UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND

TECHNOLOGY,
TAXILA

TELECOMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT

OPTICAL FIBER COMMUNICATION

SUBMITTED TO
DR. Ali Waqar Azim

SUBMITTED BY
Hamna Shafique

REGISTRATION NO
19-TE-73
 Question No#01

Explain Passive Optical Networks (PONs) in detail?

Passive optical networking (PON) is like an active optical networking. It uses fiber optic
cabling to provide Ethernet connectivity from a main data source to endpoints. While there
are numerous subtle contrasts, a reasonable qualification between dynamic optical systems
networking and PON topology is PON's utilization of a method that disseminates a solitary
signal to different branches through unpowered devices called optical beam splitters.

PON Working:
OLTs and ONTs
In a PON network, a device called an optical line terminal (OLT) is placed at the end of the
network. A single fiber optic cable is connected from OLT to unpowered (passive) optical
beam splitter, which multiplies the signal and relays it to many optical network terminals
(ONTs). Enduser devices such as PCs and telephones are connected to the ONTs.
Passive optical splitting
As splitting function is one-to-many broadcast of the same data stream, the ONTs are
responsible for filtering packets meant for the various connected endpoint devices.
Encryption ensures that each ONT reads only the contents addressed to the endpoints
connected to it.
Typical gigabit-capable passive optical network (GPON) deployments mostly use a splitting ratio
of 1:32 or 1:64. Current GPON standards specify up to 128 splits on a single GPON port. Those same
standards set the distance between active devices at 20 kilometers.

Benefits and Limitations of PONs: -

innovations.
• They don't need electrically controlled midspan devices to work.
• They utilize existing fiber Optics.
• Their upgrade paths are ample, and throughput rates are staying aware of elective
Advances.
The potential drawbacks of passive optical networks include the following:
• They require a broad fiber deployment.
• Bigger networks can turn out to be less productive because of how much
administration traffic overhead being shipped from the central office to individual
client ONUs.
• Unlike active powered network technologies, PONs should hold fast to severe
vehicle distance limits.

Question No#02
Explain Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) in detail.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a telecommunications standard defined by ANSI and
ITU-T (formerly CCITT) for digital transmission of multiple types of traffic, including
telephony (voice), data, and video signals in one network without the use of separate overlay
networks.
The "asynchronous" in ATM implies ATM devices don't send and get data at fixed velocities
or using a timer, yet rather arrange transmission speeds dependent on equipment and data
stream reliability. The transfer mode" in ATM refers to the fixed-size cell structure utilized
for bundling data. This cell-based transmission is rather than typical local area network
(LAN) variable-length packet mechanisms, which implies that ATM connections are
unpredictable and can be overseen so that no single information type or association can
consume the transmission path.
ATM utilizes fixed-size packets called "cells." Each 53-byte ATM cell contains 48 bytes of
information payload and 5 bytes of control and routing information in the header. The header
provides addressing data to changing the packet to its destination. The payload segment
conveys the genuine data, which can be information, voice, or video. The payload is
appropriately called the user information field. The justification for picking 48 bytes as the
payload size is to compromise between the ideal cell sizes for conveying voice data (32
bytes) and information data (64 bytes). The fixed size of an ATM cell makes ATM traffic
straightforward and unsurprising and makes it workable for ATM to work at high
velocities. Normal ATM speeds differ with transmission media and can include:
• 25 Mbps over unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) category 5 cabling
• 155 Mbps over either UTP or fiber-optic cabling
• 622 Mbps and 4.8 Gbps over fiber-optic cabling only
ATM also includes a mechanism for allocating bandwidth dynamically; that is, bandwidth is
allocated only in required amounts and the required direction. As a result, when an ATM link
is idle, it utilizes no bandwidth, which can result in considerable cost savings depending on
the needs of your network.

