INFOBRIEF
Paving the Way for 25GS-PON
Passive optical networks (PONs) have
evolved significantly over the years to
meet the escalating demand for bandwidth
and performance. As fiber deployment
continues to grow, it now forms the
foundation for service delivery to all
types of locations—including homes,
businesses, cell sites, schools, hospitals,
and municipalities to name a few.
A major benefit of fiber deployment is its potential to
support huge bandwidth, and every new generation
of PON technology has unlocked more of fiber’s
potential. This is certainly the case for 25GS-PON.
Key attributes of 25GS-PON
• Higher speeds and symmetrical: 25GS-PON
provides a substantial increase in bandwidth
compared to its predecessors, making it ideal for
delivering higher premium enterprise and residential
services, 5G transport, and wholesale services.
With symmetrical 25 Gb/s downstream and
upstream, it can easily accommodate the demands
of emerging applications like 8K video streaming,
virtual reality, and augmented reality.
• Opens new use cases: 25GS-PON expands the
applicability of PON technology beyond residential
service to premium enterprise, mobile transport,
and wholesale services over a cost-effective
shared infrastructure.
1
• Energy efficient: 25GS-PON consumes less
power per bit transmitted, contributing to reduced
operational costs and environmental sustainability.
• Simple to deploy: No changes needed to outside
plant. Coexistence with Ethernet PON (EPON),
Gigabit PON (GPON), and XGS-PON.
• Industry support: There is strong cross-industry
support between vendors and operators through
participation in groups like the 25GS-PON Multi-
Source Agreement (MSA) Group.
Expanded use cases
Cost-effective large enterprise connectivity
Enterprise customers continue to use the cloud at a
growing rate and are more dependent on higher-speed
symmetrical service than ever before. Large enterprises
with high performance demands can harness the power
of 25GS-PON to support mission-critical applications,
remote data storage, and efficient communication
between geographically dispersed sites.
Current infrastructures typically include solutions
such as dedicated (point-to-point) active Ethernet.
25GS-PON opens the door for a cost-effective solution
running over the shared PON infrastructure while still
being capable of delivering the speeds required.
5G and mobile transport
5G service brings increased capacity and provides
better coverage which results in many more radio
cells (small cells) than previous generations like 4G
LTE or 3G. Fiber connectivity is needed to carry ever-
increasing volumes of mobile traffic, and dedicating a
fiber link to every small cell would be cost prohibitive.
Additionally, since the density of small cell sites would
be greatest in urban areas where PON networks
are already deployed, leveraging that existing
infrastructure is a natural solution to reduce cost
compared to dedicated fiber. Plus, 25GS-PON’s ability
to support the capacity required for xHaul and the
needs of the evolving mobile network make it a very
good fit for this use case.
Smart cities
25GS-PON plays a pivotal role in building smart city
infrastructures. Its high bandwidth enables real-time
data analytics, traffic management, and public safety
applications. Smart traffic lights, environmental
monitoring, and surveillance systems can all benefit from
25GS-PON’s capabilities. This goes hand in hand with
5G deployment, which facilitates IoT as well as better
management of utilities, infrastructure, and buildings.
XGS-PON grows as 25GS-PON emerges
For the past several decades, passive optical
networks have become extremely popular due to the
demand for high-speed internet access. However,
bandwidth demands are driving network providers
to higher-speed symmetrical XGS-PON as 15-year-
old GPON and EPON technologies can’t keep up with
network demand.
XGS-PON will continue to show a healthy growth rate
and will dominate PON technology across residential
Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) networks when compared to
older generations such as GPON (see Figures 1 and 2).
Percent of total global PON ports shipped
80%
70%
60%
Forecast
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Includes 2022 shipments GPON XGS-PON
Figure 1. XGS-PON vs. older GPON
Source: Omdia, Fiber and Copper Access Equipment Forecast 2023-28 Midyear Update, Aug 2023.https://omdia.tech.informa.com/OM032084/Fiber-and-Copper-Access-Equipment-
Forecast-202328-Midyear-Update
2
XGS-PON global ports shipped
16,000
14,000
(Thousands of ports)
12,000
Forecast
10,000
8,000
6,000
4000
2000
2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028
Includes 2022 shipments
Figure 2. XGS-PON port shipments
As 25GS-PON emerges, the combination of XGS-PON
and 25GS-PON gives operators the flexibility they
require to address use cases where each technology
can be best applied. 25GS-PON will first be used
strategically by operators for large enterprises,
campus environments, access network aggregation,
mobile transport, and wholesale connections as well
as for high-end residential customers.
The ability to overlay 25GS-PON onto an existing
XGS-PON rollout and selectively offload high-use, high-
end customers allows operators to market 25GS-PON
across their region and deploy it where needed.
25GS-PON will not eliminate the need for XGS-PON;
rather, they will coexist. In fact, 25GS-PON was
developed with coexistence in mind (see Figure 3).
While XGS-PON and 25GS-PON wavelengths for
upstream traffic overlap at 1270 nm, 25GS-PON has
several other wavelength choices for upstream traffic
as well. Downstream wavelengths for 25GS-PON and
XGS-PON don’t overlap. Additionally, by using time
division multiplexing (TDM)/time division multiple
access (TDMA) access control, both generations
of PON can simply increase speed (for example,
XGS-PON, 25GS-PON, etc.). This combination of
upstream and downstream wavelengths allows both
technologies to coexist and run over the same single
fiber, saving cost and providing operational efficiency.
25GS-PON expands the applicability of PON
2027 2028 technologies beyond residential networks. It allows
operators to utilize PON as a network-flattening
technology across residential, enterprise, mobile
transport, and wholesale networks.
 IEEE 25G and 25GS-PON

25GS-PON
XGS-PON
1270
1286 1300 1342 1358

1577

XGS-PON-UP

25GS-PON-DOWN

25GS-PON-DOWN
25GS-PON-UP
25GS-PON-UP
25GS-PON-UP

XGS-PON
DOWN
1200 1300 1400 1600

1290 1310

1260 1280 1575 1580

Wavelength in nanometers (nm)

Figure 3. Wavelength coexistence of 25GS-PON and XGS-PON

Ciena’s Universal Aggregation paves the way to µOLT—with no loss in port density. In fact, Ciena has
25GS-PON nearly 550,000+ 25 Gb/s ports already deployed and
The network edge is evolving. The volume of capable of supporting 25XGS-PON µOLTs (see Figure 4).
transmitted information has increased and the traffic
model has become an ever-changing mix of varying
protocols with shifting performance requirements. 550,000 • 25 Gb/s ports deployed on
Ciena platforms
Instead of building siloed, standalone architectures to 25 Gb/s • Providing Universal Aggregation
support different types of services, Ciena’s Universal ports
Aggregation solution enables network operators • Ready to support 25GS-PON
to support concurrent TDM, PON, IP, and Ethernet
services using dedicated and shared fiber on the Figure 4. Deployed ports ready for 25GS-PON
same cost-effective routing and switching platform.

PON services are delivered out of those platforms Network operators who have deployed or who are
by simply plugging in one or more of Ciena’s micro considering deploying Ciena’s coherent aggregation
optical line terminals (µOLTs), which effectively turns routers can be confident as they deploy XGS-PON
any port into an OLT delivering XGS-PON while other that their network is already prepared for 25GS-PON—
ports aggregate traffic from any of the services and that they can meet the growing bandwidth
previously mentioned. demands of their customers over a multiservice
converged infrastructure.
The Ciena platforms in service today are ready to
support 25GS-PON by simply plugging in a 25GS-PON

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