October 7, 2004 San Ramon, CA -- Several vendors of broadband passive optical network (BPON) equipment have demonstrated interoperability of carrier quality telephony services, under the auspices of the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) Group.
The FSAN working group has been championing the advancement of PON technology for many years, most importantly by pioneering the development of the G.983 series of ITU-T Recommendations, the basis of the BPON system. FSAN recently undertook a series of interoperability tests and demonstrations. These were in Tokyo and Geneva, which demonstrated BPON support for broadband data services over multi-vendor BPON networks from six vendors--Freescale, Hitachi, Iamba, Mitsubishi, Motorola, and Vinci-- including a BPON Tester provided by NTT-AT to verify the transport layer's conformance to G.983 series of ITU-T Recommendations.
The most recent demonstration, which was completed at the SBC Laboratories in San Ramon, CA, involved voice testing between four brands of optical line terminal (OLT) central office equipment, provided by AFC Alcatel, Entrisphere, and Motorola, and eight brands of optical network terminal (ONT) subscriber equipment, provided by AFC, Alcatel, CAC, Entrisphere, Iamba, Motorola, Siemens, and Vinci. Spirent provided voice testing equipment to verify service quality and integrity.
The multi-vendor PON systems were used to transport voice signals between the ONTs' RJ-11 POTS interfaces and GR-303 type switch interfaces on the OLTs. Voice band signaling operation, aural sound quality, and calling throughput were shown to fully meet service requirements. Backward compatibility with legacy services such as FAX transmission was demonstrated between interoperable ONT's.
"We are very pleased by the level of interoperability among vendors and performance of BPON in supporting POTS services," contends Ralph Ballart, vice president at SBC Laboratories. "Our investment in open standards-based PON technology has really paid off."