Zhone Technologies introduced active Ethernet equipment to its access portfolio today, adding active Ethernet modules to its access platform as well as new customer premises gear, giving carriers the option of high-speed broadband over point-to-point fiber.

Zhone claims its active Ethernet gear delivers 1 Gb/s of symmetrical bandwidth to each customer, a step up from gigabit passive optical networks (GPON), whose 2.5 Gb/s downstream/1 Gb/s upstream bandwidth might be shared by up to 32 customers. PON is less expensive, though, and much more popular among US telcos.

Still, one US telco is already deploying Zhone’s active Ethernet gear: SRT Communications, a telecom cooperative serving 50,000 customers in North Dakota, had already deployed Zhone’s access platform for ADSL2+. Its decision to roll out active Ethernet to about 130 customers was based largely on how far away they were located, according to Zhone. Some were 20 miles from a remote terminal.

“It came down to range,” said Steven Glapa, Zhone’s vice president of marketing and product management. “GPON’s range is more limited because of the passive splitters that divide up the laser, giving you a weaker signal.”

Zhone’s active Ethernet card is based on small form factor pluggable optical components (SFPs), allowing carriers to use lower cost lasers where customers are closer and the pricier kind to reach those further away. Some SFPs might allow carriers to extend their active Ethernet services over 80 km or 100 km, Zhone said.

To receive those signals, Zhone has added an optical network terminal (ONT) for active Ethernet as well as an in-home ONT--made with the help of an unnamed partner--that also acts as a WiFi-enabled broadband gateway, complete with voice-over-IP and lifeline ports.

Though Zhone acknowledges the cost premium in deploying active Ethernet over PON (qualifying that by pointing out that active Ethernet may be cheaper per bit), the vendor is also aiming to sell carriers on the comparatively low-cost option of deploying active Ethernet to a node and VDSL2 the rest of the way, something Cisco Systems is doing in multidwelling unit applications, though unlike Zhone, Cisco must rely on DSL vendor partners where necessary.

Some carriers have opted against point-to-point Ethernet access because it requires active electronic equipment in the outside plant, and that gear requires attention to power and heating needs and can be vulnerable to the weather. However, Zhone claims many of its telco customers that have deployed PON are pulling their passive splitting points back into their central offices so that, if they eventually want to switch to faster active Ethernet, that active gear will be inside the CO.

In fact, SRT is one of those customers. It will deploy Zhone's gear with no active electronics in the field.

Vince Vittore, program manager of enabling technologies for the Yankee Group, maintains that such telcos are in the minority, though.

“While many [rural telcos] may have the splitters in the [central office], the majority of the market is going to remain PON for the foreseeable future because of the cost structure advantage,” Vittore said. “The addition of an active Ethernet card in [Zhone’s access platform] is really about rounding out the portfolio for Zhone.”