CityFibre ONT

I'm probably not the most educated to talk about this, but why wouldn't it be possible to remove the Calix 801Gv2 ONT and plug the Fibre straight into a SFP module using a Mikrotik router or similar?
Is whatever on the other end of the fibre locked to using the Calix ONT?

Edited by 0007 (Thu 30-Dec-21 23:47:25)

Who says it isn't possible?
It might well be possible. I've not seen anyone try it.

It works over Openreach FTTP if you spoof the details of your existing/registered ONT.

Give it a try and let us know.

It won't work. It's not point to point fibre but GPON which relies on the OLT permitting a device to connect to it.

While you do get "GPON ONT" SFP modules, the OLT needs to authorize the ONT before it will be allowed on the network.

There are a few issues to address:

The ONT is the demarcation point for the service. Replacing it with a third-party device may make the provider unhappy, especially if any vendor-specific remote management functions are not implemented.

GPON has a number of ONT authentication methods, most commonly just the serial number. Any replacement device would have to be programmed with the serial number of the existing ONT to fool the headend OLT.

You need an appropriate SFP. The cages on most switches and routers implement 1000BASE-X/10GBASE-X signalling for optical SFPs (which are just electical to optical media converters), and SGMII signalling for copper SFPs (which contain a PHY interface chip). Plugging in a regular GPON media converter SFP just won't work as the switch/router knows nothing about G.984 GPON protocols (PLOAM, GEM, OMCI, etc.) - you need one with an embedded processor which implements the various GPON protocols on the optical side plus an ethernet-like interface on the electical side to communicate with the switch/router.

You can find a number of threads on the Mikrotik and Ubiquiti forums discussing compatibility and issues with various embedded-ONT GPON SFPs in those switches/routers.

In reply to a post by k4a:

It won't work. It's not point to point fibre but GPON which relies on the OLT permitting a device to connect to it.

While you do get "GPON ONT" SFP modules, the OLT needs to authorize the ONT before it will be allowed on the network.

Which it probably does by serial number so simply spoofing that will likely work.

May be desirable to replicate a few other things, too, Generally not a major deal.

The bigger challenge is actually changing the serial number on the GPON ONT SFP.

In reply to a post by 0007:

I'm probably not the most educated to talk about this, but why wouldn't it be possible to remove the Calix 801Gv2 ONT and plug the Fibre straight into a SFP module using a Mikrotik router or similar?
Is whatever on the other end of the fibre locked to using the Calix ONT?

You mean like this? http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32230041-Internet-B...

In reply to a post by 0007:

I'm probably not the most educated to talk about this, but why wouldn't it be possible to remove the Calix 801Gv2 ONT and plug the Fibre straight into a SFP module using a Mikrotik router or similar?
Is whatever on the other end of the fibre locked to using the Calix ONT?

If using Nokia or Huawei GPON SFPs, ensure the host MikroTik router is running an ARM based processor. Won’t work on MIPS or Tile proc.

In reply to a post by k4a:

It won't work. It's not point to point fibre but GPON which relies on the OLT permitting a device to connect to it.

While you do get "GPON ONT" SFP modules, the OLT needs to authorize the ONT before it will be allowed on the network.

I'm aware of that. Openreach is the exact same. That's why I said you need to spoof the original ONT details.

The fact it's GPON is why I believe it might work, not why it won't work.

There's only 1 way to find out.

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 31-Dec-21 18:11:22)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

I'm aware of that. Openreach is the exact same. That's why I said you need to spoof the original ONT details.

The fact it's GPON is why I believe it might work, not why it won't work.

There's only 1 way to find out.

Certainly works fine with Openreach.

Which have you done? Huawei or Nokia-Alcatel?