enabled by a number of pieces of network equipment including optical line terminals (OLTs), optical network units (ONUs) and optical network terminals (ONTs).

There are many flavors of PON and different performance levels. EPON is backed by IEEE and supports distribution speeds of up to1 Gbps. Alternatively, GPON was standardized by ITU-T and delivers up to 2.5 Gbps. The next evolution of these two technologies will deliver 10 Gbps performance and support up to 128 users with 50-75 Mbps of bandwidth.