Future fiber-to-the-home bandwidth demands favor time division multiplexing passive optical networks

It has been widely asserted that TDM PON technology will not be able to effectively cope with future increases in subscriber bandwidth demand, and that WDM PON architectures must succeed it. In this article we compare the historical trend of TDM PON bandwidth supply and the growth of residential bandwidth demands to the end of this decade, and conclude that bandwidth supply is growing much faster than the demand, calling into question the need for WDM PON. Further, we distinguish between sustained bandwidth demand and burst bandwidth demand, and further conclude that TDM PON will deliver future ultra-high speed services more efficiently than WDM PON.