EPON testbed and field trial environment in Taiwan

Broadband applications and fiber loop access constructions are important government policies in Taiwan. A series of related programs such as e-Taiwan, M-Taiwan, were carried out or are on-going. One target of M-Taiwan program is to have 4.2 million FTTx households by year 2010. Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) is the latest fiber loop access technology which has the merits of low-cost, easy-of-use, and transparency to the widely deployed infrastructure. The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is Taiwan's largest government sponsored research organization pursuing to set up new industries and to help existing industries upgrade. ITRI was assigned to conduct the EPON technology developments and acts as the leading role and media in support of the erection of EPON technology applications. A pizza-box and a chassis-based EPON system are developed and ready to transfer to local vendors. A triple play over EPON testbed was established at Taipei Nankang Software Park, which facilitated multi-vendors such as optical components, HDTV content providers, equipment vendors, and IP STB vendors to use ITRI's EPON system to try their products. ITRI also jointly works with Chunghwa Telecom, the largest telecom operator in Taiwan, to establish an EPON testbed and trial site for domestic EPON system and component vendors to execute the functional and performance testing as well as the field trial activities. Details of the EPON system technology and testing environment are described in the paper. Observations of these testing activities are addressed.