Passive optical network
OverviewFiber to the premisesComponents and characteristicsHistoryNetwork elementsUpstream bandwidth allocationVariantsEnabling technologies
Passive optical networks do not use electrically powered components to split the signal. Instead, the signal is distributed using beam splitters. Each splitter typically splits the signal from a single fiber into 16, 32, or up to 256 fibers, depending on the manufacturer, and several splitters can be aggregated in a single cabinet. A beam splitter cannot provide any switching or buffering capabilities and does not use any power supply; the resulting connection is called a point-to-multipoint link. For such a connection, th