Jönköping Energi AB (JEAB) is a local energy supplier for the county of Jönköping. JEAB also maintain the local Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). They have recently installed GPON in a portion of their network and have connected it to the MAN via an Extreme switch.

However JEAB would prefer to use Cisco equipment instead of Extreme since the MAN comprises of Cisco hardware. They require a solution to connect GPON to the MAN with a recently purchased line card (Cisco 7600 ES20) which can be installed in a Cisco 6500 Catalyst switch. There is also a possible solution with an Alcatel-Lucent 7450 ESS-1 switch. The proposed solution is to use Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS), though the exact implementation required is unknown. Additionally JEAB have asked for research into GPON and VPLS in order to improve their understanding of both techniques. This would be of benefit to them both now and in the future.

In order to achieve the stated objectives the following questions are raised:

• How does GPON work?

• How does VPLS work?

• How can GPON be connected to the MAN via Cisco Systems 6500 Catalyst switch/7600 Router?

• How can GPON be connected to the MAN via Alcatel-Lucents 7450 ESS-1?

The research into GPON and VPLS provides the required background knowledge in order to investigate how GPON can be connected to the MAN. The main body of the work is to analyse the requirements of the company and build a configuration which satisfies them. The desired implementation via Cisco Systems solution was deemed unsuitable due to a feature of DHCP option 82 which did not function as required. The focus then turned to Alcatel-Lucents solution.

The resulting solution uses a part of VPLS via Alcatel-Lucents 7450 ESS-1. All the key elements are included, including hiding customer VLANs from the ISP and per-service QoS bandwidth management.

The conclusion is that whilst using Alcatel-Lucents solution means a deviation from the all-Cisco implementation that had been planned; the benefit of including all the desired functionality outweighs the mixing of manufacturers.

The techniques of GPON and VPLS are extremely versatile and can be used in a variety of networks. Therefore there is scope for further research into how these two techniques can be used together in other types of MAN.