GPON Interop operational

GPON vendors marked their seventh interoperability test event last month, pulling in a dozen vendors under the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) flag. Equipment manufacturers of optical line terminals (OLT, the stuff at the central office) and optical network terminals (ONT, the stuff at the house) got together to verify the interworking of GPON's ONT management control interface (OMCI).

The test event was hosted by Telcordia and included the help of Corning Cable Systems - makers of fiber - and GPON protocol analyzer TraceSpan Communications. Testing roughly followed the OSI model, focusing first on the physical layer and then working up the stack into the OMCI. Results of the tests generated an OMCI best practices implementer's guide that will be passed along for review and blessing by the ITU GPON standard working group.

Right now, real world purchasers of GPON are typically opting for single vendor solutions. A number of new PON standards have been added over the past year, and more work on OMCI and other service provisions will continue into 2009.

For more:
- Communications Technology provides on-site coverage of GPON interop event. Article.

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