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C H A P T E R
Introduction to Passive Optical Network
A passive optical network (PON) or Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) is a point-to-multipoint (P2MP)
network that uses a combination of active transmission equipments and passive cable components to provide
network connectivity to end user's devices. This network is suitable for building access networks such as
fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), or fiber-to-the-office (FTTO), or fiber-to-the-company (FTTC) for providing
internet access by running fiber optic cable directly from an internet service provider to a user's home or
business. The PON technology is based on the ITU-T G.984 standard.
PON transmits Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM)
traffic. It consists of mainly two active transmission equipments, Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and Optical
Network Terminal (ONT). One of the main characteristics of PON is the use of passive optical splitters in the
fiber distribution network, enabling a single feeding fiber from the service provider's central office to serve
multiple homes and small businesses.
The network path between the terminals is known as Optical Device Network (ODN), which comprises passive
optical components, such as optical fibers and passive optical splitters. The ODN provides optical channels
that interconnect the OLT to the ONTs. The optical fiber cables cover a distance of 20km to 30km.
A single optical fiber from the OLT connects to a passive optical splitter that is located near an end user's
premises. The optical splitter divides optical power into n separate paths to end user. The number of optical
paths can vary from 2 to 128. From the optical splitter, a single-mode fiber strand is connected to each end
user's devices. Data is broadcast in the downstream direction and transmitted in the TDMA mode based on
timeslots in the upstream direction.
Cisco Catalyst PON Series Switches Hardware Installation Guide
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