High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! A passive optical network (PON) is a point-to-multipoint, fiber to the premises network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises, typically 16-128. A PON consists of an optical line terminal (OLT) at the service provider`s central office and a number of optical network units (ONUs) near end users. A PON reduces the amount of fiber and central office equipment required compared with point to point architectures. A passive optical network is a form of fiber-optic access network.