2019 International Workshop on Fiber Optics in Access Networks (FOAN)

Passive Optical Network: Patent Analysis

Haris Hadziabdic Ajla Suljevic Pasic Adi Hrustanovic
BSIP, LLC BSIP, LLC BSIP, LLC
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Eldin Abaz Emir Karamehmedovic Edin Skaljic

BSIP, LLC International University of Sarajevo BSIP, LLC
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— We identify research and development trends of distance data transmission, due to low power losses and high
Passive Optical Network (PON) technology by performing a data rates. The global optical fiber network market size is
competitive patent landscape analysis on a global scale. We use expected to reach $40.3 billion by 2024, registering a CAGR
patent landscape analysis to identify patenting activities in of 7.6% during the forecast period [1].
different areas of innovation. Looking at large sets of patent
data provides a better understanding of several important The most common optical networks are WDM ring
innovation waves in PON development, with an emphasis on networks used in metropolitan but also national and
adopted ITU and IEEE standards. In this paper, we also review international areas. These optical network segments are
key PON technology segments, discuss patent filing activity in categorized by size of the coverage area and are shown in the
different world regions, discuss key companies and patent Figure 1. Another implementation of fiber-optic networks is
leaders within the PON technology. the passive optical network (PON), which uses unpowered
optical splitters to link one fiber to multiple premises
providing peripheral links to the end users. PON is a dominant
Keywords— Passive optical network, patent analysis, access technology and exhibits outstanding performance in
competitive landscape terms of high speed for uplink and downlink data
I. INTRODUCTION transmission, high reliability, shorter time of installation,
accessibility, scalability and reduced operating expenses.
Latest trends in communication technologies have shown
continued growth in response to the need to transfer huge In this paper, we present the evolution of PON from a
amounts of data across large distances. In order to meet the patent perspective. One of the rationales for patents is that they
requirements for higher bandwidth, faster speed and better stimulate economic and technological development, and
utilization of information, fiber-optic communication systems promote competition by creating a financial motivation for
have developed rapidly. Demands for bandwidth-hungry inventors in return for the disclosure of their inventions to the
applications are driving development in this area annually. It public. Therefore, by analyzing PON patents, which are
is certain that this trend will continue long term with Internet indicative of innovation across the globe, this paper answers
of Things (IoT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and 5G the following questions: a) who are the technology leaders in
development and implementation. Optical fiber technology is this field? b) who are the market leaders and followers? c)
rising in prominence among multiple other high-speed access what are the future technology trends? d) who/what is driving
technologies. It is presently used in industrial and commercial the change?
systems, especially for long

