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Networks & Infrastructure
C5: Pirelli Flies WDM-PON Flag At C5
Trials Underway With Telecom Italia
by Ken Wieland
Pirelli is backing WDM-PON to beat off 10G PON as the ‘natural successor’ to GPON-based fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) architectures.
“It would require a network design revolution for 10G PON to be viable and cost-effective,” says Eugenio Iannone at Pirelli Labs, which coordinates with the Pirelli Broadband Solutions division to design and implement access networks. “With the WDM-PON approach, a lot of the standardisation work has already been done [on WDM transport].”
The promise of WDN-PON is that it would allow operators to carry multiple wavelengths (each carrying, perhaps, 1Gbps capacity) between the central office and the cabinet or the building.
“With GPON [carrying one wavelength with a maximum capacity of 2.4Mbps] operators could very quickly find themselves running out of bandwidth, particularly if the GPON (see Battle of the PONs) is connecting to a street cabinet that typically serves as many as 400 customers in Europe,” says Iannone. Pirelli is working with Telecom Italia on WDM-PON trials in Milan and Rome, which involves “hundreds of buildings”, says Iannone. A dedicated wavelength is delivered to the base of the building where it is then split to serve multiple users. Pirelli supplies the optical line termination (OLT) units and the optical network termination (ONT) units.
At the C5 World Forum, Pirelli is also trialling WDM-PON technology where its own stand acts as the OLT to deliver a wavelength each to the stands of Alcatel-Lucent, Telecom Italia and Italtel. Each of these stands acts as a “building” by housing the ONT.
“We’ve had discussions with BT and Fastweb about the possibility of doing WDM-PON trials,” adds Iannone.
Iannone reckons that WDM-PON standardization work, led by the full service access network (FSAN) consortium of Tier One operators, could be complete by 2009.
It’s a timetable that heavyweight GPON vendor Alcatel-Lucent concurs with, although its focus is still very much on GPON (see FTTH 2007 Europe: GPON Momentum Growing, Say Vendors).
Israel-based ECI, a GPON supplier, says there is no rush to roll out next-generation PON systems. “They’re not going to be required in the market for at least another three years,” says Danny Berko, ECI’s director of product marketing. “It’s far too early to talk about whether WDM-PON or 10G PON is going to be the preferred choice by incumbents.”
The FSAN consortium, through its Next Generation Access (NGA) task group, has not dismissed 10G PON and is weighing up the technology alongside WDM-PON. A 10G PON functions like a GPON but carry 10Gbps on the single wavelength as opposed to 2.4Gps carried by a GPON.
Asian operators NTT and Korea Telecom have, however, already stated that WDM-PON is their preferred next-generation PON architecture. Using WDM-PON equipment from Novera, Korea Telecom is delivering commercial service to more than 2,000 households in newly-constructed apartment buildings.
NTT is in the WDM-PON trial phase.
More Information:
Battle of the PONs
Operators rolling out FTTH have to weigh up the pros and cons of numerous optical access architectures
FTTH 2007 Europe: GPON Momentum Growing, Say Vendors
Alcatel-Lucent And Ericsson Anticipate Major European Announcements
FTTH’s Final Frontier
Next-gen ONTs
Next-Gen ONTs
FTTH’s Final Frontier
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