ATM SuperPON capacity dimensioning

One of the most promising architecture for the future integrated services network is probably the APON (ATM over PON) system. More than offering the advantages of PON it allows for a bandwidth on demand provisioning to the customer by using VPI/VCI switching. Standard APON products are now on the market and used in trials. By the way the splitting ratio of such architectures is often limited to 1:32. Larger splitting ratio could be interesting in order to share equipment cost by addressing more customers. This is the target of ACTS050 PLANET (Photonic Local Access Network) project. The APON system would address up to 2048 ONUs, the whole set of ONUs delivering a total STM-16 downstream capacity while a 2 STM-1 capacity would be available for the upstream. A feeder section up to 90 km and a distribution part up to 10 km are considered. Due to the long distance and the high splitting ratio optical amplifiers will be used in both directions.