Fig. 1. Optical Fiber Network Architecture

978-1-7281-1563-4/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

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II. PASSIVE OPTICAL NETWORK DEVELOPMENT Protocol (MPCP) that enables detection and registration of
PON was introduced in 1995 with formation of the Full Optical Network Units (ONUs).
Service Access Network (FSAN) working group comprising IEEE 802.3av defines 10G EPON, network reaching raw
major telecommunications service providers and system bit rates up to 10.3125Gbit/s. The standard defines physical
vendors. Their goal was to set guidelines for PON tree layer changes needed to improve ethernet speed while using
architecture with specific upstream and downstream time existing network architecture without any significant
management conventions [2]. alterations [11].
The first PON standard (G.983) was released in 1995 by B. GPON
the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for the GPON standards are primarily focused on hardware
Asynchronous transfer mode PON (APON) which was the requirements, namely network architecture and equipment
first PON network commercially deployed. Later in 1999, ITU setup needed for efficient and accurate data transmission.
released the Broadband PON (BPON) standard which was an Secondarily, this standard focuses on implementation
enhanced version of APON with similar data rates having in requirements.
addition powerful security features, dynamic bandwidth
allocation (DBA) and voice, data and video control functions. The ITU-T G.984.x series of standards defines logical
To further keep pace with market demands, the ITU released requirements and accompanying physical layer properties
a PON standard in 2003 called Gigabit-capable Passive needed for 2.48832Gbit/s bit rates. Mainly, in this series
Optical Network (GPON) denoted as G.984 [3, 4]. physical layer requirements are stricter [11].
In 2004, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics ITU-T G.987 series, also called XG-PON is a recent
Engineers (IEEE) association released the 802.3ah standard standard that builds on GPON architecture to provide 10Gbit/s
that included regulations for ethernet passive optical networks downstream and 2.5 Gbit/s upstream speeds by optimizing
(EPON). Both standard bodies for EPON and GPON set physical layer processes [5].
guidelines for optical network architecture, as well as set
appropriate communication protocols for variable sized The ITU-T G.9807, also called XGS-PON is a standard
frames at higher data rates [5, 6]. that provides 10 Gbit/s symmetric data transmission capability
over the fiber network. The downstream wavelength is 1270
Further development of EPON and GPON standards, as a nm and upstream is 1577 nm. The allocated wavelengths do
response for higher bandwidth demands and improved not interfere with legacy technology; hence, those can coexist
residential and backbone services, resulted in the introduction on the same fiber. XGS-PON cost is similar to previous
of the 10 Gbit/s PON systems. IEEE 10G-EPON development versions but its upstream bandwidth is 4 times higher [4].
began in 2006 and ended in late 2009 while ITU-T XG-PON
was finalized in 2010 [7]. C. NGPON
The ITU next generation of passive optical networks, NG-
In 2015, ITU released a standard for the next generation of PON2, includes a substantial speed increase to at least
PONs, NG-PON2, that significantly improved capacity of 40Gbit/s downstream and upstream rates. In order to achieve
PON. Unlike the 10G PON systems, which are single channel these rates without significant increase to power requirements,
systems, NG-PON2 is a multi-channel system with increases optical amplifiers (OAs) are used at the optical line terminals
available capacity on the fiber by a factor of 4 [8]. (OLTs).
Over time, there was a continuous increase in upstream The announced IEEE 802.3ca standard for next generation
traffic which led to internet bottlenecks in the network. To PONs is likely to have multiple level pulse amplitude
overcome this issue, ITU developed symmetric XGS-PON, modulation (PAM) formats, essentially transmitting
defined under ITU-T G.9807. It was designed to coexist with information on four different levels. This way existing
the existing GPON technology [4]. architecture can be used with only minor modifications to
On January 16, 2019, IEEE released an approved timeline achieve higher transmission speeds [12].
for 802.3ca, which is the next generation of the EPON
III. THE PATENT LANDSCAPE
standard (NG-EPON). This standard will likely support bit
rates up to 50 Gbit/s and it is scheduled to be adopted by As a first step in generating the patent landscape we
August 2020. Likewise, adoption of a new ITU Higher Speed performed a thorough search through technical and market
PON standard is expected in 2020 [9, 10]. literature to excerpt all relevant technical keywords, collect
patent class codes and identify companies active in the
The specifics of the two, EPON and GPON, as well as the technology area of interest. After collecting all relevant data
next generation of the optical networks, respectively, are about PON, the competitive landscape study is generated. The
described in the following subsections. study provides a comprehensive snapshot of current trends in
A. EPON the PON and its key technology sections from various
perspectives within the patent domain.
EPON standards are primarily focused on implementation
requirements, namely parameters necessary for efficient The PON landscape consists of approximately 9,000
bandwidth allocation. The secondary focus is hardware active patents published worldwide, applied for in the time
requirements needed to achieve desired accuracy and speed. interval ranging from 1998 up to May 2019. The following
study showcases the in-depth analysis of patent filing trends,
IEEE 802.3–2008 standard defines raw upstream and
key technology segments, patenting activities around the
downstream bit rates for 1.25Gbit/s transmissions. This is also
world, and key companies and their influence in the space.
known as 1G EPON. It introduces the Multipoint Control

