| As the name implies, passive optical networks (PONs) | | | | transmissions. To do this, the industry is baking up a |
| are ways of distributing signals without any active | | | | set of protocols referred to by the great acronym |
| gear. This is attractive to service providers because | | | | RFoG (RF over Fiber). The category is beginning to |
| chucking the lasers cuts costs and makes the | | | | make news. Last month, for instance, GPON vendor |
| resulting network more reliable. Growth in PONs is but | | | | Zhone Technology and RFoG vendor Alloptic |
| one sign that the old battles between the cable and | | | | announced a strategic agreement. The pact will |
| telcos folks are just as active as ever. | | | | enable Zhone to increase the amount of spectrum to |
| Infonetics Research this week released its fourth | | | | cable operators, the story says. |
| quarter market share numbers . There is the | | | | RFOG, PONs and other exotic sounding architectures |
| expected jockeying between the top players. The | | | | and approaches really boil down to one easy to |
| "perennial leader" is Mitsubishi, and other key players | | | | understand equation: Both industries are struggling to |
| are Fiberhome, Lucent, Motorola and Tellabs. More | | | | migrate their infrastructures to produce more |
| importantly, optical network units and optical light | | | | revenue, but to do so with the least possible |
| terminals (ONUs and OLTs) - two important elements | | | | investment and disruption. Media Experiences 2 Go, a |
| of a PON network -- were up 38 percent, which | | | | Motorola site, reports that Time Warner Cable has |
| suggests a thriving sector. The report adds that | | | | issued a request for information on RFoG and that |
| Gigabit and Ethernet PON (GPON and EPON) led the | | | | Motorola and Alloptic have a deal in place that will |
| way and that overall PON manufacturing was stable. | | | | extend Motorola's RFoG line. |
| This is good news in a bad economy and following a | | | | It's interesting to get the view of people close to the |
| quarter in which the category expended by 24 | | | | technologies under consideration. That's the case in |
| percent. The report's other highlights carry similarly | | | | this piece, which focuses on the thoughts of |
| good news for the category. | | | | Rouzbeh Yassini, who is informally known as "the |
| PONs are a main architecture for phone companies in | | | | father of the cable modem." Yassini, speaking at the |
| the United States. The reality is that small telcos are | | | | Cable Next-Gen Broadband Strategies conference last |
| actively deploying fiber systems, though most of the | | | | month, suggested that the third iteration of the cable |
| publicity goes to the massive Verizon FiOS and | | | | industry's Data Over Cable Service Interface |
| AT&T U-Verse projects. This week, those | | | | Specification (DOCSIS 3.0) will enable the industry's |
| smaller companies were in the news as Occam | | | | current hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) architecture for |
| Networks announced three deals . The vendor said | | | | seven or eight years, according to a recent Cable |
| that two Kentucky cooperatives - Peoples Rural | | | | Digital News report . The sticking point, however, is |
| Telephone and Ballard Telephone - are deploying its | | | | the industry's chronically constrained field-to-headend |
| Broadband Loop Carrier 6322 GPON OLT and ON | | | | "upstream" path. Options mentioned include RFoG and |
| 2442 GPON Triple Play Gateway optical network | | | | PON. |
| terminals. Nex-Tech, a telephone company in Hayes, | | | | The cable and phone companies have been going at |
| Kansas, will add to its Occam products, though the | | | | it tooth and nail for decades. It's great for their |
| release was not as specific on what the company is | | | | planning and engineering departments - not to |
| adding. | | | | mention vendors and a stray blogger or two. The |
| The cable operators are heading to PON | | | | precise nature of the technology, not the contentious |
| architectures as well. Getting to that point is a | | | | dynamic, is the only thing that changes. At times, it |
| different proposition, however, because of the | | | | seems that the industry with the weaker technology |
| industry's preexisting hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) | | | | is facing disaster. Now, however, it seems that both |
| architecture. The industry's goal is to limit the | | | | industries have put enough research and thinking into |
| dislocation that would be caused by a massive | | | | their platforms that they will sustain them |
| switchover from radio frequency (RF) to optical | | | | comfortably, no matter what the other side does. |