I’ve been asked a lot during 2018 if fiber overbuilders ought to be considering the next generation of PON technology that might replace GPON. They hear about the newer technologies from vendors and the press. For example, Verizon announced a few months ago that they would begin introducing Calix NGPON2 into their fiber network next year. The company did a test using the technology recently in Tampa and achieved 8 Gbps speeds. AT&T has been evaluating the other alternate technology, XGS-PON, and may be introducing it into their network in 2019.

Before anybody invests a lot of money in a GPON network it’s a good idea to always ask if there are better alternatives – as should be done for every technology deployed in the network.

One thing to consider is how Verizon plans on using NGPON2. They view this as the least expensive way to deliver bandwidth to a 5G network that consists of multiple small cells mounted on poles. They like PON technology because it accommodates multiple end-points using a single last-mile fiber, meaning a less fiber-rich network than with other 10-gigabit technologies. Verizon also recently began the huge task of consolidating their numerous networks and PON gives them a way to consolidate multi-gigabit connections of all sorts onto a single platform.

Very few of my clients operate networks that have a huge number of 10-gigabit local end points. Anybody that does should consider Verizon’s decision because NGPON2 is an interesting and elegant solution for handling multiple large customer nodes while also reducing the quantity of lit fibers in the network.

Most clients I work with operate PON networks to serve a mix of residential and business customers. The first question I always ask them is if a new technology will solve an existing problem in their network. Is there anything that a new technology can do that GPON can’t do? Are my clients seeing congestion in neighborhood nodes that are overwhelming their GPON network?

Occasionally I’ve been told that they want to provide faster connections to a handful of customers for which the PON network is not sufficient – they might want to offer dedicated gigabit or larger connections to large businesses, cell sites or schools. We’ve always recommended that clients design networks with the capability of large Ethernet connections external to the PON network. There are numerous affordable technologies for delivering a 10-gigabit pipe directly to a customer with active Ethernet. It seems like overkill to consider upgrading the electronics to all customers to satisfy the need of a few large customers rather than overlaying a second technology into the network. We’ve always recommended that networks have some extra fiber pairs in every neighborhood exactly for this purpose.

I’ve not yet heard an ISP tell me that they are overloading a residential PON network due to customer data volumes. This is not surprising. GPON was introduced just over a decade ago, and at that time the big ISPs offered speeds in the range of 25 Mbps to customers. GPON delivers 2.4 gigabits to up to 32 homes and can easily support residential gigabit service. At the time of introduction GPON was at least a forty-times increase in customer capacity compared to DSL and cable modems – a gigantic leap forward in capability. It takes a long time for consumer household usage to grow to fill that much new capacity. The next biggest leap forward we’ve seen was the leap from dial-up to 1 Mbps DSL – a 17-times increase in capacity.

Even if somebody starts reaching capacity on a GPON there are some inexpensive upgrades that are far less expensive than upgrading to a new technology. A GPON network won’t reach capacity evenly and would see it in some neighborhood nodes first. The capacity in a neighborhood GPON node can easily be doubled by cutting the size of the node in half by splitting it to two PONs. I have one client that did the math and said that as long as they can buy GPON equipment they would upgrade by splitting a few times – from 32 to 16 homes and from 16 homes to 8 homes, and maybe even from 8 to 4 customers before they’d consider tearing out GPON for something new. Each such split doubles capacity and splitting nodes three times would be an 8-fold increase in capacity. If we continue on the path of seeing household bandwidth demand double every three years, then splitting nods twice would easily add more than another decade to the life of a PON network. In doing that math it’s important to understand that splitting a node actually more than doubles capacity because it also decreases the oversubscription factor for each customer on the node.

AT CCG we’ve always prided ourselves on being technology neutral and vendor neutral. We think network providers should use the technology that most affordably fits the needs of their end users. We rarely see a residential fiber network where GPON is not the clear winner from a cost and performance perspective. We have clients using numerous active Ethernet technologies that are aimed at serving large businesses or for long-haul transport. But we are always open-minded and would easily recommend NGPON2 or XGS-PON if it is the best solution. We just have not yet seen a network where the new technology is the clear winner.