Gigabit Passive Optical Network
Arif Budiman,
Telkom University, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Haiarifbudiman@gmail.com
Abstract—As the industry chain of optical access network
technology develops quickly and its techniques and products
improve much, the global deployment of optical access
network is accelerating. The time of the large-scale
application of optical access network has come. Besides the
transmission characteristics of good quality, large capacity,
and long distance, GPON has the advantages of low
maintenance cost, high confidentiality, and strong anti-
jamming capability. So it has great promise in the application
of optical broadband access. This paper introduces the
structure and characteristics of GPON technology, analyzes
the key technology for GPON, designs the passive optical
network transmission.
Keywords—GPON, FTTH, access network, Passive
optical network
I. INTRODUCTION
At present, the growth of broadband internet usage has
increased steadily. Internet service providers (ISP) are
migrating technologies for access network from copper-based
network to optical fiber-based network. The copper-based
network (telephone line) also known as asymmetric digital
subscriber line (ADSL). With ADSL, downstream and
upstream bandwidth are affected by the condition of copper
wires, the distance between residential subscriber and the
central offices (COs) and any interference on the line. The
copper-based technology has been developed to very high bit
rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) that can support higher
bandwidth than ADSL. However, distance and copper wire
condition can still affect VDSL[1].
The Optical fiber-based network also known as fiber to the
home (FTTH) that is the future solution for providing
broadband service such as voice , data and video (Triple play).
FTTH can support very high bandwidth over long distance.
Infrastructure of FTTH is pure optical fiber installation, central
office directly connect with the optical fiber to residential
subscribers. FTTH solution based on passive optical network
(PON) that is point-to-multipoint architecture. PON use
unpowered optical splitter to divide the optical signal from
single fiber to multiple subscribers. There are several type of
PON technology, i.e. APON (ATM PON), BPON (Broadband
PON), GEPON (Gigabit Ethernet PON) or EPON (Ethernet
PON) and GPON (Gigabit-capable PON).
Nowadays, one of most deployed technologies of PON is
the GPON, with the other being the GEPON. GPON is defined
by ITU-T recommendation G.984 series. GPON interface can
transmit data over optical fibers at asymmetrical bit rate of
2.488 Gbps for downstream and 1.244
Gbps for upstream. GPON can transport ATM, TDM and
Ethernet traffic by using GPON encapsulation method (GEM).
This paper introduces the structure and characteristics of
GPON technology, analyzes the key technology for GPON,
designs the passive optical network transmission.
II. THEORY
A. FTTH
PON (Passive optical network) based FTTH access network is
a point-to-multipoint, fiber to the premises network
architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to
enable a single optical fiber to serve 32-128 premises[2].
FTTH network exploits the low attenuation and high
bandwidth of single-mode fiber to provide many times more
bandwidth than currently available with existing broadband
technologies.
Figure 1. Optical access network architecture
B. Gigabit PON
Efforts to standardize PON networks operating at above 1
Gbit/s were initiated in 2001 as the ITU-T G.984 series of
recommendations. GPON attempts to preserve as many
characteristics of the G.983 series of recommendations as
possible, however, due to technical issues related to providing
the higher line rates, the BPON and GPON systems are not
interoperable. At the moment, GPON standards have seven
transmission-speed combinations (line rates): symmetric 1.2 or
2.4 Gbit/s; or asymmetric 1.2 or 2.4 Gbit/s downstream with
155 Mbit/s, 622 Mbit/s, or 1.2 Gbit/s in the upstream. But in
fact there is the only one useful standard, which is 2.4 Gbit/s
downstream and 1.2 Gbit/s or 2.4 Gbit/s upstream[3].
GPON use GPON encapsulation method (GEM) for
performing GEM encapsulation for transmitting frames (e.g.,
ATM, TDM, and Ethernet) between the OLT and the ONT. In
downstream direction (from OLT to ONT) data packets are
transmitted in broadcast method to all ONTs with the same
fiber. The encryption is used for prevent eavesdropping. ONTs
filter the received data and separate only their own data. The
upstream direction, data packets are transmitted in time
division multiple access (TDMA) method. Each ONT
transmits in an assigned time slot to escape collisions, and the
OLT controls the upload capacity bandwidth with dynamic
bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithm for all ONTs.
