The IEEE has begun work on a standard for linking EPON services at a system level, in the hopes of achieving plug-and-play interoperability for this rapidly growing technology.
EPON, you may recall, stands for Ethernet Passive Optical Networks, and it is used for fiber-to-the-home networks (well, fiber-to-the-“X”). The IEEE Standards Association says there are more than 30 million subscriber lines using the 1Gbps version of EPON, and it expects more than 10 million new subscribers annually.
The IEEE standardized the 10Gbps version of EPON in September. Deployments are expected to start next year.
The new working group, with the designation P1904.1, is supposed to build on those two standards, which concentrate on the physical and data link layers. The new standard would be at the system and network level, allowing transport, service and control planes to interoperate. Interoperability specifications would cover traffic engineering, service-level quality-of-service mechanisms, and specifications for managing equipment, services and power utilization.
The group argues in its project authorization request that a new standard would eliminate the need for individual companies to create their own interoperability specifications. If everyone follows the same specifications, it says, EPON equipment can be shipped in higher volumes and at lower costs. Also, operators wouldn’t have to develop their own system-level specifications and interoperability tests before deploying EPON.
Interested parties include telecom system and component vendors, carriers, and multiple system operators, or MSOs. Initial members of the group include Alloptic, Bright House Networks, Cambridge Industries Group, Cavera Systems, China Telecom, China Unicom, Enablence Technologies, FiberHome Telecommunications Technologies, Fujitsu Telecom Networks, Hitachi, KDDI R&D Laboratories, Korea Telecom, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, NTT, Oki Electric Industry Co., PMC-Sierra, Sumitomo Electric, Teknovus, Telekom Malaysia R&D, University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab, and ZTE.
The group is expected to hold its first meeting early next year.
