First Mile Access Networks and Enabling Technologies

Comparison with Contemporary Schemes

The proposed TUR protocol for access PON is efficient and low cost and is built from very mature technologies. A number of solutions have been proposed that consider various protocols and technologies for implementation. Among them, three generic solutions that prompt interest for comparison are pure WDM, pure TDM, and IPACT.

Table 2-1 shows comparative performance with other PON schemes.

Table 2-1. Comparative Performance with Other PON Schemes

Feature	TUR	IPACT	Pure TDM	Pure WDM
Synchronization for end-user nodes	No	No	Yes	No
Cost	Low	Medium	High	Very high
End-user delay	Medium	Medium	Low	Very low
Throughput	High	Medium	Variable	Underutilized
Scalability	Good	Average	Bounded scalable	Very good (depends on the number of wavelengths)