With significant work remaining for true “plug-and-play” Optical Line Terminal (OLT)/Optical Network Terminal (ONT) interoperability to become a reality, the Assessment and Work Plan notes high-priority areas in which standards and industry agreements must be developed. These include a more detailed G-PON architecture, the policing/marking functions required of the ONT, and preferred methods for providing network timing for Ethernet-sourced OLTs. The report notes that development of system-level implementation agreements and organizational processes/resource allocation for interoperability testing is also needed.

“Through the OAN Assessment and Workplan, ATIS and its members have made a major step towards achieving true system-level interoperability for G-PON,” says Kevin Schneider, CTO of ADTRAN, and the OAN-FG Chair. “These recommendations and work items will help develop and coordinate the standards, implementation agreements, and interoperability testing venues to meet that goal.”

“While the work of the OAN-FG involved ATIS members, it has an impact beyond the ATIS organization,” says Susan Miller, president and CEO of ATIS. “It sets the groundwork for the cooperation and dialogue between ATIS and other standards developers including the FSAN, DSL Forum, and ITU-T, which is necessary for ensuring interoperable optical networks in North America and globally.”

Specifically, highlights of the report’s recommendation include the following:

• The G-PON standards need a more detailed system architecture overview. Draft text for such an overview is provided in the OAN Assessment and Work Plan document.
• Due to the many options in the G-PON specifications, system-level implementation agreements are needed to serve as the foundation for interoperability work.
• Synchronous Ethernet should be used to pass timing information over Ethernet, both to remote Ethernet-fed OLTs and from ONTs to outboard TDM inter-working functions, in cases where an Ethernet interface is the only interface available for synchronization.
• TDM over packet is the preferred method for transporting TDM over G-PON.
• Single-family ONTs should support a 4+1 Traffic Container (T-CONT) model.
• More detailed definitions/requirements are needed in the area of traffic management, explicit functionality required of ONTs, and support of differentiated services.
• The goals of interoperability testing need to be clearly defined. The current effort is more focused on getting broader worldwide adoption of G-PON than achieving true system-level interoperability. It is not clear to all of the participants that system-level interoperability is or should be the effort’s primary goal.
• Guidelines for defining the scope of use of the ONT Management and Configuration Interface (OMCI) are needed.
• The ATIS Network Interface Power and Protection (NIPP) Committee should take on the role of the U.S. Standards Development Organization (SDO) where G-PON-related contributions destined for ITU-T Study Group 15 Plenaries are reviewed.

To move forward the action items noted in the OAN Assessment and Work Plan , the ATIS NIPP Committee is forming the NIPP Network Optical Access (NOA) Subcommittee to focus on optical access interfaces and systems. To have your organization be part of the NIPP’s forefront work in this area, to attend a preliminary meeting to discuss formation of the new NIPP-NOA Subcommittee on September 27 in Miami, Florida, or to attend the new Subcommittee’s first official meeting in November 2007, in Vancouver, British Columbia, please contact Veronica Lancaster, ATIS manager of standards development at vlancaster@atis.org or (202) 434-8826.

About the ATIS NIPP Committee

The Network Interface, Power, and Protection Committee (NIPP) develops and recommends standards and technical reports. The standards and technical reports are related to power systems, electrical and physical protection for the exchange and interexchange carrier networks, and interfaces associated with user access to telecommunications networks. The NIPP’s scope includes, but is not limited to, work on developing standards and technical reports covering the following areas: network interfaces, power, electrical protection and physical protection

About ATIS

ATIS is a leading standards development and technical planning organization committed to rapidly developing and promoting technical and operations standards for the communications and related information technologies industry worldwide using a pragmatic, flexible and open approach. Participants from more than 300 communications companies are active in ATIS’ 22 industry committees, Incubator Solutions Programs, and other activities. www.atis.org