Infineon Technologies Demonstrates Industry's First End-to-End ATM/Broadband Passive Optical Network (APON/BPON) Solution At OFC Conference

Mar 20, 2001 | Market News

Anaheim, California, March 20, 2001 – Infineon Technologies (NYSE:IFX), one of the world’s leading providers of communications integrated circuits (ICs) and fiber optic components, is demonstrating its multi-service end-to-end APON/BPON (Broadband PON) solution at the Optical Fiber Conference, Anaheim, CA. Fiber can sustain very high capacity, resulting in a high revenue potential. A PON, utilizing passive splitters and shared-media configuration, can carry a veritable pipe of high bandwidth for users to share downstream, presenting a high speed and inexpensive access scheme for multi-media services.

The Infineon solution features the world’s first 3-port BiDi (Bi-Directional optical module) that extends APON to a full BPON architecture with a separate channel for broadcast TV or other services. Infineon’s single fiber 2-port BiDi, an FSAN (Full Service Access Network) compliant APON chipset and Infineon’s own home gateway processor complete this multi-service, end-to-end solution.

“Infineon’s breadth of fiber optics, copper access technologies and advanced optical processing systems provides our customers with an integrated, single source solution which enables them to be first to offer end-to-end, multi-service APON and BPON systems, “said Dr. Thomas Seifert, Senior Vice President and COO of Infineon’s Communication Group. “These benefits, along with our advanced manufacturing capabilities, facilitate our customers’ early market penetration with complete, economical system solutions,” added Dr. Seifert.

Infineon’s APON/BPON end-to-end solutions offer the core technology for a point-to-multipoint, 2 or 3-port bi-directional FTTx (Fiber To The x) optical system. Conforming to the FSAN/ITU-T G.983.3 specifications for WDM services, the new 3-port BiDi extends carrier offerings beyond APON’s broadband data and voice to include a dedicated downstream channel for special services such as broadcast TV, by allowing different wavelengths to be leveraged over the optical media. APON and BPON multi-service solutions provide over ten times the bandwidth of copper with an extended range of 12.5 miles (20 km) over a single fiber serving up to 32 customers.

FSAN Compliant


Conforming with Infineon’s corporate commitment of creating standards-compliant technology, Infineon’s APON/BPON solutions are compliant with the FSAN (Full Service Access Network) / ITU-T (G.983.1) network system architecture, offering the core technologies to support ATM-based passive optical network topologies such as:

  • Fiber to the home (FTTH) and FTT Building (FTTB)

  • FTT Curb (FTTC), FTT Neighborhood (FTTN), and FTT Cabinet (FTTCab).


To facilitate the end users’ clear communications, Infineon’s APON/BPON solutions provide ATM’s QoS (quality of service) features, together with the FSAN / ITU-T G.983.2 standard MIB for management and control of customer premises equipment (CPE). A hardware-based dynamic bandwidth allocation scheme facilitates the design of powerful platforms that provide additional revenue generating services for carriers to exploit.

End-to-End APON Solution


Infineon's APON/BPON solutions include a complete set of building blocks that stretch from the CO multi-service platform to the CPE at the customer’s premise.

  • OLT (Optical Line Termination) consisting of digital transceiver, high-speed analog burst mode receiver, and a 2-port BiDi.

  • ONT (Optical Network Termination) consisting of a digital transceiver for network termination; analog burst mode transmitter; either a 2-port BiDi for APON or a 3-port BiDi for BPON with a broadcast TV feed to a Set-top-box; and an optional home gateway processor to support voice, wired or wireless home networking.

  • ONU (Optical Network Unit) for FTTC and FTTB, which combines APON fiber connectivity with the ability to extend fiber services over copper using Infineon’s VDSL, 10BaseSä or other xDSL technologies.


The APON/BPON solution will be available the first half of 2002.


About Infineon


Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions for applications in the wired and wireless communications markets, for security systems and smart cards, for the automotive and industrial sectors, as well as memory products. With a global presence, Infineon operates in the US from San Jose, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore and in Japan from Tokyo. In the fiscal year 2000 (ending September), the company achieved sales of Euro 7.28 billion with about 29,000 employees worldwide. Infineon is listed on the DAX index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX). Further information is available at www.infineon.com.

Any statements in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties; actual results may differ from the forward-looking statements. Infineon Technologies undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Information Number

INFCOM200103.060e