A newly published POL (Passive Optical LAN) market briefing from BSRIA shows that the POL market is small but growing and could potentially become a threat to copper cabling in LAN (Local Area Network) applications over the coming years.
Martin Chiesa, senior researcher – I.T. cabling and related technologies, BSRIA, said: “POL is here to stay, but the speed at which it penetrates the market will depend on: more vendors entering the market (medium to large size corporations, particularly in the active component side), increased bandwidth without boosting costs; compatibility of systems – as opposed to proprietary solutions; and that IT network professionals, consultants, architects, developers and end-users are made aware of POL and its advantages, as well as increasing the solutions for powering remotely located ONTs (optical network terminals).
Currently POL (ITU-T G.984) offers 2.4Gb downstream and 1.2Gb upstream bandwidth, but the next generation (ITU-T G987) will offer symmetrical 10Gb bandwidth and is expected to be released in 2016. BSRIA was also informed that 25Gb and 100 Gb standards are ‘imminent’.
POL networks adapted to the LAN are disruptive technologies. They bring a number of advantages that mainly benefit the end-users, as they greatly reduce capital expenditure, operational expenditure and with them the total cost of ownership of the IT infrastructure.