Introduction to Passive Optical Networking

Passive Optical Networking or PON as it is typically referred to, is a communications technology for providing voice, video, and data to residential and business subscribers. Established in the mid 1990's as an ITU standard, PON has evolved over the past 15 years or so to provide a variety of telco and enterprise-related features. Today there are hundreds of millions of PON subscribers worldwide and in the past couple of years, PON has surpassed broadband cable subscribers. Now the enterprise LAN and government LAN markets are taking advantage of unique PON capabilities. Click below for a technical introduction to this fascinating technology.

History of PON

Passive Optical Networks are not a new technology. In computer years, PON is practically old-school technology. Fortunately, it continues to evolve to meet the demands of both the consumer and the service provider. PON is now a mature technology which has been deployed all over the world since the end of the 20th century. Click below for more information.

Fiber to the X (FTTX)

Fiber to the "X" or FTTX is a generic term encompassing a number of PON technologies used by service providers to deliver voice, video, and data (triple play) services. These technologies range considerably in cost and complexity and there are a number of reasons why service providers choose to deploy one architecture versus another. Regardless of the selected service model all of these PON technologies continue to evolve and meet the ever increasing bandwidth and flexibility demands of the market. Click below for more information

Varieties of PON

PON evolved from the telecommunications carriers' need to improve efficiencies and deliver more services
to subscribers. In doing so, service providers needed to ensure that their workforce need not be
re-trained on an entirely new technology. Consequently the variety of PON "flavors" that exist today
are a reflection of the service provider's operational requirements. Click below for more information.