10G-EPON standard ratified

PISCATAWAY, USA: Over 40 companies and organizations that supported or participated in the IEEE P802.3av 10 Gb/s Ethernet Passive Optical Network (10G-EPON) Task Force are celebrating completion of IEEE Std. 802.3avTM-2009, also known as Physical Layer Specifications and Management Parameters for 10 Gb/s Passive Optical Networks. IEEE Std. 802.3av and its predecessor, IEEE Std. 802.3ahTM-2004, are specifications that describe Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) telecommunications systems.

The following companies have expressed their support for the approved standard: Alloptic, Anritsu Company, ARRIS, B-DeltaCom, Bright House Networks, Cambridge Industries Group, China Mobile Communications Corporation, China Telecom – STTRI, China Unicom – Beijing, Corecess, Cortina Systems, CyOptics, Dasan Networks, Dongwon, Enablence Technologies, ETRI, FiberHome, Fujitsu, H3C, Hisense Broadband, Hitachi, Huawei Technologies, Kawasaki Microelectronics, KDDI R&D, KT, Ligent Photonics, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, NTT Corporation, OF Networks, OneChip Photonics, PMC-Sierra, Shanghai Luster Teraband Photonics Co., Sumitomo Electric, Teknovus, Telekom Malaysia R&D, Ubiquoss, Vitesse Semiconductor, and ZTE. The China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), the Ethernet Alliance, the Optical Access (FTTx) Industry Alliance (OAIA) of China, and the Taiwan Optical Communication Industry Alliance also endorse the 10G-EPON standard.

The IEEE Std. 802.3av 10G-EPON standard supports symmetric and asymmetric line-rate operations. The symmetric option operates at 10 Gb/s in both the downstream and upstream directions. The asymmetric option, which reflects the fact that IP video services create bandwidth pressure mostly in the downstream direction, uses 10 Gb/s downstream and 1 Gb/s upstream.

IEEE Std. 802.3ah 1 Gb/s EPON (1G-EPON) systems have been deployed to more than 30 million subscribers worldwide and support diverse services, including IPTV, VoIP, and cellular backhaul.

Given the large and accelerating deployment of 1G-EPON systems, the IEEE Std. 802.3av enables seamless upgrades via the simultaneous operation of 1 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s symmetric and asymmetric EPON systems on the same outside plant. This allows operators to introduce 10G-EPON without replacing any existing 1G-EPON customer equipment and minimizes the operational impact of upgrading a large, in-service FTTH network.

Initial deployments of the 10G-EPON equipment are expected in 2010.