Ethernet in the First Mile

Point to Multipoint
Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON)
Tutorial

Ethernet in the First Mile

IEEE 802.3 Study Group
 Optical First Mile Ex. N=32 Nodes

Point to Point Ethernet 32/64 fibers

à N fibers 64 transceivers
à 2N optical transceivers
CO P2P

Curb Switched Ethernet

à 1 fiber
à Minimum fiber/space in CO 1/2 fiber
à 2N+2 optical transceivers 66 transceivers
à Electrical power in the field
P2P
CO curb switch
Ethernet PON (EPON)
à 1 fiber
à Minimum fibers/space in CO
à N+1 optical transceivers 1 fiber
à No electrical power in field 33 transceivers
à Drop throughput up to trunk rate
P2MP passive
à Downstream broadcast (video) CO
optical splitter

Ethernet in the First Mile

IEEE 802.3 Study Group
 EPON Downstream
1 1
ONU 1 USER 1
header Payload FCS 2
1 Subscriber
802.3 frame 3
1

1 3 1 2 1 3 1 2 2
OLT ONU 2 USER 2
1
Splitter 3
Headend 1
2

• Downstream channel 3
uses true broadcast. ONU 3 USER 3

• 802.3 Frames extracted

by MAC addresses.
OLT = Optical Line Terminal
ONU = Optical Network Unit
Ethernet in the First Mile
IEEE 802.3 Study Group
 EPON Upstream
• Upstream time slicing
• No collisions ONU 1
1 1
USER 1

• No packet fragmentation Subscriber

1
Headend 1
Splitter
OLT ONU 2 USER 2
1 1 2 3 3 3 2 2

time slot
3
802.3 frame 3
3 ONU 3 USER 3
3 3 3

header Payload FCS

Ethernet in the First Mile

IEEE 802.3 Study Group
 EPON Configuration
1:N optical
splitter

• Single Fiber Point to Multipoint (P2MP)

• Full-duplex mode (no CSMA/CD) single fiber
optics
• Subscribers see traffic only from Headend,
not from each other. Headend permits only
one subscriber at a time to transmit.
• Flexible optical splitter architectures
• PMD investigate 1550/1310, 1310+/1310- and 1490/1310

Ethernet in the First Mile

IEEE 802.3 Study Group
 EPON Compatibility
EPON preserves the 802.3 frame format, MAC and
GMII/TBI. Two methods have been proposed:

(1) PHY Layer

8B/10B, SERDES, and Multiple Access Manager
(2) MAC Control Layer
Utilize existing PAUSE control frame or other control
messages.

PHY Point to multipoint:

PMD
Focus, simplify, and preserve the integrity of Ethernet
TX/RX

Ethernet in the First Mile

IEEE 802.3 Study Group
 EPON Applications
EPON supports a broad range of EFM applications:
Fiber to the Home (FTTH)
Fiber to the Building (FTTB)
Fiber to the MDU, MTU
Fiber to the Curb (FTTC)

Local Exchange Carriers trialing/deploying PON

Market Research Supporting PON ($2.2B NA 2004)
Favorable EFM SG voting: 59-3 Mar vote, 85-0 May vote

Ethernet in the First Mile

IEEE 802.3 Study Group
 EPON Summary
• Point-to-Point (P2P) and Point-to-Multipoint (P2MP) Optical Ethernet
are important for local subscriber access networks.

• EPON Objective:
PHY for
PON - Point-to-Multipoint Passive Optical Network
>=10 km - Covering local subscriber network distances
1000 Mbps - Using standard Gigabit Ethernet rates
SMF - Singlemode Fiber
>=1:16 - Covering minimum 16-to-1 split ratio

Ethernet in the First Mile

IEEE 802.3 Study Group