FTTH

1. Bandwidth in the Building...A New Approach
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) has been around for many years now, and
is in many aspects a very mature market and technology. The prices
have of course come down over the years, and this technology is now
attracting interest in a totally different market space.
Cabling of buildings has historically been accomplished using copper.
But, what if new builds were to boast fiber instead of copper, being
based on the mature, low-cost FTTH technology, i.e. , PON? In many
cases, fiber is now less expensive and easier to install than similar
copper infrastructures.
More and more, this is exactly what we are starting to see, and the
practice is referred to as passive optical local area network (PO-LAN),
or POL for short. This is of course fueled by the ever-increasing
demand for highly cost-effective and high-quality voice, video and
data in the enterprise space.
POL replaces aggregation electronics and copper cables with passive
optical splitters and singlemode fibers. This creates an architecture
with lower purchase, installation and maintenance costs, in addition
to a far longer life span than traditional copper architectures. One of
the incentives for POL is that it is a cost-effective fiber-to-the-desktop
enterprise solution that is changing the network and the way that we
think about designing, installing and maintaining the network. POL is
referred to as passive, because there is no need for active electronics
between the main equipment room and the work areas, but rather
just passive optical splitters that distribute converged services
directly from main switch to the terminals (without using electricity).
This architecture promises to bring high performance (gigabit)
broadband to the desktop at a fraction of the cost of typical
copper-based Ethernet LAN configurations.
A second incentive is the technology’s proven track record - with its
roots in FTTH, POL offers true carrier - class robustness and reliability.
However, that doesn’t mean you should deploy FTTH technology
designs into your LAN. FTTH infrastructure was designed to maximize
splitter use for low-density, static environments like neighborhoods
and apartment buildings. Enterprise environments like office buildings
and campuses require cabling system infrastructures designed for
higher density and ongoing moves, adds and changes (MACs).

2. A study titled “Transformation of the Enterprise Network using POL”
carried out by Networks Strategy Partners mentions that if a
single-building office were to replace its network with a POL, that
office would end up cutting its CAPEX by 39% and its OPEX by 52%,
for a total cost-of-ownership (TCO) saving amounting to 45%. If a
multibuilding campus were to employ a POL, the savings would
amount to 41% in terms of CAPEX and 71% in terms of OPEX, which
represents a TCO of 54%.
The image below, which is pulled from the Association for Passive
Optical LAN, highlights these differences:
From a testing standpoint, this remains a very-short reach PON
architecture. As such, with technology offering such as the intelligent
Optical Link Mapper(iOLM), EXFO is uniquely well-positioned as a
testing partner. To learn more about these solutions, visit our Passive
Optical LAN page.
More information in: www.fibercasa.com or
www.fiber-optic-fusion-splicer.com