Passive optical networking (PON) is an in-building optical fiber application that is capable of distributing voice, video, and data to the desktop over one single-mode fiber. The three main components to a PON implementation are the:
- passive optical networking line terminal (OLT) located in the building or campus entrance facility,
- passive optical networking splitters located in the telecommunications closet on each floor, and
- passive optical networking terminals (ONT) located in end-user work areas
While PON equipment may be connected using point-to-point cabling, the flexibility of the system is greatly enhanced if the network is deployed over a TIA and ISO/IEC compliant structured cabling system. These advantages include:
- ease of upgrades to new technologies,
- the ability to replace equipment with minimal service disruption,
- support of moves, adds, and changes (MACs),
- the ability to change equipment vendors,
- enhanced administration and labeling capability, and
- support of back-up and redundant connections
To ensure compliance with ANSI/TIA-568-C.1 and ISO/IEC 11801 Edition 2.2, a minimum of two permanent links shall be provided for each work area. For an infrastructure anticipated to support PON technology, Siemon recommends that a minimum of one 2-fiber single-mode permanent link supported by duplex SC or LC connectivity and one category 6A or higher balanced twisted-pair permanent link be provided at each work area. The availability of a category 6A copper cabling link supports future adoption of remote powering (e.g. Power over Ethernet or PoE) technology and 10GBASE-T transmission speeds with minimal need to upgrade or replace existing PON equipment.
The figure below depicts Siemon’s recommended minimum PON-ready backbone and horizontal cabling topology for buildings having a main cross connect and a horizontal cross connect only. This recommended minimum topology may also be applied to larger build outs that support Cabling Subsystem 2 and 3 runs and an intermediate cross connect or configurations where the PON splitter is housed in a zone box.