FTTx Active-Ethernet Hardware

Tue Feb 10 14:43:12 UTC 2015

On Tue, 10 Feb 2015, Ray Soucy wrote:

> What options are out there for Active-Ethernet hardware.  Ideally 
> something that could handle G.8032 and 802.1ad in hardware for the 
> distribution side (24 or 48-port SFP metro switch) and something 
> inexpensive for the access side but still managed (e.g. a 4-port switch 
> with an SFP uplink supporting Q-in-Q).

These kinds of devices are quite popular here in Sweden where we basically 
have no PON what so ever (I know of no major PON deployments, everything 
is active ethernet either over CAT5e/CAT6 or fiber):

http://inteno.se/store/tabid/141/categoryid/130/productid/783/default.aspx
http://inteno.se/store/tabid/141/categoryid/130/productid/771/default.aspx
http://inteno.se/store/tabid/141/categoryid/130/productid/442/default.aspx

(I am not affiliated with Inteno, I just know they are quite common in the 
market here and the above list is to provide examples of producs used 
here)

They typically use BiDi optics to run bidirectional fiber over single 
strand, in some cases in conjunction with hardware that runs HFC on the 
other strand.

> I'm really looking for something cheap to keep costs down for a 
> proof-of-concept.  The stuff from Cisco and even Ciena is a bit more 
> expensive than my target.

Typically people here tend to buy regular enterprise hardware, but still 
that can do the BCP38 kind of stuff needed to deliver a proper secure end 
user connection. List of some vendors here: 
http://secureenduserconnection.se/certified-products/

http://secureenduserconnection.se/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SEC-Secure-End-user-Connection-2014-05-30.pdf 
is a good document to make sure your network follows as well.

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike at swm.pp.se