The TP-Link allows extended IoT configuration with a GUI, which will in theory not raise any eyebrows during OLT audits. The downside is that there is a firmware limitation that limits the ONT throughput to 700/550 Mbps maximum. It also features a Class C+ transmitter, one of the only GPON ONTs on the market to do so.

Supplementary reading:

  1. TP-Link TX-6610 Manual
  2. Maroc telecom configuration of TP-Link TX-6610
  3. Ufiber Nano G compatibility List
  4. TX-6610 vs. ufiber lafibre discussion

The following major steps are involved:

  1. Recovering your livebox settings and authentication data - refer to Section 2
  2. Converting your authetication data into the right format
  3. Setting up your TP-Link ONT to achieve O5 registered status (obligatory), as well as the additional IoT configuration (optional)
  4. Setting up your WAN connection on OPNsense with the correct parameters (Section 6)
  5. Setting up your TV connection (Section 6)
  6. Final simple LAN config (Section 6)

Authentication conversion, specific to TX-6610 for the ONT SN: the ONT SN is made of of two elements:

  1. The vendor code, four letters. For Livebox 5 it is normally Sagem, which is SMBS
  2. The SN itself, which is already presented in hexadecimal notation (in this example 01:02:03:04) Convert the four letter vendor code to Hexa. In our example SMBS = 534d4253. Ensure your input letters are in capitals. Put the hex conversion in front of the SN: in our example, this becomes: 534d425301020304

TP-Link TX-6610 ONT configuration:

  1. Connect your TP-Link to your computer via the ethernet cable. The fibre can stay unplugged for now. The firmware should not require upgrading, there are reports these units ship with upgraded firmwares from the factory that are not available online. I had an issue with mine where zero packets were transmitted over the PON interface, so I up/downgraded. For reference the firmware used successfully was TX-6610_V4_150922, available on the TX-6610 french page.
  2. Connect to the TP-Link interface as per the manual.
  3. Go to “Network Setting -> PON Certification”. Paste in your partial hex conversion from the above auth conversion step into the new SN box. Save, and then switch off the TP-Link. Connect the fibre and log back into the interface.
  4. Go to “Network Setting -> VLAN setting”. Ensure that the mode specified here is “Control by OLT”. Refer to the TP-Link manual for the configuration modes descriptions. This mode allows the OLT to tell the ONT how to tag and modify the vlan traffic.
  5. Open up the web developer console. In Firefox, this is “Tools->Web Developer->Web Console”.
  6. Paste in the following code to open the hidden menu on the ONT. More info can be found here on the code: La fibre Maroc Telecom discussion

$.id("menu").insertAdjacentHTML('beforeend','<ul class="mu1"><li class="ml1"><a id="menu_network" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="plus minus">Adv. Setting</a><ul class="mu2 ">'+'<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=device_mgmt.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">Device MGMT</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=onu_sn.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="sel">ONT SN</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=gponctc.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">Auth CTC</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=tcont.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">TCONT</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=iot_cfg.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">IOT CFG</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=optic.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">Optic</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=sw_status.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">SW Status</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=rt_stats.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">Stats</a></li>'+ '<li class="ml2"><a href="index.htm?page=onu_debug.htm" id="menu_wan" onclick="return menuClick(this);" class="">ONU DEBUG</a></li>'+ '</ul></li></ul>');

  1. Go to “ONT SN”. Fill out the following parameters from your Livebox ONT configuration:
    • Vendor ID: SMBS
    • Serial number should already be pre-filled from Step 3.
    • ONT Version: copy paste from “Hardware version” in livebox 5 data
    • Main and standby software version: copy paste from your Livebox5 data
    • Equipment ID: copy paste
    • Cardholder type, OMCC and traffic management leave as default values
  2. Make sure you press SAVE, wait a few seconds to confirm, then turn off the ONT, and turn it back on. Go back to the ONT SN page using the method above and make sure the settings have stuck.
  3. Go to “Device MGMT”. In this section we see all the parameters specified for the IoT configuration, which is the information the ONT presents to the OLT.
  4. Take note from your Livebox5 which software version is active. Check the Device MGMT page to see which instance ID matches to which software version. Go to “ME ID 7”, press Edit, and then select the correct Instance ID via the dropdown. Under Attribute ID=2 “Is Active”, select the check box, and change the IOT value to 1.
  5. Make sure you press “Apply” at the end!
  6. Turn your ONT on and off again and log back into the interface one last time.
  7. Go to LAN setting, and disable the DHCP server. Give the ONT the following static parameters (sometimes, it won’t let you save unless you specify the correct DHCP pool even the DHCP is disabled…) IP Address 172.16.10.4 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Start IP: 192.168.1.100 (I did not need to change this when DHCP was disabled) End IP: 192.168.1.199 (I did not need to change this when DHCP was disabled) Lease: 120 mins (I did not need to change this when DHCP was disabled)
  8. Reboot the ONT, check that it registers O5. At this stage it is ready for use with OPNsense.

Note: even in transparent mode, the ONT will get to O5, however it will not pass the correct traffic from OPNsense. It seems (for me at least) that “Control by OLT” is the only mode available. I suspect it is due to the way the Alcatel OLTs encapsulate VLAN 832 as a S-VLAN with number 2800, and it passes this transparently. Setting to Control by OLT gets around this I suspect.

A note on TP-Link TX-6610 vs Ufiber Nano G: There are methods to force the ufiber to retain an ONT SN after reboot. The issue with OrangeFR customers is that Orange are reported to use Huawei and NokiaAlcatel OLTs. The Ufiber is only compatible with the former, and the only way to see if it works with your OLT is to buy it and try it, a 70EUR gamble. On the plus side this ONT can reach 950/600 speeds. The TP-Link can only reach 700/550.