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A. Filing Trend and the Timeline ZTE is first and Huawei is second, distantly followed by
PON standard originated in 1995 [2]. Patent life term in Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies. This period,
most countries is 20 years, unless patent or application is more than any other, shows Huawei quickly establishing its
dominance in PON technologies at a global scale.
abandoned prior to expiration by owners due to non-payment
of maintenance fees. Hence, it is expected and confirmed Fig. 2 shows that the last interval, 2015 until May 2019
with data that majority of patents from the early stages are mainly correlates with NGPON development and the release
expiring by May 2019. Figure 2. shows patent filing activity, of the ITU developed symmetric XGS-PON. Since NGPON
which includes both patents and patent applications, is significantly different in both architecture and
separated into periods of PON standard developments. implementation to the original PON standards, fewer
companies work on the development. Top patent holders in
this period are, again, Chinese companies, Huawei, ZTE and
newcomer Fiberhome.
B. PON Architecture
Every PON structural design can be defined using four
basic components: Optical line terminal (OLT), Optical
network terminal (ONT), Optical distribution network
(ODN), and optical fiber. All other elements, such as
amplifiers, splitters, transceivers, etc. can be considered as
supplementary equipment. Furthermore, the PON landscape
encompasses patents relating to the software solutions as well.
These include, but are not limited to signal processing,
modulators, Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM),
monitoring, and testing. The patent landscape is segmented
Fig. 2. PON Patent Filing Trend into a corresponding technology segments by using keyword
queries and patents’ named classes. Fig. 3. illustrates the PON
The 1995 to 2002 period shown in Fig. 2. is considered segments and corresponding patent counts.
early development of PON. The earliest filing year of Fig. 3. PON Architecture and Patent Distribution
currently active patent is 1999 and almost all patents from
this period are already expired. This period is mostly before
the GPON and EPON first releases. As stated earlier, ITU
standards that were released in this period are Asynchronous
transfer mode PON (APON) and Broadband PON (BPON).
The earliest patent filings are predominantly made by one
European company, Alcatel Lucent (now Nokia owned
company), and two Japanese companies, Nippon Telegraph
and Telephone (NTT) and NEC Corporation. These 3
companies filed more than 30% of patent applications during
said period.

The next period, from 2003 to 2008, is one of refinement.

Both IEEE and ITU released their EPON and GPON
standards, respectively. Huawei, Alcatel Lucent and ZTE OLT is used in the PON architecture as the endpoint
stood as filing leaders during this period with NEC dropping hardware device. Its main role is to manage information across
to 8th and NTT to 13th place in number of filings. Huawei ODN towards designated ONTs. OLT has a market share of
significantly increased its patenting activity filing around 20% around 50% in the entire PON market, opposed to
of all applications during this period. Two out of the top three approximately 20% of patent distribution in the entire PON
filing leaders were Chinese companies (Huawei and ZTE) landscape [13].
which resulted in a significant increase of Chinese patent
coverage and announced increasing market presence and ODN is the link between OLT and ONT. It directly affects
future dominance. scalability, reliability and performance of the PON. Splitters
and couplers are used to distribute signals on fiber to a number
The next period in the development, 2009-2014, of paths, from OLT to any of the ONTs. By analyzing the
represents efforts to significantly increase PON performance patent landscape, it is visible that patenting in ODN
while keeping it compliant with existing technology. Several components area has a rising trend, especially in Asia
improvements were made to original standard requirements to amounting for approximately 60% of total patents filed in
increase efficiency and speed of PONs, while making no Asia.
significant changes to original architecture and materials. This
resulted in the standardization of the 10 Gbit/s PON systems. ONTs, also known as Optical Network Units (ONUs),
Once again, this stage was dominated by Asian companies. multiplex optical signal into various digital electrical parts,
The top 3 filers being Chinese (Huawei and ZTE) or Japanese delivering final service to the user [4]. ONT components have
(NTT). For the US patent filings, however, the top 3 were also rising market share trend.
Huawei, Ericsson and Broadcom. By comparison, in Europe,
top patent filers were Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson. In China,

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C. Companies and Geography competitors ZTE and Fiberhome increased their patenting
Fig.4. shows that Chinese companies, Huawei, ZTE and activity during this period, as indicated in Table 1.
Fiberhome play the most significant role in the PON’s patent As shown in section III-A, two companies, NTT and NEC
landscape by owning approximately 26% patents in the entire Corporation, contributed to the early stages of PON
landscape. They are followed by Nokia, NTT and Ericsson. development. Furthermore, Japan’s innovative development
continued throughout the years, mainly concentrated in the
1461 domestic sphere. Table 1. shows that the top 5 patent holders
in Japan are domestic companies without major presence in
other jurisdictions.

