There are two competing methods for providing a fiber to the home - Active Optical Networks (AON) and Passive Optical Networks (PON). AON is essentially a switched Ethernet.

PON

Each home has an Optical Network Terminator (ONT) unit which is connected via fiber to the neighbourhood splitter. The splitter combines a number of homes (typically less than 100) onto a single shared optical fiber which connects to the Optical Line Terminator (OLT)in the telco's CO.

At home, users connect a home router (typically a wireless router) to the ONT and access the Internet via this home router. In the PON architecture, all packets sent from OLT to the splitter are replicated at the splitter (similar to a cable head end).

Per-customer access speed is gated by the PON line rate (PON standard) - the line between OLT and Splitter. There are following standards: