WDM EPON: Future applications and services

Supporters of the recently proposed "Copper-PON" (CuPON) raised the intriguing question why DSL companies would spend enormous amounts of time and money to deploy fiber when the existing copper they are replacing has much higher data rates than they anticipate selling within decades? In this paper, we try to answer this question from different angles. After reviewing the tradition and avantgarde of PONs, we elaborate on the merits of WDM EPONs and their evolution to support future applications and services in an efficient and cost-effective manner.