----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Helms" <khelms@zcorum.com>
On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 10:30 AM, Robert E. Seastrom <rs@seastrom.com> wrote:
If you were talking about layer 2 handoffs, your statement is perhaps even more untrue - active ethernet and PON layer 2 handoffs are approximately as easy as each other.
Perhaps you'd share some specifics? I certainly haven't worked on all of the PON systems that are out there, but the ones I have worked one didn't have (or I didn't find) a good way to separate traffic at layer 2 so that several operators could handle their own Layer 3 provisioning for customers on the same OLT.
I am speculating here, Scott, and perhaps Frank, who runs the boxes, will chime in, but my understanding of the Calix E series is that you can separate the *traffic* on a per port basis, even on the GPON cards, as to where that traffic is routed to, presumably by VLAN. I don't think, on rereading your post, that that's what you actually mean, though; I think you're asking about something which I myself got to yesterday afternoon: Can you separate the *control plan* on an ISP by ISP basis: is it possible to give ISPs whose clients are on specific ports of an access mux like an OLT *control over only those ports*, leaving card- and chassis- global functions for the L2 operator? (Possibly with the optimization of allowing card-global functions if all the ports on the card are owned by that operator, or unassigned.) It's a very good question, and the next nail I was going to hammer. I'm betting the answer is presently "no; you'll have to put a smart OAM&P layer in front of it", myself. Can anyone who's used such Access multiplexers comment on this? Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274