Replacing Chorus ONT with own hardware?

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pmufa

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#240819 27-Sep-2018 13:22

Just wondering if anyone has attempted/succeeded terminating fibre (Auckland, Chorus) into own routers instead of provided ONT box?
My motivtion to go through this hassle is to declutter the cupboard space, reduce number of power points required and improve on cable management. At this stage I'm not sure if there's any performance benefit I could get out of using a somewhat spcialist router over what seems to be consumer grade hardware, but let's say that's also a driver.

Mikrotik routers for example have SFP-enabled routers, so it should be possible to physically plug the fibre into router. The bigger question is what sort of link that fibre actually is.

Any success stories out there?

dfnt

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#2097491 27-Sep-2018 13:22

Not possible

jonb

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#2097493 27-Sep-2018 13:24

Short answer: No.

It's an integrated network and Chorus would forbid it

DarkShadow

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#2097503 27-Sep-2018 13:43

Yes, you can request your ISP to request a SFP ONT from Chorus to plug into your router.

But your ISP needs to support it and it's only available for bitstream 3 (read:expensive).

michaeln

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#2097519 27-Sep-2018 13:46

No.

Short form answer: NO!

The ONT is the demarcation point between the LFC and yourself. The LFC owns everything 'north' of the ONT, and it owns the ONT.

The ONT is 'dumb', in that it is a pure layer-2 device (we'll ignore the ATA ports and WiFI for the abominable aberrations that they are). GPON on the north interface, Ethernet on the south.

Then the RSP has their own demarcation device, the residential gateway (RG), that connects you to the Internet (or whatever service your ISP provides). Some RSPs will sell you the RG, or let you use your own. Others won't.

GPON is 'dumb', but it is in no way a simple point-to-point network. It uses Time Division Multiplexing (TDM to share between the other ONTs on the link See http://www.gpon.com/how-gpon-works.

Because security and privacy are important, and we don't want your neighbours snooping on you or interfering with your service (and vice versa), any sane LFC will have encryption enabled.

Your home-brew ONT is not going to get the AES encryption keys, Your home-brew ONT also won't have the appropriate code certificate and won't be trusted to be talked to at all.

And that's as it should be.

MichaelNZ

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Integrity Tech Solutions

#2097533 27-Sep-2018 14:14

A client of mine has an active-port (ie: not GPON) fibre service and they require this to be terminated in their own layer-2 NTU before the router.

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gehenna

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#2097546 27-Sep-2018 14:46

MichaelNZ:

A client of mine has an active-port (ie: not GPON) fibre service and they require this to be terminated in their own layer-2 NTU before the router.

But that won't be UFB. It'll be fibre.

BMarquis

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Chorus

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#2097571 27-Sep-2018 15:10

michaeln: GPON is 'dumb'

Hey, I take offence to that! :)

As pointed out, we do not support BYO ONTs.

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michaeln

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#2097602 27-Sep-2018 15:57

BMarquis:
michaeln: GPON is 'dumb'

Hey, I take offence to that! :)

You may call it 'simple' if you prefer. In any case, it is a virtue, not a vice, in this case. :)

sbiddle

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#2097684 27-Sep-2018 18:58

The simple answer is no, for the reasons given above by michaeln

The complex answer though is yes - for Bitstream 3/3a connections Chorus are currently trialling a SFP based ONT for selected Bitstream 3/3a customers. Unless you're willing to pay big $$ for your connection and move to a Bitstream 3 plan, it will never be an option for you. For residential Bitstream 2 connections an ONT will always be the standard solution.