PON: Internet accessible to everyone

Optical fiber allows you to transfer a large amount of data at high speed, but working with it has many nuances, it must be performed by qualified personnel. Individual fiber to a house or apartment is a rarity due to high costs and the unrealistic use of the full potential of the fiber by one subscriber. PON technology was developed to rationally use the capabilities of optical fiber.

PON or Passive Optical Network — is a technology of passive optical networks, the work on the creation of which began in 1995. The main goal of the developers was to organize multiple access to one fiber.

Today, this idea has been implemented: a group of subscribers connected using PON technology uses one fiber to access the Internet. To avoid signal mixing in the fiber, time multiplexing and frequency division of the receive and transmit paths are used. Each subscriber's network device is allocated its own signal transmission time slice, and reception and sending are carried out at different wavelengths.

Technology features

PON successfully solves the «last mile problem» by providing high bandwidth at minimal cost.

The network is built according to the following principle: the central node (OLT) and remote subscriber nodes (ONT) form a passive optical network with a tree topology. Splitters are used as intermediate network nodes. These are devices that do not require maintenance and even power supply. Thus, the main feature of the technology is ensured — the absence of active network equipment between the subscriber and the provider.

The number of subscriber nodes that connect to one OLT is determined only by the transceivers’ capabilities. The absence of active nodes reduces the number of errors in the transmission of packets and reduces the network maintenance cost. Such networks are easy to scale.

Who is connected using PON technology

PON networks are usually deployed where the use of a standard FTTB/FTTH fiber optic network is impractical or impossible. Most often, this is a rural area or the private sector, where active equipment should not be installed. First, it must be in a protected and dry room where the optimum temperature level is maintained. Secondly, in the case of installing active equipment, it is necessary to provide power supply, constant monitoring and the ability to quickly access devices. If in apartment buildings all this is feasible, then in the private sector it is extremely difficult.

Varieties of PON technology

The progenitors of PON technology — APON and BPON are now completely a thing of the past.

Currently, the most relevant types of technology are GEPON (Gigabit Ethernet PON) and GPON (Gigabit PON).

GEPON is currently the most successful technology with the largest number of subscribers. Such success is due to ease of implementation and the ability to integrate with Ethernet networks, low cost of operating systems and good scalability. Up to 64 subscriber devices can be connected to one GEPON branch, and the signal transmission range is 20 km. However, more modern GPON technology with the ability to connect up to 128 subscribers per fiber is becoming more widespread.

Advantages over Ethernet

The main advantage of PON is to reduce the cost of laying, maintaining and restoring the communication line. Also, this solution will reduce energy costs. On one communication line, the subscriber can be served not only the Internet, but also cable TV, as well as a telephony signal. It is believed that this solution outperforms Ethernet in all respects when it comes to connecting the private sector in the city or outside the city.

The company «Maxnet» is one of the few telecom operators in Kharkiv that provides Internet services using GEPON / GPON technologies. If you live in your own home and still use slow Internet using ADSL technology, we highly recommend connecting to Maxnet in order to appreciate all the advantages of the technology! To find out if it is technically possible to connect using PON technology, please contact our specialists by phone 0800-31-0800 or (057) 720-9-720.