Here’s one I missed last week. Motorola announced new Power over Ethernet (PoE) support for enterprise workgroup terminals as part of its Passive Optical LAN (POL) line of products. Motorola POL was launched back in May as an enterprise GPON solution. It operates virtually the same as Motorola’s GPON solution for residential areas, which makes me wonder if PoE could be in the offing for consumer optical network terminals (ONTs). I have nothing to back this speculation up, but I’d be curious to know if operators using GPON are considering embedding PoE in ONTs to power access points directly in the home. Why require a dedicated power source for an access point when you can get power directly from the ONT?
I can only guess that there will more convergence happening in ONTs in the future, particularly with the trend toward moving ONTs indoors.
Filed under: Fiber, Motorola News, Networks
[...] regarding my earlier speculation on ONT convergence, I had forgotten that Motorola actually showed a prototype device at the FTTH [...]
[...] POL also reduces the need for many workgroup switches, and the Motorola ONT equipment can even be powered over Ethernet. The very nature of the Passive Optical Network (PON) means there are fewer active components, and [...]