If you feel that strongly about wanting to use your own SFP then you need to take it up with the infrastructure provider and see where it gets you, comments here have made it clear why its not a good idea.

In reply to a post by 0007:

Why even lock the OLT to specific ONT's I don't get it.

OLT manufacturers usually also sell ONUs. Out of the box most of them only have profiles for use of their own equipment as ONUs not a wide open one. Contracts likely have discounts on OLT hardware baked in and arranging an open profile would carry costs.

Some also use proprietary extensions for provisioning and monitoring which I think have already been mentioned. Openreach have streaming telemetry available from their ONUs using configuration in the firmware. Wouldn't happen with wires only.

Compatibility is also a consideration. Some ONUs just won't work with some OLTs. The link to a GPON SFP in this thread covers 3 vendors only.

On how some ISPs manage to offer wires only most don't. Even in the USA where people are used to bringing their own cable modems they require use of their own ONUs.

Provisioning systems, telemetry and monitoring, money, take your pick. This is how it is in the UK and for most PON customers worldwide.

In reply to a post by dect:

If you feel that strongly about wanting to use your own SFP then you need to take it up with the infrastructure provider and see where it gets you, comments here have made it clear why its not a good idea.

Doubt that'll get me anywhere really I think you probably know that aswell as me.
My main question now is, how do ISP's in other countries allow for people to use their own SFP's when all the issues mentioned previously can occur without an ONT.

If you use Init7 as an example how do they manage to allow customers to use their own SFP's?
Is there something different in their network that allows for it that we can't have for any reason?
Or is it just as simple as our ISP's here in the UK simply don't see a need to allow for something 'extra' and it's as simple as that since the majority probably won't use it.

Sorry if anyone took offense to what I said or if I was condescending at all.

Edited by 0007 (Sun 12-Jun-22 12:30:38)

In reply to a post by XGS_Is_On:

On how some ISPs manage to offer wires only most don't. Even in the USA where people are used to bringing their own cable modems they require use of their own ONUs.

Thanks for your reply, and yeah I've noticed most don't.
Originally I just wanted to first know if it was possible.
Now I know it's not possible, it's more of a why wouldn't the ISP allow for it. A number of issues have been mentioned in terms of why they don't allow for it. But then I can't see why other large ISP's in other countries have managed to get away with letting customers use their own SFP Transceiver.

Edited by 0007 (Sun 12-Jun-22 12:31:51)

In reply to a post by 0007:

If you use Init7 as an example how do they manage to allow customers to use their own SFP's?
Is there something different in their network that allows for it that we can't have for any reason?

Init7 don't use PON. Dedicated fibre and dedicated optics between home and their switch.

+1

Init7 aren’t your typical ISP either. Even in Switzerland! The self proclaimed “nerd ISP”. Mass market they certainly are not.

I think there is a notion here surrounding pluggable optics that needs to be challenged.

In a point-to-point network, pluggable SFP/SFP+ etc optics are essentially “dumb” - that is they are simply an Ethernet transceiver with any layer 3 stuff done on the box they’re being plugged into.

In a PON network, pluggable ONT/ONU modules are very much not just a transceiver but an actual bit of NTE in one - that is they have some limited processing etc capability on the pluggable itself AND they need to be configured at Layer 2 (GPON) to be accepted by and work/talk to the rest of the network.

Furthermore that configuration and update is 99.9% designed to be done with and in concert with the headend OLT and the providers network management setup. They can (by exception) be configured through local means (SSH etc) but this is not how Openreach will manage a 25 million+ network of devices. Not only that such access varies not only between vendors of this gear but also across versions/generations of gear. It’s utterly inconsistent. Attempting to manage a network in this way would be suicidal.

Definitely makes sense now, thank you the both of you, @XGS_Is_On, and @Pheasant.

Just another question - asking the differences in infrastructure when having one ISP vs another.
How does that work, the OLT is always owned/managed by CityFibre if I'm not mistaken? So at what point, or what comes after the OLT that is ISP owned?

And if you change between different CityFibre ISP's what changes, they have to plug you into a different port or something somewhere right? Or is it just different PPPoE info and that's it?

So basically to simplify, if I were with Vodafone for example, and switched to Zen under the same line, what would they have to change to make this happen on their end?

Edited by 0007 (Mon 13-Jun-22 19:51:51)

OLT is own by infrastructure provider ie Openreach OTL is own Openreach, CityFibre is OTL is owned by CityFibre. OTL has nothing to do with ISP. What owned by ISP is anything send to you. So it like router kit, some ISP want back end contract others dont care.

Think of PPPoE is in a way like a SSH tunnel from you home (Router) that connects your to your ISP. In fact you can not see any of the hops that happen between your router until get to your ISP.

Thank you for your reply

Fully aware that the OLT is on the their end & I only have an ONT & the router does the PPPoE.
Just wanted to know what goes on at the other end of the Fibre, my questions above are focused on that, rather than what happens on the customers side.

If anyone knows it'd be helpful, as it will also clarify things when it comes to understanding how switching ISP's on an existing line would work.

Edited by 0007 (Mon 13-Jun-22 22:09:46)