Monday, February 19, 2007

Siemens Demos 10G PON

As part of a EU sponsored research project, Siemens has demonstrated a PON system that operates at 10 Gbps at distances of 100 km. This is four times the speed of GPON, the highest speed commercially available PON technology today. The distance supported by typical PON systems today are limited to 20 km. In this experimental system, the number of subscribers per splitter was expanded to 512. Siemens implemented an optical amplifier, an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) to extend the reach and increase the number of subscribers.

Siemens stated that it plans to implement these capabilities in its product line in 2009.

This demonstration shows how GPON can be taken up to the next level. Broadband carriers need an architecture that can scale to provide higher levels of performance over time. Ethernet has led the market in that regard. It looks like PON may be able to keep up.

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