[EFM] Reverse PON
As part of the CANARIE CA*Net4 project, one of the research topics is
Reverse PON. Since Reverse PON is based on P2P fiber, it has probably
not captured the attention of many of you to date. However, from an
open access perspective, RPON provides a mechanism for subscribing
simultaneously to multiple service providers that is architecturally
clean and not prone to as many regulatory issues resulting from the
inherent fragility of a shared network architecture such as PON or HFC.
-=Francois=-
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Reverse PON (RPON) and Neighbourhood nodes. Text from Bill St-Arnaud @
Canarie
Although not directly related to the CA*net 4 network we are working
with a number of communities who are looking to deploy FTTH networks.
Although a number of FTTH technologies have been proposed such as APON,
EPON, etc they all require some entity to manage a common control and
distribution layer and therefore act as a choke point in terms of
delivery competitive services. One of the challenges for FTTH networks
is to maintain facilities based competition all the way to individual
homes. However it is highly unlikely that different carriers will
independently build fiber networks to each home.
What we have proposed is that the homeowner instead be given ownership
or control of a dedicated point to point strand to a neighbourhood or
community based carrier neutral collocation facility. The home owner
can then connect to the service provider of their choice at that
facility. However, one of the problems with this model is that to switch
service providers someone has to physically change fibers in a patch
panel or a common control switch plane is again required to allow the
automatic switching from one service provider to another.
What we have proposed instead is to use Reverse PON (RPON) technology
where the passive optical splitter is located in the neighbourhood
carrier neutral facility. The homeowner's point to point fiber is then
passively split simultaneously amongst the various service providers at
the carrier neutral facility. The customer can then subscribe to one or
more service providers at any time without requiring the switching of
their fiber. For the return signal to the home owner the service
providers use separate designated time slots or individual wavelengths.