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Definition
This tutorial discusses the economics, operator and customer benefits, and
technological development of optical distribution networks with asynchronous
transfer mode passive optical networks (ATM PONs). ATM–PON infrastructure
is widely cited by telecommunications carriers and equipment vendors as
potentially the most effective broadband access platform for provisioning
advanced multimedia services as well as legacy services such as tier 1 (T1). Since
1995, an influential group of worldwide carriers and equipment vendors has been
developing requirement specifications for a full-service access network with ATM
PON as the core technology.
Overview
The deployment of fiber-optic technology to homes and businesses is poised to
change the way telecommunications services—primarily voice, data, and video
services—will be delivered to the twenty-first century, information-based
economy. Interest is high among business and residential consumers for
advanced, broadband services such as fast Internet access, electronic commerce,
video on demand, digital broadcasting, teleconferencing, and telemedicine,
among others. However, the lack of available bandwidth to deliver these services
effectively to the last mile of homes and businesses has stifled development of
new multimedia applications.
An optical distribution network with ATM PON as the core technology promises
benefits to end users as well as carriers and service providers. When optical
network access is achieved in scale, businesses and consumers will realize
opportunities for advanced services at relatively low costs. Because of cost
savings inherent with the ATM–PON platform, telecommunications carriers and
service providers will realize efficiencies in provisioning future applications and
upgrading bandwidth to satisfy customers' demands.
Topics
1. The Case for Fiber-Optic Access
2. How ATM PONs Work
In general, the optical section of a local access network can either be a point-to-
point, ring, or passive point-to-multipoint architecture. This tutorial focuses on
the passive point-to-multipoint architecture (PON). The main component of the
PON is an optical splitter device that, depending on which direction the light is
traveling, splits the incoming light and distributes it to multiple fibers or
combines it onto one fiber.
The PON, when included in FTTH/B architecture, runs an optical fiber from a CO
to an optical splitter and on into the subscriber's home or building. The optical
splitter may be located in the CO, outside plant, or in a building.
FTTCab architecture runs an optical fiber from the CO to an optical splitter and
then on to the neighborhood cabinet, where the signal is converted to feed the
subscriber over a twisted copper pair. Typically, the neighborhood cabinet is
about 3 kft from the subscriber's home or business.
FTTC architecture runs an optical fiber from the CO to an optical splitter and
then on to a small curb-located cabinet, which is near (typically within 500 ft) to
the subscriber. It is then converted to twisted copper pair.
The PON can be common to all of these architectures. However, it is only in the
FTTH/B configurations that all active electronics are eliminated from the outside
plant. The FTTCab and FTTC architectures require active outside-plant
electronics in a neighborhood cabinet or curb. This tutorial will focus on FTTH/B
architectures.
Figure 2 shows the ONT placed at the customer premises, which suggests
FTTH/B architecture. The carrier's demarcation point would be the subscriber
side of the ONT, typically in the form of a T1, Ethernet, integrated services digital
network (ISDN), plain old telephone service (POTS), etc.
For FTTCab and FTTC architecture, an optical network unit (ONU), rather than
an optical network termination (ONT), is used. It is placed in the outside plant
and must be temperature-hardened and properly enclosed. The final drop to the
network termination (NT) at the customer premises may be copper or fiber. The
carrier demarcation point is the subscriber side of the NT in the form of a T1,
Ethernet, ISDN, POTS, and etc.
The ONT will filter the incoming cells and recover only those that are addressed
to it. Each ATM cell has a 28-bit addressing field associated with it called a
virtual path identifier/virtual channel identifier (VPI/VCI). The OLT will first
send a message to the ONT to provision it to accept cells with certain VPI/VCI
values. The recovered ATM cells are then used to create the service interface
required at the subscriber side of the ONT (see Figure 2).
Ethernet and T1s are two examples of what can be transported over the ATM–
PON. As ATM–PON is service-independent, all legacy services and future
services can be readily transported.
The basic frame format between the OLT and ONT for the symmetrical 155 Mbps
rate is shown in Figure 3.
In the upstream direction the capacity is reduced to 149.19 Mbps because there
are 3 overhead bytes per ATM cell. In addition to the three overhead bytes per
cell there are PLOAM cells in the upstream direction, the rate of which is defined
by the OLT for each ONT, depending on the required functionality. The
minimum PLOAM rate in the upstream direction is one PLOAM every 100 ms.
