A recommendation for standard-compliant structured cabling in passive optical LANs

In a recent post to its Standards Informant website, Siemon provides a recommendation to provide at least two permanent links to each workstation in a passive optical network (PON)/passive optical LAN (POL) application. And despite that the “O” in PON/POL stands for “optical,” Siemon says one of those permanent links should be twisted-pair copper. Siemon is a member of the Association for Passive Optical LAN.

“To ensure compliance with ANSI/TIA-568-C.1 and ISO/IEC 11801 Edition 2.2, a minimum of two permanent links shall be provided for each work area,” the Standards Informant post says. That statement is immediately followed by the following—in bold type: “For an infrastructure anticipated to support PON technology, Siemon recommends that a minimum of one 2-fiber single-mode permanent link supported by duplex SC or LC connectivity and one category 6A or higher balanced twisted-pair permanent link be provided at each work area.”

Having twisted-pair cabling at each workstation supports device powering through technology such as Power over Ethernet, among other benefits, Siemon points out. “While PON equipment may be connected using point-to-point cabling, the flexibility of the system is greatly enhanced if the network is deployed over a TIA and ISO/IEC-compliant structured cabling system,” the post also says.

The entry includes a schematic of Siemon’s recommended minimum backbone and horizontal cabling topology for PON applications. You can read the full entry on the Standards Informant website here.