Qualcomm Atheros chip supports EPON for FTTH and power grids

Qualcomm Atheros Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) has announced the QCA8829, a 1-Gbps Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) chip, which is designed to support a variety of applications. In addition to EPON fiber to the home (FTTH) application, the chip will support North American cable operator broadband efforts and provisioning for smart grid applications over PON in China.

The QCA8829 EPON chip supports four major specifications:

North American Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) Provisioning of Ethernet (DPoE) 1.0

IEEE 802.3ah EPON

The China State Grid EPON

The China Telecom (CTC) EPON.

The chip therefore tailors to the needs of telecom carriers, cable operators and utility providers, Qualcomm Atheros says.

The QCA8829 is designed to offer simplicity and a low system cost for new applications. It offers power consumption of less than 200 mW for grid applications with Gigabit Ethernet (GE) PHY sleep mode enabled and less than 600 mW when running full 1 Gbps throughput with GE PHY enabled. The 76-pin package size fits into a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) optical module, simplifying system design for plug-and-play connection with an Ethernet switch or IP router.

Samples of the QCA8829 and reference design kits are available now. Volume shipments will be available in the fourth quarter of 2011.

September 13, 2011

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