This equates to approximately one PLOAM every 655 frames, which is negligible.
Although the maximum PLOAM rate is undefined, it is also expected to be
negligible. The 3 overhead bytes contain a minimum of 4 bits of guard time to
provide enough distance in time to prevent collisions with cells from other ONTs.
This field length is actually programmable by the OLT. The preamble field is used
to acquire bit synchronization and amplitude recovery. The Delimiter field is used
to indicate the start of an incoming cell.
Given that a single fiber is used for both the upstream and downstream paths,
two wavelengths of light are used—1550 nm for the downstream and 1310 nm for
the upstream. Although one wavelength can also be used, two provide better
optical isolation between the laser transmitters and receivers and eliminate the
need for expensive beam-splitting devices. Instead, low-cost planar light circuits
(PLCs) can be used, which enable low-cost manufacturing techniques to be
3. Benefits of ATM–PONs
The ATM–PON system offers a number of benefits for carriers and end users.
Because fiber is less costly to maintain than copper based systems, carriers
benefit by being able to reduce costs and thereby increase profit margins or
simply lower prices to end users to ward off competitive threats.
ATM PON conserves optical interfaces at the OLT because a single fiber is used to
service as many as 64 end-user locations. Thus, a 64 to 1 reduction in optical
interfaces is achieved in comparison to point-to-point optical systems.
Because the ONTs share the same fiber and optical splitter, the bandwidth can
also be shared. In the future, dynamic bandwidth-allocation protocols will allow
the carriers to serve more users by allocating bandwidth on an as-needed basis.
These protocols are already part of the FSAN specification as an optional
requirement. Therefore, more users can be served with a smaller number of
OLTs, leading to additional savings.
Because the PON system will be ATM–based, it can adapt to virtually any service
desired. Telco operators, for instance, can deliver all of their legacy services, such
as T1 and T3 lines, or deliver new services, such as transparent LAN service (TLS)
over the optical network (see Figure 4). This future-proofs the architecture. New
revenue streams are derived by being able to provide transparent LAN services to
end users quickly and easily.
The ONT is proportioned for small- to medium-sized businesses and costs little.
This low cost is achieved because there are more small businesses than large
ones. Currently, service providers serve small businesses from synchronous
optical network (SONET) ring nodes, and these are costly elements when
compared to small ATM–PON ONTs. ATM PONs will mean new business for
carriers and services providers, as they can eliminate the need to place small- and
medium-sized businesses on SONET rings that exist in most metropolitan area
networks.
As ATM–PON architecture and processes mature, end users will benefit by being
able to provision their own services, whenever they are needed, through an
automated process. This process will either link the carriers' service management
system (SMS) with the customers' network management system or allow the
customer access to the SMS through a secured Web-browser interface. The CO
then updates network elements and provisions the new bandwidth.
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), for instance, offers users an always-
on service, but its maximum downstream and upstream speeds are ultimately
limited by distance and the aging copper infrastructure; typically, only speeds of
1.5 Mbps over 12 kft are achieved. If the customer is not directly connected to a
CO–based digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM), then an expensive
upgrade to an existing outside-plant DLC system is usually the only solution.
Since June 1995, the FSAN group has been working on the international initiative
and recognizing that each member has differing needs, depending on regulatory,
business, and structural environment in each country. FSAN is not a standards
body, but rather submits specifications to standard bodies such as the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Existing standards are
incorporated where applicable. In October of 1998, the ITU adopted the G.983.1
broadband optical access system based on PON.
The group's work has occurred in two phases. First, its task was to identify
technical and economic barriers to the introduction of a broadband access
network. It was determined that an ATM PON was the most promising
technology to achieve large-scale, FSAN work deployment that could meet the
evolving service needs of network users. The consortium felt that ATM PON was
the best means of supporting a range of architectures such as FTTH, FTTB/C,
and FTTH/CAB. Members have recognized that all operators require the same
elements in their access network. The major differences come from the
positioning of the optical network unit (ONT). All members see the need for a
6. Major Players
Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) is recognized as a
leading telecommunications carrier in the creation of high-speed optical-network
access systems. Its leadership is demonstrated by its involvement in the FSAN
Initiative as well as by its own cutting-edge research and development and
collaboration with other carriers. NTT already has deployed narrowband and
video-distribution FTTH and broadband ATM–PON systems. In 1999, it will
introduce a fully FSAN–compliant, FTTB/C ATM–PON system.
