Is FTTP a home run?
Martin Rowe, Senior Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 6/1/2005 2:00:00 AM
Ever since the telecom crash, the fiber-optics industry has yearned for a new technology to pull it out of the doldrums. At this year's Optical Fiber Communications Conference (OFC; March 7-9, Anaheim, CA), the industry seemed ready to embrace fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) as the technology that will return it to happier times. Numerous companies have developed optical components that carry signals from a central office (CO) to homes and small businesses. Transmitters, receivers, attenuators, and splitters that go into passive optical networks (PONs) were everywhere. Test equipment for FTTP has also appeared.
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| Fiber-to-the-premises technology has spawned portable test equipment such as this passive-optical network power meter. Courtesy of EXFO. |
Verizon Communications has spearheaded the FTTP push by deploying fiber to many homes and businesses. Because FTTP eliminates as much as three miles of twisted-pair wires, it has the potential to deliver voice, video, and data at rates that may reach 2.5 Gbps. Verizon has taken the lead in deploying PONs to combat cable operators who are adding phone service to their existing hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) networks.
An FTTP network consists of one optical line terminal (OLT)—residing on a CO—that connects numerous subscribers to the provider's network. Signals from the OLT pass through splitters before they arrive at an optical network terminal (ONT) located at each subscriber's premises.
"An ONT converts light to electrical signals," said Benoit Masson, senor product manager at EXFO, "It provides RJ-11 connections for phones, RJ-45 connections for data, and coax for video." Voice and data travel upstream using a 1310-nm link at speeds from 155 Mbps to 622 Mbps and downstream on 1490 nm at 622 Mbps. Analog and digital video consumes the remaining bandwidth on a 1550-nm link (Ref. 1).
To install PONs, Verizon now trains technicians who have worked exclusively with copper on how to install and connect fiber to ONTs (Ref. 2). With fiber installations, technicians need to use optical time-domain reflectometers (ODTRs) instead of electrical TDRs to characterize their installations. As a result, companies such as Acterna, Agilent Technologies, Anritsu, and EXFO have introduced OTDRs and other equipment for FTTP deployment. "Technicians need to measure optical power loss across an entire network," said Peter Schwieger, optical network test manager at Agilent, "That includes making measurements through numerous optical splitters."
If individuals and businesses subscribe to FTTP in droves, it may bring better times to the telecom-equipment business along with more demand for test equipment. If cable wins, there will be little demand for new products because HFC networks are already in place. T&MW
References
1. O'Byrne, Vincent, "FTTP (Fiber-to-the-Premises), Next Generation Broadband Access Network." New England Fiberoptic Council, Chestnut Hill, MA, July 2004.
2. Howe, Peter J., "Verizon retraining workers to help usher in the future," Boston Globe, March 26, 2005. p. E1. www.bostonglobe.com.
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