GPON vs. GEPON what’s the difference. Advantages of GEPON over GPON

PON is the acronym for Passive Optical Network is a point-to multipoint network. A PON consists of optical line terminal at the service provider’s central office and many number of optical network units near end users. The goal of PON is to reduce the amount of fiber.

STANDARDS OF PON:

There are two standards of the Passive Optical Network available and they are listed here.

• GPON
• GEPON

GPON:

GPON (Gigabit PON) is the evolution of broadband PON (BPON) standard. The protocols used by GPON are ATM, GEM, and Ethernet. It supports higher rates and has more security.

GEPON:

GEPON or EPON (Ethernet PON) is an IEEE standard that uses Ethernet for sending data packets. In current there are 15 million EPON ports installed. GEPON uses 1 gigabit per second upstream and downstream rates.

EPON/GEPON is a fast Ethernet over passive optical networks which are point to multipoint to the premises (FTTP) or fiber to the home (FTTH) architecture in which single optical fiber is used to serve multiple premises or users.

The Differences between GEPON and GPON:

The differences that make the GEPON the best are discussed here.

One important distinction between the standards is operational speed. BPON is relatively low speed with 155 Mbps upstream/622 Mbps downstream operation. GE-PON/EPON operates at 2.5 Gbps symmetrical operation. GPON supports 1 Gbps asymmetrical operation. Another key distinction is the protocol support for transport of data packets between access network equipment.

BPON is based on ATM, GPON uses native Ethernet and GEPON supports ATM, Ethernet and WDM using a superset multi-protocol layer.

GEPON is still evolving; but, it requires the multiple protocols through translation to support the native Generic Encapsulation Method (GEM) transport layer. This emulation supports ATM, Ethernet and WDM protocols. It is widely deployed in Asia and uses Ethernet as its native protocol and simplifies timing and lowers the costs by using symmetrical 2.5 Gbps data streams. The complexity is lower and cost is less than GPON. GEPON has an installation cost advantage.

GEPON Supports Class of Service (CoS) operation for time-sensitive transport of data payloads such as video. This video frames must be delivered in sequence and it should maintain time constraint to prevent malfunction. It functions with VoIP.

When compared to GPON, GEPON is highly scalable and flexible; it provides service for more than 2,300 subscribers. It is used in telecommunication services. GEPON supports effective education and public outreach (EPO). This network will:

·        It provides infrastructure to facilitate collaboration between scientists, educators etc.

·        Provides support systems for professional development.

ADVANTAGES OF GEPON:

There are many advantages of the GEPON. They are listed and discussed here.

• Service flexibility: The GEPON does lots of services and it is of very flexible type.
• Easy, modular planning and rollout: The GEPON is the easiest mechanism and there is modular planning and roll out that is attached with the GEPON which adds lots of benefits to the GEPON differentiating from the GPON.
• Highest density and availability.
• Price. GEPON solutions at the time of writing are more cost effective
• Much more easy configuration – easier to use, almost plug and play technology.

More reading & related links:

FTTH – Fiber to the home solutions
CATV service over GEPON networks – possible solutions
GEPON optical budget and topology planning
7 Frequently Asked Questions about GEPON / Fiber To The Home

Related Products:

GEPON OLT and ONU’s full product range available at AD-net