C. GPON Features
This evolutionary technology is based on BPON GEM.
Following are its features −
Downstream transmission
• 2.4 Gbps.
• BW for one ONT is sufficient to supply multiple
HDTV signals.
• QOS allows for delay sensitive traffic (voice).
Upstream transmission
• 1.24 Gbps.
• Minimum BW can be guaranteed.
• Unused time-slots can be assigned to heavy users
• QoS allows to delay sensitive traffic (voice).
Up-to date GPON OLTs are able to support split ratios of
16, 32, or 64 users per fiber. ITU-T G.984.2 includes future
ratios of up to 128 users per fiber and accounts for this in the
transmission-convergence layer. According to G.983.3 (Figure
2), for a single-fiber system, the operating wavelength is in the
1480 nm to 1500 nm band in the downstream and in the 1260
nm to 1360 nm band in the upstream. This leaves the 1550 nm
to 1560 nm band free for RF overlay video services. For a two-
fiber system: in the 1260 nm to 1360 nm band in both the
downstream and the upstream directions
Figure 2. ITU-T definition of telecommunication wavelength bands with
three operating windows. 1310 nm is used for upstream. 1490 nm and
1550 nm are used for downstream.
III. MODEL SYSTEM AND COMPONNENT
A. Model System
Optical line terminal, optical splitters and optical network
terminal are the three components of GPON FTTH access
network.
With a tree topology, GPON maximizes the coverage with
minimum network splits, thus reducing optical power. An
FTTH access network comprises five areas, which are a core
network area, a central office area, a feeder area, a distribution
area and a user area see in the figure 3.
Figure 3. Model system configuration GPON
Component of GPON:
1. OLT (Optical Line Terminal)
The optical line terminal is the main element of the
network and it is usually placed in the local exchange. It
is the engine that drives FTTH system. Traffic
scheduling, buffer control and bandwidth allocation are
the most important functions of optical line terminal.
Typically, OLT operates using redundant DC power and
has at least 1 Line Card for incoming internet, 1 System
Card for on-board configuration, and 1 to many GPON
cards. Each GPON card consists of a number of GPON
ports.
2. Optical Splitter
The optical splitter splits the power of the signal.
That is to say, each fiber link entering the splitter may be
split into a given number of fibers leaving the splitter.
Usually, three or more levels of fibers correspond to two
or more levels of splitters. This enables sharing of each
fiber by many users. The passive optical splitter has the
characteristics of broad operating wavelength range, low
insertion loss and uniformity, minimal dimensions, high
reliability, and supporting network survivability and
protection policy.
3. ONT (Optical Network Terminal)
ONT is deployed at customer’s premises. It is
connected to the OLT by means of optical fiber and no
active elements are present in the link. In GPON, the
transceiver in the ONT is the physical connection
between the customer premises and the central office
OLT.
4. Core Network
The core network includes the internet service
provider ISP equipment, PSTN (packet switched or the
legacy circuit switched) and cable TV provider
equipment.
5. Central Office
The main function of the central office is to host the
OLT and ODF (optical distribution frames) and provide
the necessary powering. Sometimes it might even include
some of the components of the core network.
6. Feeder Network
The feeder area extends from ODF in the central
office to the distribution points. These points, usually
street cabinets, called Fiber Disruption Frames FDT
where level-1 splitters usually reside. The feeder cable is
usually connected as ring topology starting from a GPON
port and terminated into another GPON port as shown in
the picture above to provide type B protection.
7. Distribution Network
Distribution cable connects level-1 splitter (inside
the FDT) with level-2 splitter. Level-2 splitter is usually
hosted in a pole mounted box called Fiber Access
Terminal FAT usually placed at the entrance of the
neighborhood.
8. User Area
In the user area, drop cables are used to connect the
level-2 splitter inside the FAT to the subscriber premises.
For ease of maintenance, usually an aerial drop cable is
terminated at the entrance of the subscriber home with a
Terminal Box TB, then an indoor drop cable connects the
TB to an Access Terminal Box ATB reside inside the
home. Finally a patch cord connects the ONT to the
ATB.
