Optical Distribution Network
A passive optical distribution network (PON) uses single mode optical fibre in the outside plant, optical splitters and optical distribution frames, duplexed so that both upstream and downstream signals share the same fibre on separate wavelengths. Faster PON standards generally support a higher split ratio of users per PON, but may also use reach extenders/amplifiers where extra coverage is needed. optical splitters creating a point to multipoint topology are also the same technology regardless of the type of PON system, making any PON network upgradable by changing the ONT and OLT terminals at each end, with minimal change to the physical network.
Access networks usually also must support point-to-point technologies such as Ethernet, which bypasses any outside plant splitter to achieve a dedicated link to the Central Office. Some PON networks use a "home run" topology where roadside cabinets only contain patch panels so that all splitters are located centrally. While a 20% higher capital cost could be expected, home run networks may encourage a more competitive wholesale market since providers' equipment can achieve higher utilisation.
Read more about this topic: Access Network
Famous quotes containing the words optical, distribution and/or network:
“People who have realized that this is a dream imagine that it is easy to wake up, and are angry with those who continue sleeping, not considering that the whole world that environs them does not permit them to wake. Life proceeds as a series of optical illusions, artificial needs and imaginary sensations.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“The man who pretends that the distribution of income in this country reflects the distribution of ability or character is an ignoramus. The man who says that it could by any possible political device be made to do so is an unpractical visionary. But the man who says that it ought to do so is something worse than an ignoramous and more disastrous than a visionary: he is, in the profoundest Scriptural sense of the word, a fool.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“Of what use, however, is a general certainty that an insect will not walk with his head hindmost, when what you need to know is the play of inward stimulus that sends him hither and thither in a network of possible paths?”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)