FTTx Networks

Appendix B

Introduction to Encryption

By no means will you be an expert in encryption from reading this short introduction, but it is intended to give you a feel for what is going on in your passive optical networks (PONs) when we discuss encryption.

Downstream encryption is considered important in PON networks because all data packets go to each optical network unit (ONT) at each customer's home or business, as shown in Appendix A. Granted, the ONT only passes traffic intended for that one subscriber. However, there is always the lingering fear that someone may hack an ONT and get it to pass data intended for someone else. While improbable, there is also the fear that a subscriber may tap into the fiber in front of the ONT and recover data that ...