PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IEEE, the world's largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today announced three new standards for conformance-testing procedures for IEEE 1904.1™ “Standard for Service Interoperability in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (SIEPON).” Defining the industry’s first set of test procedures to verify the compliance of EPON optical line terminals (OLTs) and optical network units (ONUs) to IEEE 1904.1-2013, these new standards—together with the recently launched SIEPON Conformity Assessment Program—are intended to streamline implementation and testing of EPON equipment used to deliver business and residential fiber-access services globally.
“Being responsible for interoperability testing of multi-vendor EPON access equipment, I can fully appreciate the complexity of this process and the value of a trusted, third-party validation backed by the IEEE,” said Marek Hajduczenia, network architect with Bright House Networks and chair of the SIEPON Conformance Assessment Steering Group. “The SIEPON Conformity Assessment Program changes the situation for operators dramatically, unlocking the benefits of fully interoperable, multi-vendor environment through the use of IEEE-certified EPON access products from a broad ecosystem of vendors. The program also brings advantages to EPON equipment vendors, cutting down on resources needed to have their equipment qualified for use at individual operator’s networks. ”
The three new standards1—created through the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) entity-based development process—address the diverse requirements associated with multiple fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) service, provisioning, management and deployment models around the world. The standards are intended to allow vendors, network operators and independent testing facilities to achieve consistent results when testing EPON equipment for conformance with IEEE 1904.1.
IEEE 1904.1 (http://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/1904.1-2013.html) provides open, international, system-level specifications that are designed to enable multi-vendor, “plug-and-play” interoperability in EPON systems—the market-leading fiber-access technology, with worldwide deployments serving more than 100 million subscribers. These systems support a diverse suite of business and residential services, including Internet Protocol television (IPTV), voice over IP (VoIP), commercial-grade data services and cellular backhaul.
The availability of the new suite of testing standards and the launch of the SIEPON Conformity Assessment Program are intended to free network operators from the burden and costs of developing and maintaining in-house conformance programs and to enable EPON manufacturers to affordably test IEEE 1904.1 conformance at various stages of product development. Furthermore, the comprehensive test suite is designed to minimize variations in test results across multiple, independent test facilities.
“The SIEPON Conformity Assessment Program is representative of the value of the IEEE consensus platform,” said Konstantinos Karachalios, managing director, IEEE-SA. “In lock step with the working group, we were able to deliver a suite of SIEPON standards and accompanying regional testing standards in a timely manner. The key stakeholders are using our standards development and conformity assessment channels to establish a common regionalized mechanism to test SIEPON products. Users can now more easily test conformance of a product before deployment implementation, and manufacturers can more affordably identify bugs and non-conformance earlier in the product-development cycle. I congratulate our SIEPON volunteers for offering such a successful use case for the IEEE-SA's collaborative platforms.”
The IEEE Standards Association Conformity Assessment Program (ICAP) will provide program management oversight for the SIEPON Conformity Assessment Program. For more information on ICAP, please visit http://standards.ieee.org/icap.
In standards development, the IEEE-SA offers the flexibility of either individual- or entity-based methods. In the individual method, participants are individual persons representing themselves, and each individual participant has one vote. Standards developed via the entity method are balloted using a “one-entity, one-vote” principle, allowing corporations, government agencies, academic institutions, nonprofits and industry associations to come together in collaboration to advance innovation.
For more information on the IEEE SIEPON working group, please visit http://standards.ieee.org/develop/wg/SIEPON.html.
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About the IEEE Standards Association
The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body within IEEE, develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 500 standards under development. For more information visit http://standards.ieee.org/.
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1 IEEE 1904.1-Conformance01 “Standard for Conformance Test Procedures for Service Interoperability in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks, IEEE Std 1904.1 Package A;” IEEE 1904.1-Conformance02 “Standard for Conformance Test Procedures for Service Interoperability in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks, IEEE Std 1904.1 Package B,” and IEEE 1904.1-Conformance03 “Standard for Conformance Test Procedures for Service Interoperability in Ethernet Passive Optical Networks, IEEE Std 1904.1 Package C”
