News & Events: Press Releases

IEEE INTEROPERABILITY STANDARD NOW AVAILABLE TO FACILITATE DEPLOYMENT OF ETHERNET PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORKS

IEEE 1904.1™ SIEPON Standard Promotes Multi-Vendor Plug-and-Play Interoperability in EPON Systems

Shuang Yu, Senior Manager, Solutions Marketing
+1 732 981 3424; shuang.yu@ieee.org

PISCATAWAY, N.J., USA, 14 June 2013 - IEEE, the world's largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, the world's largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, announces 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 today. 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.

"SIEPON is expected to have its biggest impact on network operators outside of current EPON markets. Many operators around the world feel pressure to deploy fiber-based access networks but are discouraged by the prospect of having to develop unique system-level specifications, followed by interoperability tests. The IEEE 1904.1 SIEPON standard eliminates these challenges and lowers the barriers for EPON adoption in new markets," said Dr. Glen Kramer, chair of the IEEE 1904.1 Working Group, and technical director at Broadcom Corporation.

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 went through a rigorous review and revision process based on open, market-driven standards-development principles adopted by the IEEE Standards Association.

The following companies are members of the IEEE 1904.1 SIEPON Working Group and have contributed to this work: Aurora Networks, Brighthouse Networks, Broadcom Corporation, CableLabs, China Telecom Corporation Ltd., CommScope, Inc., Cortina Systems, Inc., Ericsson AB, Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies Co., Ltd., Fujitsu Telecom Networks, Ltd., Hitachi, Ltd., Marvell Technologies, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, NEC Corporation, NTT, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd, Oliver Solutions, Ltd., PMC-Sierra, Inc., Qualcomm Atheros, Research Institute of Telecommunications Transmission, China Academy of Telecommunication Research (RITT, CATR), Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), and ZTE Corporation.

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About the IEEE Standards Association
The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development. For more information visit the IEEE-SA Web site.

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