Dream of tomorrows' broadband multimedia pipeline

It is very easy to forget how far last mile transport technology has come along; we get used to new things very quickly. Just yesterday we were all dialing in on 14.4 kbps modems and today do not seem too impressed with standard DSL or cable modem rates. We are always hungry for more bandwidth as computer power grows, and the new best thing coming seems to be BPON. The paper reflects on some of the most popular last mile technologies from the past all the way to the future; it also reflects the idea of never abandoning the older technologies as they have molded the new ones. The paper first gives a short overview of older services like DDS, ISDN and dialup. It then reflects today's transport, various versions of DSL and, finally, looks into the future of last mile transport, xPON.