How An IT Support Company Can Help Design a Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) For Your Business

Companies rely on fast and reliable network speeds to ensure they remain productive. Having even a few hours of downtime or a significant data flow bottleneck can lead to countless profit losses. 

Fortunately, a gigabit passive optical network (GPON) is an excellent solution for preventing any of these issues before they occur. GPONs have incredibly high transmission speeds and can handle more significant amounts of data at one time compared to traditional copper wire networks. They are also extremely cost-efficient and extremely affordable.

However, designing and transitioning to GPON is not something that most in-house IT departments can do. Meticulous planning and testing are needed to ensure that everything works perfectly from the get-go.

Instead, it is wise to look to an outside IT support company, like House of I.T, for GPON architecture and GPON design. An outside company has the knowledge and experience needed to help ensure that your network infrastructure design is properly documented, implemented, and optimized.

Having an IT support company design a GPON for you will save you a significant amount of time and ensure that it is implemented as cost-effectively as it can be. Read on to learn more about how we can assist you with this.

Why Switch To GPON?

There are numerous reasons why you should consider switching to a GPON. Here are four of the best reasons to implement GPON.

GPON cables are cheaper to purchase and take up less space on average

This means that building a GPON network is more inexpensive in both the short and long run. 

GPON cabling is, overall, much cheaper than copper cables, often up to 50% cheaper to buy and implement. Additionally, since fiber optic cables are smaller than copper cables, the amount of dedicated space needed to maintain an internal network properly will be lower.

GPON has faster speeds than any other cabling system. 

This is probably going to be the first thing people look for in a network. Fortunately, GPON delivers on that front. Traditional copper wiring can only go up to roughly 100 megabits per second (Mbps). 

This is fine for the average household, but most businesses with many employees will encounter issues using copper wiring in today's business world. GPON, however, demolishes it in terms of speed. 

On average, GPON transmission download speeds range from 1.25 gigabits per second (Gbps) to around 2.5Gbps. At its slowest, GPON will still be at least ten times faster than traditional cable wiring.

GPON can transmit data over a longer distance than any other type of cabling. 

Traditional copper cabling, for example, is limited to roughly 100 meters before the signal terminates. GPON, in comparison, can go up to 20 kilometers before termination. In other words, GPON is up to 1000 times more effective than copper cables.

A GPON network is more resistant to interference than a traditional copper wire network. 

Since standard cables are made out of copper, they have the potential to produce an electromagnetic current that can impact your network's efficiency. 

The fiber optic cables in a GPON network, on the other hand, are immune to this electromagnetic interference, meaning that you will not experience this issue. 

Additionally, fiber optic cables are resistant to extreme heat and catching on fire, making them safer and not a potential fire hazard.

What Defines GPON Architecture?

Explained in its most basic form, GPON architecture refers to how all devices and services operate and are structured within a GPON network. 

Put another way, GPON architecture helps define how physical devices like switches and routers, in addition to services like DHCP and DNS, interact with end-user devices.

All networks are different, as something like a college campus will need to be designed differently than a small business. 

Having properly designed and implemented GPON architecture will ensure that you have constant uptime and the fastest possible speeds for the cheapest price.

The Process of Implementation

Doing a complete upgrade of your network infrastructure might sound like a complicated task, not to mention expensive. However, do not worry, as steps are taken before and after implementation to ensure that everything transitions smoothly and that you are not spending a significant amount of money. Here is a brief outline of what you can expect.

Pre-implementation

Before anything else, all employees need to understand why you are upgrading and what this means for them. Answering questions in advance will help everyone be on the same page and avoid as much confusion as possible.

After everyone is informed, the project management team will ensure that everything rolls out smoothly. This will likely involve both speaking with and debriefing management and any in-house IT staff members on the implementation plans.

Properly documenting and storing the network infrastructure will be vital in the pre-implementation stage. Ensuring that everything can be easily referred to whenever needed is critical to maintaining and troubleshooting any issues that may arise in the future.

In most cases, there should not be any end-user issues after transitioning to GPON. However, making sure that all users know when their new system will be in place and any network downtime will help mitigate frustrations for end-users.

Post-implementation

When the network has been properly implemented, it is essential to determine when the new system will become active. The best situation will be overnight so that tests can be run before the workday.

After the system is live, it is vital to immediately observe its usage to verify that everything is working as designed. This monitoring will also help ensure that you have as few security vulnerabilities as possible and can allow you to fix them as needed.

Once everything looks immediately good, you will want to ensure that your business has a contingency plan in place on the off chance that any mishaps arise in the future.

House of I.T Can Help Your Business Out

Designing and implementing a network is hard work and is not easy for most businesses to do. It is also usually expensive and time-consuming.

Fortunately, outside IT support companies like House of I.T can make this process a lot smoother and inexpensive for you. As experts at designing cost-effective GPON architecture, we can ensure that all devices work smoothly for you and your employees...all at an affordable price.

If you are interested in designing and implementing a GPON into your business, we encourage you to contact us. We hope to hear from you soon!