Tag Archives: FTTx

Fundamentals of FTTx Network

The telecommunication industry nowadays has ushered in various new and advanced services that changed human life dramatically. With the demand for higher bandwidth consistently on the rise, an increasing number of service providers endeavored to provide a one-stop shopping service to cater to customer’s requirements. FTTx technology has proved to be viable and effective network solution.

Definition of FTTx Network

FTTx is a general term referring to describe fiber-based access networks, and the x could be H (home) if the fibers are terminated at the home of the subscriber; x could also be B (business), if the fibers are terminated at an office building. In addition to these two types, there also exist common ones like FTTC (Fiber-to-the-Curb) and FTTN (Fiber-to-the-Neighborhood).

It is generally accepted that compared to copper or digital radio, fiber features higher bandwidth and lower attenuation. FTTx technology enables users to get more extensive bandwidth and enjoy more diversified services at home by installing optical fiber all the way to subscriber. It is hence natural that FTTx technology is rather prevalent throughout the world.

Deployment Scenarios of FTTx Network

Just as what we have mentioned above, the fiber can be terminated at the user’s premises, a block of apartments or offices in a FTTx network. In some scenarios the optical fiber can be laid all the way to the subscribes’ premises such as FTTH, whereas in others, fiber optics may be terminated at either a place or node close to groups of subscribers, which depends on several factors. In this part, we will explain some common deployment scenarios.

FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home)

In FTTH deployment, the fibers are being laid from the central office (CO) to each house or apartment. As a house or a home is usually occupied by a family, it is frequently referred to as a single dwelling unit (SDU). The following picture shows the FTTH deployment scenario.

FTTH

FTTB (Fiber-to-the-Building)

Likewise, FTTB is a deployment scenario where the fiber is laid directly from the CO to an office or private apartment with multiple business tenants or homes. And the term Multiple Tenant Unit (MTU) is frequently used to those tenants or apartment units. The ONT in this scenario is often connected to an Ethernet switch that used to link all the tenants within the same building. Moreover, while in FTTB deployment, there is no need to replace the existing copper LAN cables in the building for optical fibers.

FTTB

FTTC (Fiber-to-the-Curb)

In FTTC deployment scenario, however, the fiber is laid from the CO to an optical network unit (ONU) or optical network termination (ONT) that is located within 300 m from office building or home. Instead of optical fiber, in FTTC scenario we often use transmission medium such as twisted pair cable or coaxial cable to achieve connection to the subscribers.

FTTC

FTTN (Fiber-to-the-Neighborhood)

FTTN is a deployment scenario where fiber from the CO is terminated at a communication switch located within 1 km from office buildings or homes. FTTN can contribute to save a significant amount of cost since one can use the existing coaxial or twisted pair infrastructure to provide the final physical connection to the end users.

FTTN

FTTx Network Application

FTTx effectively and efficiently provide users triple play, which is a standard mix of traffic types known as voice,video and data. Traditional subscribers must connect to three different networks and service providers for their phone service, video broadcast and the Internet. However, once adopting FTTx, all of these types can be integrated into a single fiber network just by using different wavelengths. Hence, on the basis of triple play service, the FTTx network can thus be applied to IP telephony, video on demand (VOD), IPTV, interactive games, telepresence, video conferencing, and externally monitored home security. To this end, service providers need to offer bandwidths of 50 to 100 to enable subscribers using these services.

Conclusion

In conclusion, FTTx network is a popular tendency in current telecommunication industry since it offers a better networking experience and more convenience for subscribers. The article simply describes some rudiments of FTTx technology, for more information concerning the FTTx solution, visit Fiberstore at www.fs.com. We provide professional FTTx solutions and tutorials for your infrastructure.

Which One Will You Choose for FTTx? PON or AON?

When it comes to FTTx deployment, there are two competing network solutions which are PON (Passive Optical Network) and AON (Active Optical Network). What is the difference between them? And which one will you choose? PON or AON? You may find the answer from the following contents.

PON-AON

PON

A PON consists of an optical line terminator (OLT) located at the Central Office (CO) and a set of associated optical network terminals (ONT) to terminate the fiber–usually located at the customer’s premise. Both devices require power. Instead of using powered electronics in the outside plant, PON uses passive splitters and couplers to divide up the bandwidth among the end users–typically 32 over a maximum distance of 10-20km.

AON

An active optical system uses electrically powered switching equipment to manage signal distribution and direct signals to specific customers. This switch opens and closes in various ways to direct the incoming and outgoing signals to the proper place. Thus, a subscriber can have a dedicated fiber running to his or her house. Active networks can serve a virtually unlimited number of subscribers over an 80km distance.

Advantages and Disadvantages of PON
  • Advantages PON has some distinct advantages. It’s efficient, in that each fiber optic strand can serve up to 32 users. Compared to AON, PON has a lower building cost and lower maintenance costs. Because there are few moving or electrical parts and things don’t easily go wrong in a PON.
  • Disadvantages PON also has some disadvantages. One of the biggest disadvantages is that these splitters have no intelligence, and therefore cannot be managed. Then you can’t check for problems cost-effectively when a service outage occurs. Another major disadvantage is its inflexibility. If one needs to re-design the network or pull a new strand of fiber from the upstream splitter, all downstream customers must come offline for changing the splitter in the network. At last, since PONs are shared networks, every subscriber gets the same bandwidth. So data transmission speed may slow down during peak usage times.
Advantages and Disadvantages of AON
  • Advantages AON offers some advantages, as well. First, its reliance on Ethernet technology makes interoperability among vendors easy. Subscribers can select hardware that delivers an appropriate data transmission rate and scale up as their needs increase without having to restructure the network. Second, it’s about the distance. An active network has the distance limitation of 80 km regardless of the number of subscribers being served. At last, there are some other advantages like high flexibility for deploying different services to residential and business customers, and low subscriber cost.
  • Disadvantages Like PON, AON also has its weaknesses. It needs at least one switch aggregator for every 48 subscribers. Because it requires power, AON inherently is less reliable than PON.

From the above contents, you can find that both technologies have its advantages and disadvantages. In some cases, FTTx systems actually combine elements of both passive and active architectures to form a hybrid system. Thus, to decide which technology to deploy, you should consider your own unique circumstances.