Economic Analysis on Passive Optical Networks Using Markov Chain and Monte Carlo Simulation

Passive Optical Networks (PON) supports actual and near future traffic demand expected for fixed broadband access networks. The increase of the traffic demand requirements have led costumers for demanding more reliable services forcing operators to invest more in infrastructure, e.g., operators are investing to reduce extra costs caused by undesired equipment malfunction, i.e., repair costs and disconnection time penalties. This paper aims to verify the economical feasibility of different protection schemes for PONs through CAPEX and OPEX analysis. A geometric model is used to describe PON deployment area and a Markov cost model solved with Monte Carlo simulation is used to compute the failure-associated costs in order to find the best protection scheme in terms of implementation cost savings and investments return. Results point PON architecture having protection as the most attractive alternative in terms of reliability and cost savings.