GPON: the next big thing in optical access networks

Abstract

This paper contains a comprehensive review of the various Passive Optical Network (PON) technologies in the marketplace today, namely APON, EPON and GPON, and draws an in-depth comparison between them. Following a review of the history of the various PON flavors, as well as the service requirements set forth by service providers, the emerging Gigabit PON (GPON) technology is examined in detail. System performance between the various protocols is compared using efficiency and scalability factors, and conclusions are drawn as to the overall throughput efficiency of and cost influence on the solution. GPON carries a two-fold promise of both higher bit rates and higher efficiency when carrying multiple services over the PON. It offers a scalable framing structure from 622Mb/s to 2.5Gb/s, as well as support for asymmetric bit rates, exceptionally high bandwidth utilization for any type of service and a variant of standard ITU-T Generic Framing Protocol (GFP) encapsulation of any type of service (both TDM and packet) onto a synchronous transport protocol. It is shown that in the worst-case scenario, based upon the most conservative assumptions regarding traffic distribution, GPON is substantially more efficient, with an overall efficiency of 93% compared to 71% with APON and 49% with EPON. Using a more detailed analysis based upon a traffic model provided by the service providers within the full service access networks (FSAN) consortium, it is shown in quantitative terms that GPON offers exceptionally higher bandwidth for the entire range of applications when compared to both APON and, especially, EPON, resulting in substantially lower cost per bit and a much faster payback period.