 IV. DISCUSSION
A. Link Budget
Typical PON is composed of OLT and ONUs and optical
distribution network (ODN) which constitutes the optical
transmission media for the connection OLT to ONUs. The
ODN’s characteristics such as losses are very important in
designing optical access network. Normally it consists of the
following passive optical elements: single mode optical fibers,
optical fiber connectors, passive branching components,
passive optical attenuators and splices. Optical path losses are
associated with above elements. The link budget is given in
Table 1. This budget covers all optical components between
OLT and ONU.
Table 1. Loss budget for the GPON system
Items Unit Path loss
Minimum optical loss 1490 nm dB 13
Minimum optical loss 1310 nm dB 13
Maximum optical loss 1490 nm dB 28
Maximum optical loss 1310 nm dB 28
B. Power Budget
The transmitter’s power and receiver’s sensitivity are two
parameters that define the possible reach of the access network.
In Table 2. typical parameters of commercially available burst
mode transceivers capable of supporting 1.25 Gbps are shown.
To calculate the worst case scenario power budget the
minimum receiver sensitivity is subtracted from the minimum
transmitter power. For these devices the available power
budget is around 22 dB and 23 dB typically. Based on these
values the total loss in the network is known and the maximum
reach of the network can be calculated from (1), where P is
power budget, FCA is Fiber Cable Attenuation in dB/m, L is a
distance and SL is a splitter loss.
P = FCA · L + SL + Penalties (1)
Penalties stand for additional costs such as losses at splices
and connectors. The typical attenuation of a single mode fiber
is about 0.4 dB/m for a wavelength of 1310 nm and 0.3 dB/m
for 1550 nm (ITU-T Rec. G.652.C and G.652.D). As an example,
assuming that the power budget is equal to 23 dB, a single
mode fiber operating at the wavelength of 1550 nm is used, SL
is 14 dB and there are two mechanical splices and two
connectors, the maximum reach of the network can be
calculated from (1):
V. CONCLUSION
• Performance
GPON supports several line rates for the upstream and
downstream directions. It also supports legacy ATM and
packet-based transport. It even has an efficient Ethernet
transport capability, i.e. some of the Ethernet overhead is
extracted during the encapsulation process. Additionally,
GPON supports packet fragmentation, enabling efficient
utilization of transport media. GPON provides adequate
bandwidth and QoS for the residential customers and small
businesses and some of the large enterprise services can also be
supported.
• Services
GPON is planed to support efficiently legacy, current and
future services. This is enabled by the GEM encapsulation
method, which can be enhanced to support future technologies.
In respect to scalability, GPON overcomes EPON with several
line rate options and, especially, with the larger offered
bandwidth. Security can be implemented with different
encryption techniques, among which AES is the most advanced
one. For the traffic provisioning, GPON uses 12-bit port IDs as
are used for the Ethernet VLAN and ATM virtual channel
identification.
• Video services (IPTV, CATV)
IPTV provides video service based on IP multicast. At the
source end, different program sources are configured with
different multicast addresses, and reach the ONU device
through a series of broadcast servers. In CATV mode, analog
signals of traditional TV programs are transmitted over the
cables. Through electrical-to-optical conversion, video stream
is converted into downstream optical waves on the OLT, and
then superposed with downstream optical waves of the GPON
in WDM mode (RF video - 1550nm). The superposed waves
are transmitted in downstream through an optical fiber. After
these waves reach the ONUs/ONUs, video signals are
separated to provide video services.
• Cost-efficiency
In respect of cost, GPON cannot compete with EPON, due
to the tighter physical requirements of the transport
components. GPON is the most complex of all the PONs
bringing challenges to the maintenance. The remote
maintenance follows the same standard as is used in
SDH/SONET networks, already familiar to operators world-
wide.
• Convergence
GPON has the best support of all the PONs for
heterogeneous networking. The most important advantage of
GPON is the GFP based adaptation layer, which is capable of
supporting any service whether it is packet or circuit oriented.

The minimum power budgets for typical configurations of

PONs are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. The minimum Power Budget for different PON
configuration

Required
Onu L FCA SL Penalties Power
Budget
16 10km 1310nm 0.4dB/m 14.5dB 2.5dB 21dB
16 20km 1550nm 0.3dB/m 14.5dB 2.5dB 23dB
32 10km 1310nm 0.4dB/m 17dB 2.5dB 23,5dB
32 20km 1550nm 0.3dB/m 17dB 2.5dB 23,5dB
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