First Mile Access Networks and Enabling Technologies

Standardization Efforts in EPON—The EFM Push

Because EPON appeared to be a natural and performance-oriented solution for the first mile access, a need arose to standardize the networking environment, especially the multiple subsystems that play a part in the deployment of EPON. In 2002, a task force called Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) attempted to standardize EPON. The efforts of EFM culminated in a new standard for point-to-point as well as point-to-multipoint communications in the first mile using Ethernet as the central mechanism. Supported by the IEEE and to be nomenclated as IEEE 802.3ah, the EFM group's standardization has three main objectives:

• Point-to-point (P2P) Ethernet over fiber

• P2P Ethernet over copper for the last mile

• Point-to-multipoint ...