Over recent years, Internet access speeds have increased greatly to keep pace with the demand of new services and bandwidth-hungry applications, such as streaming video. New technologies have been adopted that can support the current need for bandwidth, but they have not always taken into account the longer-term growth expected for access networks.
Market projections of Internet speed demands indicate strongly that they will rapidly approach 100 Mbps, and then eventually reach 1 Gbps for individual users. Only fiber cables have the capacity to support these higher speeds over the long distances that exist in access networks. For service providers to deliver the bandwidth that users demand, Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks will have to be deployed more extensively until they are mainstream. The new FTTH architecture will then form the basis of future-proof access networks that will serve consumer needs for many years to come.
Current and future demands for Internet access bandwidth have led to extensive deployment of FTTH technologies. Of these technologies, GPON provides the flexibility and cost advantages that service providers need to deliver services profitably to their subscribers.