Optiblue WDM PON Systems

WDM PON provides the dedicated bandwidth of a point-to-point network with the fiber sharing inherent in PON networks.  The WDM PON physical architecture is identical to that of EPON and GPON.  However, instead of a traditional PON splitter, WDM PON uses an Arrayed WaveGuide (AWG) that separates the wavelengths for individual delivery to subscribers’ ONTs.

The following vendors have WDM PON products or appear to be working on them.

© 2009, The Product Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Vendors of GPON Optical Transceivers
2. Potential Vendors of 10G EPON Systems
3. Qwest to Leap Ahead With 100 Gbps

The WDM PON architecture is identical to that of EPON and GPON (and their 10G versions) FTTH architectures. However, instead of a splitter, WDM PON has an Arrayed WaveGuide (AWG) filter that separates the wavelengths for individual delivery to subscriber ONTs.

Advantages of the WDM approach are inherent in the completely separate downstream wavelengths for each subscriber. This provides more bandwidth to each subscriber, more security, and better operational control since there is no interference in the downstream direction among the various wavelengths.

The biggest disadvantage of WDM PON is its cost (and its maturity as a FTTH technology). Each subscriber requires its own dedicated transceiver at the OLT, and this is one of the cost advantages of the other PON technologies lost with WDM PON. Additionally, the AWG filter is expected to be more expensive than the splitters used with GPON, EPON, and BPON.

The diagram below shows a typical WDM PON network.

© 2009, The Product Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. 10G GPON Tutorial
2. GPON Tutorial in 200 Words
3. 10G EPON in 200 words and one diagram