Passive Optical Networks (PONs): Past, present, and future

Optical access solutions have attracted the attention of researchers from both academia and industry for a long time. In the past these solutions were not cost effective for service-provider deployment. This situation has been changing over recent years. Passive Optical Networks (PONs) represent one of the most attractive optical access-network solutions. In this paper, we examine the history of PONs, investigate their current status, and explore their future opportunities. The focus of our review is on PON standards and on deployment trends.