Question No#03
Explain Ethernet PON (EPON) in detail.
Ethernet PON (EPON) is a PON-based network that carries data traffic encapsulated in
Ethernet frames (defined in the IEEE 802.3 standard). It uses a standard 8b/10b line
coding (8 user bits encoded as 10 line bits) and operates at standard Ethernet speed.
EPON is a point-to-multipoint technology that delivers 1 Gbps upstream and downstream
in FTTH and FTTP networks.
EPON Working:
The IEEE 802.3 standard defines two basic configurations for an Ethernet network. In one
configuration it can be deployed over a shared medium using the Carrier Sense Multiple
Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) protocol. In another configuration, stations
may be connected through a switch using full-duplex point-to-point links. Properties of
EPON are such that it cannot be considered either a shared medium or a point-to-point
network; rather, it is a combination of both. In the downstream direction, Ethernet frames
transmitted by the OLT pass through a 1: N passive splitter and reach each ONU. N is
typically between 4 and 64. This behavior is similar to a shared-medium network. Because
Ethernet is broadcast by nature, in the downstream direction (from network to user), it fits
perfectly with the Ethernet PON architecture: packets are broadcast by the OLT and
extracted by their destination ONU based on the media-access control (MAC) address as
shown in figure below:

In the upstream direction, due to the directional properties of a passive optical combiner, data
frames from any ONU will only reach the OLT, and no other ONUs. In that sense, in the
upstream direction, the behavior of EPON is similar to that of a point-to-point architecture.
However, unlike in a true point-to-point network, in EPON data frames from different ONUs
transmitted simultaneously still may collide. Thus, in the upstream direction (from users to 13
network) the ONUs need to employ some arbitration mechanism to avoid data collisions and
fairly share the fiber-channel capacity.
All ONUs are synchronized to a common time reference and each ONU is allocated a
timeslot. Each timeslot is capable of carrying several Ethernet frames. An ONU should buffer
frames received from a subscriber until its timeslot arrives. When its timeslot arrives, the
ONU would “burst” all stored frames at full channel speed which must correspond to one of
standard Ethernet rates (10/100/1000/10000 Mbps). If there are no frames in the buffer to fill
the entire timeslot, idle 10 bits characters are transmitted. The possible timeslot allocation
schemes could range from a static allocation (fixed timedivision multiple access (TDMA)) to
a dynamically adapting scheme based on instantaneous queue size in every ONU (statistical
multiplexing scheme). There are more allocation schemes possible, including schemes
utilizing notions of traffic priority, Quality of Service (QoS), Service-Level Agreements
(SLAs), over-subscription ratios, etc.

Question No#04
Explain Gigabit Ethernet PON (GPON) in detail.
GPON stands for Gigabit Ethernet passive optical network (PON). GPON uses Asynchronous
Transfer Mode (ATM) for voice, Ethernet for data, and proprietary encapsulation for
voice.This means that it uses fixed-sized cells instead of variably sized packets of data. It
offers faster Gbps than EPON (Ethernet passive optical network) on downstream and
upstream bandwidths.
A GPON system consists of an optical line terminal (OLT) that connects several optical
network terminals (ONTs/ONUs) together using a passive optical distribution network
(ODN).

GPON Working:
The main optical transmitter, called the OLT (Optical Line Terminal) is located within the
telecommunications operator building, the central office. A laser in the OLT injects the
photons from the central office to a fibre-optic cable made of glass and plastic that ends at a
passive optical splitter. The splitter breaks the single signal from the central office into
numerous signals that may eventually be distributed to up to 64 customers. The number of
customers served by one laser is a result of the operator’s engineering criteria, which might
choose to lower the number, very often to 32 customers.
Benefits of GPON include the following:
• GPON offers higher bandwidth delivery
• It has a 2.4 Gbps downstream capacity and a 1.2 Gbps upstream capacity.
• It uses larger, variable length packets to transmit data
• Employs frame segmentation to give higher quality for voice and video traffic.
 Question No#05
Highlight the main differences between EPON and GPON?
GPON is based on a standard for new-generations of broadband passive optical access.
GPON is widely deployed in fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks.
GPON provides:
• Up to 2.5 Gbps
• Quality of Service (QoS) full business protection and advanced security
• Full operations, administration and management (OAM) functions
• Ethernet access to user EPON rivals GPON by using Ethernet packets instead of the ATM
cells GPON uses.
EPON is deployed as point-to-multipoint in fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks or fiber-
to-thehome (FTTH) networks. EPON uses a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises or
users.
EPON provides:
• Data rates of 1 Gbps upstream and downstream
• Access to data like Internet, voice, and video service.

Differences: -
GPON is purposely built as a point-to-multipoint protocol. EPON calls upon Ethernet to
function the same as GPON. In other words, GPON is efficient and EPON is not.