10G-EPON Standard Ratified

The 10 Gbps Ethernet Passive Optical Network (10G-EPON) standard has been ratified by the IEEE P802.3av Task Force.


IEEE Std. 802.3av-2009, also known as Physical Layer Specifications and Management Parameters for 10 Gbps Passive Optical Networks, describes Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) telecommunications systems using symmetric and asymmetric line-rate operations. The symmetric option operates at 10 Gb/s in both the downstream and upstream directions. The asymmetric option, which reflects the fact that IP video services create bandwidth pressure mostly in the downstream direction, uses 10 Gbps downstream and 1 Gbps upstream.


IEEE Std. 802.3ah 1 Gbps EPON (1G-EPON) systems have been deployed to more than 30 million subscribers worldwide and support diverse services, including IPTV, VoIP, and cellular backhaul. The new 802.3av enables seamless upgrades via the simultaneous operation of 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps symmetric and asymmetric EPON systems on the same outside plant. This allows operators to introduce 10G- EPON without replacing any existing 1G-EPON customer equipment and minimizes the operational impact of upgrading a large, in-service FTTH network.


Initial deployments of the 10G-EPON equipment are expected in 2010.


The following companies have expressed their support for the approved standard: Alloptic, Anritsu Company, ARRIS, B-DeltaCom, Bright House Networks, Cambridge Industries Group, China Mobile Communications Corporation, China Telecom -- STTRI, China Unicom -- Beijing, Corecess, Cortina Systems, CyOptics, Dasan Networks, Dongwon, Enablence Technologies, ETRI, FiberHome, Fujitsu, H3C, Hisense Broadband, Hitachi, Huawei Technologies, Kawasaki Microelectronics, KDDI R&D, KT, Ligent Photonics, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, NTT Corporation, OF Networks, OneChip Photonics, PMC-Sierra, Shanghai Luster Teraband Photonics Co., Sumitomo Electric, Teknovus, Telekom Malaysia R&D, Ubiquoss, Vitesse Semiconductor, and ZTE. The China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), the Ethernet Alliance, the Optical Access (FTTx) Industry Alliance (OAIA) of China, and the Taiwan Optical Communication Industry Alliance also endorse the 10G-EPON standard.
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