Optical LANs have been around since the mid-1980s but in the last few years they have benefited from the worldwide move to install fiber to the home. With over 100 million FTTH subscribers, FTTH has become a market driven by the economies of scale and costs have plummeted. It did not take long for designers to understand that FTTH, especially as used in multi-dwelling units, was similar to typical LANs. Much as LANs based on telco PBX architectures became the first standard for LANs, telco FTTH architectures, especially PONs (passive optical networks), are being adopted for the next generation of LANs. Here you will find some history and an explanation of how this new generation of telco architecture is being widely adopted.
Source: The FOA Reference For Fiber Optics – OLANs- Fiber Optic LANs