Ethernet PON or WDM PON: A comparison of cost and reliability

Abstract

We report a comparison of cost and reliability of two optical broadband access technologies namely Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) and WDM PON (WPON), taking into account two protection schemes and two deployment scenarios. We derive simple network models and a figure of merit for network cost and reliability evaluation. We find that with a take rate ≥ 60%, WPON technology provides the lowest cost per subscriber per Mbit/s. Moreover, with full protection, the PON architectures achieve a low mean down time of 27 min/year, which is smaller than that of the copper-based access network.