Passive Optical Network: A Fibre to the ‘X’ Approach

With the rapid increasing bandwidth demand mainly driven by the development of advanced broadband multimedia application, such as video-on-demand (VoD), interactive high-definition digital television (HDTV) and video conference, new access network solutions that provide high capacity are highly needed to satisfy these emerging services. In a largely populated and technologically exposed institution such the University of Port Harcourt, this demand is truly great. The Passive Optical Network (PON), which utilizes the Fibre Optic Technology, is a suitable solution to this problem. Hence this is geared towards the design and simulation of a Passive Optical Network for the University’s campus district. This Campus based Local Area Network consists of the Various Faculty buildings, the Senate building which is the central administrative building, and was centralized at the Information and Communication Technology Center (ICTC), which served as the Central Office of the network. The Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technique was utilized because of its dedicated bandwidth for each subscriber and more flexible bandwidth management. The validation was carried out on a virtual computation environment called OptiSystem©.