Fiber To The HomeIntroduction
Since the first installations of fiber optic networks in the late
1970s, the goal of the fiber optic industry has been to install fiber
optics all the way to the home. From an economic standpoint, fiber was
immediately cost effective in the long-distance networks. Compared to
copper or digital radio, fiber’s high bandwidth and low attenuation
easily offset its higher cost. Compared to copper wire used in
telephony, fiber could carry thousands of times more phone
conversations hundreds of times further, making the cost of a phone
connection over fiber only a few percent as much as transmitting over
copper.This photo was used many times in the early days to illustrate
the information carrying advantage of optical fiber:
It took only a few years before fiber optics dominated the long
distance market. Crews buried cables underground or ran aerial cables
on poles nonstop for a decade to upgrade long distance service. At the
same time, technology was developed for submarine cables and by the
late 1980s, all overseas communications expansion was done by fiber
optics, replacing copper cables and satellites. Today, virtually all
long distance communications is over the installed fiber optic network.
The next step was connecting local central offices, the link between
subscribers and the switched phone network. Around the time the long
distance networks were being completed, consumer use of the Internet
took off. Metropolitan phone networks became overloaded quickly and
fiber optics was ready to provide the expansion capability. The scope
of metropolitan fiber optic installations was obvious to anyone driving
around town, as it was hard to drive anywhere without encountering
roads torn up for the installation of conduit and fiber optic splicing
trucks blocking the roadways.
Then the
telecom/Internet "bubble" burst in 2001. The Internet “bubble” that
caused the telecom “bubble” and thereby the fiber optic “bubble” caused
the downfall of a tremendous number of companies and left the industry
with a glut of installed fiber capacity and also fiber optic component
manufacturing capacity. In a good illustration of capitalism at work,
the cost of fiber optic components took a nosedive as supply
outstripped demand. Since the market bust, fiber prices are dirt cheap. One
analyst compared fiber prices to kite string and fishing line, both are
more expensive than the current prices of top quality optical fiber. The bad news is a lot of people got hurt, but the good news is it set the stage for the next big application for fiber optics.
Many homes today are connected with aging, low- performance copper
telephone wire that cannot support DSL connection speeds that allow the
phone companies to compete with the cable modems used by CATV companies
for broadband access. These aging phone lines not only cannot carry
high bandwidth digital signals, they are extremely expensive to
maintain just for POTS (plain old telephone service.) Savings in
maintenance alone were projected by a Telcordia report to pay back the
cost of installing fiber in under 20 years, irrespective of revenue
from new services.
Besides component prices dropping as a result of oversupply, new
network architectures have been developed that allow sharing expensive
components for FTTH. A passive splitter that takes one input and
broadcasts it to as many as 32 users cuts the cost of the links
susbstantially by sharing, for example, one expensive laser with up to
32 homes.
More on FTTH network architecture and protocol.
Each home needs to be connected to the local central
office with singlemode fiber, perhaps through a local splitter. Every
home will have a singlemode fiber link pulled or strung aerially to the
phone company cables running down the street and a network interface
device containing fiber optic transmitters and receivers will be
installed on the outside of the house. The incoming cable needs to be
terminated at the house, tested, connected to the interface and the
service tested.
Fiber is now gaining acceptance in the final frontier of telephone networks, the “last mile”—the connection to the home. Phone companies are now realizing the only choice for upgrading the subscriber connection is fiber to the home (FTTH).Phone
companies such as Verizon have committed billions of dollars to
connecting millions of home with fiber in the near future.
Right now, Verizon is the leader in the US in FTTH, but the US trails
many other countries around the world in converting to FTTH. Progress
requires massive capital investment and training lots of people to
install FTTH, or FTTP (fiber to the premises as they call it.)
Even the CATV companies are considering fiber to replace aging coax,
since the price is right and performance unlimited.
Here is the latest data on worldwide FTTH:
Besides the telcos, several other groups are attempting to install FTTH.
Municipalities:
Some of the first FTTH systems were installed by cities - progressive
ones like Palo Alto did it at the request of their high-tech citizens,
some did it to entice businesses to move there, like Anaheim, some did
it (or are trying to) because they were not pleased with the service of
telcos or CATV companies. The latter often found the telcos or CATV
companies to be formidable opponents who did not always play fair! Most
municipal FTTx projects use rights of way available to the city through
city-owned utilities. Google has made municipal FTTH popular by having
a competition for a city to get Gigabit FTTH installed by them - and
Kansas City won the competition but many other cities are benefiting
from the program.
Utilities: Owning rights of way to the
home convinced some utilities to try FTTH or FTTC. Ethernet over power
lines is becoming a option for power companies who can use power lines
for the final connection to the home. FTTx is even becoming real for
rural customers through rural electrical cooperatives.
CLECs
(Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) install their own networks and
can then sell connections to anyone they pass, but mostly focus on
businesses which spend much more money on communications than
households.
Private companies: There are private companies that
will build municipal FTTH networks under an agreement with the city,
similar to CATV agreements. In addition, some contractors building
large subdivisions or apartments are installing FTTH with the
assumption that they can connect with telecommunications companies for
services to resell.
FTTH is a considered a battleground by
telcos and CATV companies: Whenever a city or private company proposes
to install FTTH, they can expect to have to deal with the legal,
advertising and technical staff of the current telco or CATV company
protecting their franchises.
- Technical Information on FTTX From The FOA Online Reference Guide:
- FTTH
- FTTH Architectures
- FTTH PON Protocols
- FTTx Online
Tutorial
- Here's links for more information on
FTTx
- Training & Certification
- FOA Certification
Overview
FOA FTTx Certification Requirements
FOA-Approved
Training Programs
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