Building a Fiber Optic ISP in my Homelab

Video Description

Today I'm setting up a GPON network in my homelab. GPON is the ITU's Gigabit-class Passive Optical Network technology, one of the most commonly deployed fiber to the home technologies. While it's being replaced by its faster descendant XGS-PON, it's still capable of 2.44Gbps down / 1.22Gbps up across 128 clients, all using only passive optical components between the headend (OLT) and clients (ONU). I've got a single-port Optical Line Terminal (OLT) made by CData (Shenzhen C-Data Technology Co., Ltd.), as well as 8x client Optical Network Units (ONU) also made by CData. Big thanks to CData for providing the equipment for this project! Hardware used in this project: CData's Website: www.cdatatec.com Mini GPON OLT: https://www.cdatatec.com/products/mini-gpon-olt/ Visit my website for the config for both the OLT and my BNG (a Mikrotik CRS305): https://www.apalrd.net/posts/2025/isp_gpon/ Support me on Ko-Fi or buy my merch: https://ko-fi.com/apalrd Feel free to chat about my upcoming projects on Discord! https://discord.gg/xJsaEukAr4 Follow me on Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@apalrd Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:05 - Passive Optical Networking 06:22 - Hardware 14:57 - Cell Switching 19:54 - Configuration 34:58 - Demo #gpon #ftth #fiberoptics #cdata #homelab