Architecture of future access networks

A key issue to reach a highly scalable Passive Optical Network (PON) with very high splitting ratio is the high multiplexing level required to handle all individual signals (individual data flows) that travel along shared fibres. The available fibre bandwidth and current high-speed electronics allow high splitting ratios together with high bandwidth per user assignments. An objective in a next generation PON (ngPON) is to perform the multiplexing with limited complexity. The possible multiplexing techniques in the key architectures are discussed in this chapter