Technical professional organisation IEEE has announced that the IEEE 1904.1 Standard for Service Interoperability in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (SIEPON) was approved by the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) at the Standards Board meeting. The IEEE 1904.1 standard provides open, international, system-level specifications enabling multi-vendor, ‘plug-and-play’ interoperability in EPON systems.
IEEE EPON is the market-leading fiber-access technology, with worldwide deployments serving more than 100 million subscribers. These systems support a diverse suite of business and residential services, including IPTV, VoIP, commercial-grade data services, and cellular backhaul. The SIEPON standard has documented the best practices that have been field-proven in various EPON deployments around the world. Mechanisms for quality of service and bandwidth assignment, multicast, VLAN and tunneling modes, software download, and authentication are specified to reflect existing deployment models and seamlessly mesh with existing service architectures. Among the new additions are several advanced features, such as power-saving modes and optical fiber protection mechanisms.
Sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society, the IEEE 1904.1 SIEPON standard, which covers both 1G-EPON and 10G-EPON, and describes the transport, service, and control planes, will facilitate EPON deployment for operators already familiar with this technology or who are evaluating it for future use. EPON devices can now follow a common specification for the worldwide market, thus resulting in larger volumes and reduced costs.
To complete the IEEE 1904.1 standard, the international coalition of network operators, equipment suppliers, and testing laboratories that form the IEEE SIEPON Working Group external link went through a rigorous review and revision process based on open, market-driven standards-development principles adopted by the IEEE Standards Association.
