Passive Optical Network: Characteristics, Deployment, and Perspectives

This paper presents a literature review of passive optical networks, and a realistic discussion of the current situation, including trends and market forecasts. The main characteristics of a PON network are highlighted, and the BPON, EPON, and GPON standards are compared. In late 2009, these solutions represented, respectively, 5%, 55%, and 21% of the world, and experts believe the GPON standard will be the main technology by 2013. The study also shows that the deployment of PON networks is growing rapidly, particularly in Asia and the United States, where they account for 74% and 15% of all connections, respectively. In Latin American, the PON subscribers correspond to only 0.02% of the total. The first installations of the so-called GigaPON era (10 Gb/s operation rate together with WDM technology) are planned for 2012.