Making the world a smaller place with “PON” high-capacity optical telecommunication technology

Internet communication is an indispensable part of today’s social infrastructure. All elements of our infrastructure, including mobile phones, television, the Internet, telephones, financial transactions, electric power, and mobility, exchange data through the Internet or its technology. In recent years, a dramatic increase in the capacity for telecommunication has made it possible to realize a wide variety of services.
Furukawa Electric is providing “PON” technology to achieve such high-capacity optical telecommunication.

PON technology is an extremely economical type of telecommunication technology in which an optical divider is used to distribute optical signals transmitted through a single optical fiber to nearly 100 users and exchange data. It is called PON (Passive Optical Network) because the optical signals are distributed only by optical passive components. Currently, telecommunications systems applying PON are used by many communications providers and CATV businesses.

Furukawa Electric has developed optical transmission devices (OLT = Optical Line Terminations) and subscriber optical terminals (ONU = Optical Network Units) to successfully implement PON, and sells them to customers such as communications providers, CATV businesses, railway companies, and expressway companies across the entire country. The latest model of optical transmission device, which was launched for sale in 2021, is capable of distributing 480 Gbps signals to up to 6144 locations. Optical terminals for subscribers have also been launched, including the 10G-ONU which can achieve 10 Gbps Internet communication even in ordinary homes. This is a level of performance with more than enough capacity to allow all members of a family of four to each watch their favorite movie separately with high picture quality.

Takumi Matsumoto of our Systems Development Section explains as follows.
Furukawa Electric has been researching and developing systems and equipment since the early 1990s, to make FTTH (Fiber To The Home) systems a reality. Expectations placed on telecommunication are continuing to expand, and include capabilities to protect ourselves from disasters, provide leading-edge medical treatment in remote areas, and share our experiences of joy with people important to us who live far away. We will continue to work toward the creation of an information society that can bring happiness to its people.