Passive optical network
telecommunications technology used to provide fiber to the end consumer
A passive optical network (PON) is a fiber-optic telecommunications network that uses only unpowered devices to carry signals, as opposed to electronic equipment. In practice, PONs are typically used for the last mile between Internet service providers (ISP) and their customers. In this use, a PON has a point-to-multipoint topology in which an ISP uses a single device to serve many end-user sites using a system such as 10G-PON or GPON. In this one-to-many topology, a single fiber serving many sites branches into multiple fibers through a passive splitter, and those fibers can each serve multiple sites through further splitters. The light from the ISP is divided through the splitters to reach all the customer sites, and light from the customer sites is combined into the single fiber. Many fiber ISPs prefer this system.
Components and characteristics
A passive optical network consists of an optical line terminal (OLT) at the service provider's central office (hub), passive (non-power-consuming) optical splitters, and a number of optical network units (ONUs) or optical network terminals (ONTs), which are near end users. There may be amplifiers between the OLT and the ONUs. Several fibers from an OLT can be carried in a single cable. A PON reduces the amount of fiber and central office equipment required compared with point-to-point architectures with dedicated connections for every user. A passive optical network is a form of fiber-optic access network.
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