A vision for PON systems-the WOTAN ACTS project

The wavelength-agile optical transport and access network (WOTAN) AC029 ACTS project investigates optical networks and nodes capable of providing flexible bandwidth end-to-end transmission paths across a cost effective integrated, optical and electrical access and core network. The paper details key broadband passive optical network (BPON) access and optical core sub-systems and discusses future networking scenarios. The East Anglian fibre test bed, which will be used to provide experimental field demonstrations of WOTAN principles, is also presented and a potential final demonstrator identified. Finally initial modelling results are given which provide a useful design tool to evaluate WOTAN BPON access network architectures.