Fiberxon, Passave put forth joint FTTH reference design

March 10, 2005 Santa Clara, CA -- Fiberxon, a developer of optoelectronic components and subsystems for communication networks, and Passave , a provider of semiconductors for FTTH applications, have announced the availability of a reference design for FTTH access systems that, according to the companies, is cost-competitive with DSL and cable modem.

Fully compliant with the IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) standard for FTTH, the reference design provides bandwidth of 1-Gbit/sec per user, and enables the delivery of simultaneous voice, data, and video services over a single link, as well as HDTV channels over IP, according to a press release.

According to the release, the reference design is a fully functioning Gigabit Ethernet network incorporating a central office optical line terminal (OLT), a customer premises optical networking unit (ONU), fiber-optic transceivers, and a complete networking and management solution for layers 2, 3, and 4 of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model. The companies say the design is based on silicon and transceiver components that have shipped in accumulated volumes of over one million units and are deployed today by carriers worldwide. The reference design comes with hardware schematics and Gerber files along with complete system-level software.

"Passavé's partnership with Fiberxon shows ample evidence that fiber-based networks can deliver on the true promise of triple-play at a cost structure competitive with that of DSL and cable modems," contends Ariel Maislos, president of Passave. "Together we enable the FTTH revolution."

The companies are demonstrating the reference design at this week's OFC/NFOEC, in booth #3132.