TABLE I. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF PATENTS ACROSS

755 MAJOR COMPANY HOLDERS

551 Patent Filing Segments (%)

Filing Total
439 Company 1995 2003 2009 2015
Cou- HQ Patents
Name - - - -
256 250 243 232 200 197 ntry (#)
2002 2008 2014 2019
Huawei CN 1 35 56 8 518
ZTE CN 0 16 62 22 503
CN Fiberhome CN 0 6 55 39 236
Nokia EU 1 18 64 17 126
Hisense CN 0 1 86 13 119
Total Patents in China (#) 0 12 56 31 3536
Huawei CN 1 11 52 36 349
Fig. 4. Top 10 patent owners in the PON Landscape Nokia EU 8 37 38 17 130
US Broadcom US 1 24 67 8 123
Chipmaker Broadcom is the only US company listed ETRI KR 1 36 40 23 115
Ericsson EU 1 12 82 5 97
among the top 10 owners. Next US based largest owners in
the PON landscape are Google, in the 21st place, and Calix, Total Patents in US (#) 3 26 49 22 2196
Inc., in the 25th place. Table 1. shows that the top 5 companies NTT JP 2 7 67 24 351
with the largest US patent coverage are mostly non-US Sumitomo JP 1 37 53 9 139
JP Mitsubishi JP 4 29 56 11 131
entities with Broadcom being the only US based company in Fujitsu JP 1 41 40 18 104
the 3rd place. Nokia was the leader with the most US patent OKI JP 0 15 59 25 71
filings until 2008. and in the following years, Huawei filed Total Patents in Japan (#) 3 26 54 17 1287
the most patents, becoming the landslide leader. Huawei CN 1 31 58 10 344
Nokia EU 8 41 39 12 148
Table 1 also shows that Chinese companies are leading EU ZTE CN 0 6 78 16 107
the way in global patent filing with 38% of all patents filed, Ericsson EU 0 14 83 3 77
ADVA EU 0 23 70 7 30
with the US trailing close behind at 23%. The total number
Total Patents in Europe (#) 3 25 56 15 1139
of patents in China has dramatically increased over the past
decade. Between 2009 and May 2019, the number of patents Huawei CN 0 5 53 42 208
Rest ETRI KR 5 27 43 25 119
filed in China rose from 443 to 3093. One of the main reasons of the Nokia EU 2 14 65 19 98
behind China’s patent filing boom is that China’s government World KT KR 14 57 15 14 66
has been aggressively incentivizing patent filings [14]. The ZTE CN 0 8 40 52 52
increased patent filing by companies Huawei and ZTE is seen Total Patents in ROW (#) 2 21 49 28 1189
also through other patent filing systems in US and Europe, Total Patents in PON
2 20 53 25 9347
where different legislative rules apply. This confirms Landscape (#)
applicability of the inventions and is not conducted merely
due to government support. The mentioned two companies The trend of Chinese companies entering other markets
are among the top patent owners in the US (Huawei in 1st and continues in Europe as well. Huawei and ZTE have almost
ZTE in 6th place) and Europe (Huawei in 1st and ZTE in 3rd 40% of all European patents. Notably, despite holding the 4th
place). position, Ericsson has significantly decreased the patent share
during the latest stage of PON development (2015-May 2019)
Analyzing the top 5 companies with the most patents filed by filing only 3% of total European patents. This is in
in China, we find the largest owners are mostly Chinese accordance of Ericsson’s decreasing trend worldwide, filing
companies with Nokia being the only European based entity. only 5% in other jurisdictions in the said period.
Huawei significantly leads the race in Chinese patent coverage
until 2008. From 2009 until 2014, with the standardization of CONCLUSION
the 10 Gbit/s PON systems, ZTE is catching up by filing 62% Early stages of PON development are impacted by Alcatel
of its patent portfolio in this period and are now in second Lucent and two Japanese companies, NTT and NEC
place with a tendency to overthrow Huawei’s market Corporation. Throughout the years, Chinese companies
dominance. Furthermore, after releasing the next generation Huawei and ZTE took over the patent filling leadership in 4
of PON standard in 2015, Huawei declined its filing trend out of 5 main jurisdictions worldwide. The only exception is
resulting in filing only 8% of all patents in China, while its Japan, which remains dominated by domestic companies.

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