RE: Technical resources for Open Access Fiber Networks?

["Tony Wicks" <tony () wicks co nz>]

In New Zealand we have a nationwide government sponsored FTTH open access network based on GPON and XGSPON. There are 
local access companies (LFC or Local Fibre Company) that handover double tagged layer2 that the various service 
providers (RSP or Retail Service Provider) can either pick up themselves in each region or pay a third party to 
backhaul to where they need to get to. This has resulted in a very competitive market to the retail consumer (very low 
margin to the retail service provider, this has resulted in broadband often being a “loss leader” used to bundle other 
phone/power/entertainment services).  Technically each end user has an ONT provided by the LFC and the RSP leases a 
layer2 service on a per-port basis that is delivered double tagged at the service provider handover point. This means 
each 1gig or 10gig port on the ONT can be used to present a different RSP service to the end user if desired. The 
handover point (10G/100G with or without LAG) can provide 4096x4096 possible layer2 services to end user ports.

 

The end result of this is almost ubiquitous high quality 100/20, 1000/500 up to 4000/4000 being available to the end 
user. Retail for an unlimited 1000/500 service to the end user is about 70USD/month with 4000/4000 (XGSPON) being about 
$130USD/month. Here’s a speedtest from my primary home workstation - 
https://www.speedtest.net/my-result/d/f44bc96e-ec2d-4446-8f23-d32aa6282350 

 

I work for a company that provides backhaul from the various regions around the country to the various retail service 
providers. We take the double tagged LFC handovers and transport them over MPLS to where the various service providers 
want them delivered to. Normally we will hand them over triple tagged with the third tag added to represent each 
handover point and the first two tags being preserved from the LFC handover. This works pretty well overall.

 

 

 

From: NANOG <nanog-bounces+tony=wicks.co.nz () nanog org> On Behalf Of Mark Leonard
Sent: Thursday, 10 June 2021 12:16 pm
To: North American Network Operators' Group <nanog () nanog org>
Subject: Technical resources for Open Access Fiber Networks?

 

Hi NANOG,

 

Not so long ago I learned about Open Access Fiber Networks.  I'm quite curious about how these are actually 
implemented.  I'm able to find boatloads of marketing material and management-targeted boilerplate, but I've not yet 
been able to find any technical resources.

 

My first thoughts were:

* Are these just massive VPLS networks?

* Are they just giant L2 networks?

 

I can't imagine that either of the above would scale particularly well.

 

I'm looking for any books / papers / config guides / magic tomes / etc on the subject.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Thanks,

Mark