Optical line termination

An optical line termination (OLT), also called an optical line terminal, is the service provider endpoint of a passive optical network and is placed at the central office or head end in systems such as Verizon's FIOS network. It is a device which transmits and receives optical signals using asynchronous transfer mode.

OLTs include the following features:

• A downstream frame processing means for receiving and churning an asynchronous transfer mode cell to generate a downstream frame, and converting a parallel data of the downstream frame into a serial data thereof.
• A wavelength division multiplexing means for performing an electro/optical conversion of the serial data of the downstream frame and performing a wavelength division multiplexing thereof.
• A upstream frame processing means for extracting data from the wavelength division multiplexing means, searching an overhead field, delineating a slot boundary, and processing a physical layer operations administration and maintenance (PLOAM) cell and a divided slot separately.
• A control signal generation means for performing a media access control (MAC) protocol and generating variables and timing signals used for the downstream frame processing means and the upstream frame processing means.
• A control means for controlling the downstream frame processing means and the upstream frame processing means by using the variables and the timing signals from the control signal generation means.