Passive Optical Network (PON) Market - Networking Actively

“If you’re not Networking, You’re Not working.”

There is no denying that technology has made progress leaps & bounds. Along with it, humans have been able to connect and grow together in a more efficient manner. To keep up with the surging ambitious growth, several advancements in networking capabilities are essential. This is where, Passive Optical Network comes into the picture.

PON and its several variants have been able to leverage light as a carrier of internet and boost internet’s speed. This boosted the demand and market value. The market value of Passive Optical Network (PON) was at USD 5.83 billion in 2015 and it was expected to generate high growth in the coming years due to several growth factors.

Passive Optical Network, what is it all about?

PON is a telecommunication technology used for implementing a point-to-multipoint architecture. The network system also uses unpowered fiber optic splitters and combiners to enable a single optical fiber for serving multiple end-users without having individual fibers between the customer and hub.

In simpler words, it is the magical infrastructure that provides High-Speed Internet, aimed at enhancing consumer experience and satisfaction. As light is the fastest traveling entity, it is the most dependable carrier for high-speed internet. Also, fiber optic cables thus become a very important component of the broadband infrastructure.

Technical Know-How

A PON comprises of an optical line terminal (OLT) and optical network terminals (ONT) which are installed at the service provider’s central office (hub) and near end users respectively. It begins at the OLT at the service provider’s hub. Signal then slits either at the secondary unit called Optical Network Unit (ONU) or at an end user unit (ONT). The passive optical network reduces the amount of fiber and central office equipment requirements in comparison to point-to-point architectures.

Market Segmentation

The PON market is segmented into Gigabyte PON, Ethernet PON and Wavelength Division Multiplexing PON. Gigabyte passive optical network (GPON) utilizes the optical wavelength division multiplexing and a single fiber can be used for both upstream and downstream data. Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) utilizes Ethernet packets which is the primary networking technology utilized in local-area networks (LANs). Wavelength division multiplexing passive optical network (WDM-PON) is a non-standard optical network which is developed to split optical network units (ONUs) into various virtual optical networks existing on same physical infrastructure.

Gigabytes PON is the dominating sector in the PON market, which is lucidly shown by the pie-chart below.

PON Market by Structure, 2015

Market Factors at work

The important factors playing larger role in the growth of the market are:

• Rapid adoption of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) services across the world to offer bandwidth intensive application, particularly emerging markets. This offers strong potential for GPON equipment.

• Increasing investments from private and public sectors, increase in services in various countries are also providing a thrust to the market.

• Massive proliferation of data is happening, data volume is expected to touch 175 zettabytes in 2025. It is a prominent factor to boost the demand in PON market.

• High installation costs along with high upgradation costs of the optical network infrastructure is expected to be a key hindrance in growth.

Recent Developments

• China is projected to be the major contributor to the market owing to the FTTH projects which is considered to be the significant contributor to a country’s optical cable demand. The country’s growth has resulted mainly from the construction of LTE 4G mobile network infrastructure and FTTH installations.

• FTTx deployments which includes FTTH projects of Google and AT&T is expected to be the key factors driving the growth with metro network construction.

• Using Tellabs’ OLAN equipment and Alpha’s remote powering solutions, Fort Belvoir became the largest deployment of remotely powered POL in the world.

• Nokia’s XGS PON technology was deployed to provide service to single-family residential housing as well as within MDUs. This is the industry’s first deployment of XGS PON in student housing. In addition to 10G PON connectivity, Nokia’s ONTs in this deployment provide Wi-Fi that offers wireless connectivity within the living unit as well as community Wi-Fi throughout the property. Nokia became “Innovation Gold Winner” for this deployment, at BICSI Winter Conference 2020.

  In-depth report on global passive optical network (PON) market by Grand View Research:

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/passive-optical-network-pon-equipment-market