According to a press release issued by NTT and BellSouth in June 1998, the two
companies announced that they would work together. NTT and BellSouth
announced they would deliver a high-speed optical-network access platform,
pooling their respective research and development resources to advance the
availability of affordable FTTH technology. In June 1999, BellSouth unveiled
plans to install a FTTH system to the Atlanta area using FSAN–compliant ATM–
PON technology.
In the news release about the Atlanta installation, BellSouth announced that
suburban Atlanta residents will be the first in North America to experience the
nearly unlimited speed and bandwidth of passive optical networking delivered
directly to their homes. BellSouth's vision for FTTH is for customers to buy
communications appliances for voice, video, data or imaging applications at retail
stores and plug them into their home optical telecommunications network. The
BellSouth fiber network, by talking to the appliance, would deliver the necessary
provisioning. Both BellSouth and NTT believe that customer orientation and
demand will drive down the cost of FTTH equipment and accelerate its
worldwide availability. Historically, both BellSouth and NTT have pioneered
fiber-optic technology. In the late 1980s, BellSouth launched an FTTH trial near
Orlando, Florida. Historically, NTT has actively promoted FTTH, particularly in
the area of interface specifications for high-speed optical access systems. NTT's
FTTB/C project, to be launched in 1999, will replace copper cable with fiber
throughout most of NTT's subscriber system.
Carriers and service providers are expected to focus initially on business uses
through FTTB, as real revenue streams typically originate in these areas. As
production accelerates, operators will increasingly look to the mass residential
market. Through the Internet age, small- and medium-sized businesses have
been characterized as being on the down slope of technology. However, ATM
PON, with its cost savings and flexibility, is capable of bringing more of these
businesses on-line quickly.
Self-Test
1. The access network, which is the portion of a public switched network that
connects access nodes to individual subscribers, is predominantly
characterized today by which of the following?
a. fiber-optic cable
d. electrical wiring
2. Fiber to the home (FTTH), fiber to the building/curb (FTTB/C), and fiber to
the cabinet (FTTCab) are examples of which of the following?
c. transport protocols
d. fiber-optic components
a. Mbps
b. kbps
c. virtually limitless
d. Gbps
b. an opto-electronic component
a. active electronics
c. SONET rings
d. copper-based wiring
a. share bandwidth
b. provision bandwidth
c. increase bandwidth
8. The optical line termination (OLT) in the ATM PON system is typically
located _____________.
b. in a curbside cabinet
Correct Answers
1. The access network, which is the portion of a public switched network that
connects access nodes to individual subscribers, is predominantly
characterized today by which of the following?
a. fiber-optic cable
d. electrical wiring
See Topic 1.
2. Fiber to the home (FTTH), fiber to the building/curb (FTTB/C), and fiber to
the cabinet (FTTCab) are examples of which of the following?
c. transport protocols
d. fiber-optic components
See Topic 1.
a. Mbps
c. virtually limitless
d. Gbps
See Topic 1.
b. an opto-electronic component
See Topic 2.
a. active electronics
c. SONET rings
d. copper-based wiring
See Topic 2.
See Topic 2.
7. The use of the splitter in the PON architecture allows network users to
___________.
a. share bandwidth
b. provision bandwidth
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c. increase bandwidth
See Topic 2.
8. The optical line termination (OLT) in the ATM PON system is typically
located _____________.
b. in a curbside cabinet
See Topic 2.
See Topic 3.
See Topic 4.
See Topic 3.
Glossary
ADSL
asymmetric digital subscriber line
ATM
asynchronous transfer mode
CDMA
code division multiple access
CO
central office
DLC
digital loop carrier
DSL
digital subscriber line
FTTB/C
fiber-to-the-business/curb
FTTCab
fiber-to-the-cabinet
FTTH
fiber-to-the-home
FSAN
full-service access network
ISDN
integrated services digital network
LAN
local-area network
NT
network termination
OAM&P
operation, administration, and management protocol
OLT
optical line terminal
ONT
optical network termination/terminator
ONU
optical network unit
PLC
planar light circuit
PON
passive optical network
POP
point of presence
POTS
plain old telephone service
QoS
quality of service
SDMA
subcarrier division multiple access
SLA
service-level agreement
SMS
service management system
TDMA
time division multiple access
VDSL
very high speed digital subscriber line
WDMA
wave division multiple access