[AusNOG] Simon Hackett's presentation from Comms Day yesterday - NBN fibre on copper prices

[Bevan Slattery]

Downstream is encrypted, upstream isn't

On 22/07/13 11:41 AM, "Jonathan Thorpe" <jthorpe at Conexim.com.au> wrote:

>While I strongly support the idea of users being able to have their own
>certified GPON NTD, it does raise an interesting point about the
>potential for abuse and interference with GPON in general.
>
>What happens if someone directs a laser pointer (at approximately the
>correct wavelength) down a GPON fibre interface?
>What stops people from using WDM equipment or simply an optical
>transceiver at a different wavelength to "steal" wavelengths that the
>splitter can distribute between people on the same splitter?

Remember that while upstream path is not encrypted, downstream is.  But
yes, the architecture of PON says you can take out all those on the PON
span intentionally or otherwise.  Mind you if your intention is to cause a
Denial of Service then you could also take out an entire node by driving
over it in your land rover whether it be FttN or FttP.  Perspective is a
good thing :)

But again, you need to remember that NBN Co. is a political hand grenade
and whilst the ability to BYO ONU is the desired outcome, had I been in
NBN Co's shoes I would have deployed ONUs/UPS as standard.  Reasons would
be to ensure the NBN is not labelled a "death trap" stranding the elderly
when a disaster strikes (fire, cyclones, floods etc.) provides a
consistent deployment model (cookie cutter), lower upfront cost for the
punter as the ONU is delivered and amortised and finally better visibility
and management.

Is it gold plated? Maybe more like silver plated.  But the fact remains
removing the NBN Co's ONU/UPS was not a palatable political option at the
time of initial deployment (may have been up to the point of the first
reported death) regardless of the technical merits, nor does it really
materially change the overall cost of deployment.  The price difference is
less than 10% of overall project cost (I think about 7-8%) and removes one
more hurdle for punters to get on board.

Agree with just about everything else in Simons preso including the
drastic reduction of CVC costs and points, except that there should be a
price to collect it at the local PoI (say $1/Mbps) and a charge to have it
hauled back to the state based aggregation MegaPoI ($2/Mbps being $1 local
+ $1 backhaul).  Mind you I am sure the NBN Co. people know the CVC won't
survive at current levels but that¹s a disclosure/discussion for a later
date for them and they need to focus on deployment.  That local/120+ PoI's
was an ACCC decision and the CVC amount was a ridiculous number dreamt up
by people who worked in product from previous incumbents to make the books
balance.  But like I said I think we all know that and understand that
will have to change if we are to get the benefit of said network.  Anyway,
that's getting off topic.

Cheers

[b]