The PON Dream

*** see also The Optical Future

This refers to a PON that is 100% optical - no electric !!  Often called a "pure PON" - this is indeed, a lucrative, earth-shattering dream for all Inventors . . . to create a purely optical, un-powered device capable of transmitting, receiving, muxing, and switching data.  The surge in R&D devoted to PON has been like a patent gold rush, similar to the old search for a perpetual motion machine (any machine that could run forever without any external power applied).  If ever realized, this PON will consist of all-optical components that run at the speed of light (the data rate approaches infinity at the speed of light).

Well, so far that dream has not been realized.