FTTH Standards, Deployments and Research Issues

In this paper we investigate the current status of Fiberto-the-Home Passive Optical Networks. We start by reviewing the driving forces behind the push for broadband from the customer and service provider sides. PONs are currently preferred for new FTTH deployments for a variety of reasons; we review their standards, new technologies and deployment plans in the United States, Japan and Korea. We then describe SUCCESS-HPON, a next-generation optical access architecture that allows a smooth transition from TDM to WDM-PON. We finalize by summarizing what we believe are the main open research issues in this area.