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What is FTTH? Discover the characteristics of this technology

Mapall 21 September

Home fiber (FTTH) is the delivery of a communication signal via optical fiber from the operator’s switching equipment to the home or business.

More than 10 million homes worldwide already have fiber broadband home connections (FTTH) because the technology has many advantages over current technologies

One of the main benefits of FTTH (Fiber to the Home) – also called FTTP, for “fiber to site” broadband – is that it provides much faster connection speeds and load capacity than twisted pair conductors , DSL or coaxial cable.

For example, a single copper pair conductor can receive six phone calls. A single pair of fibers can handle more than 2.5 million phone calls simultaneously.

Today, we are going to explore this technology in more detail. Check out!

What is FTTH?

Home fiber (FTTH) is the delivery of a communication signal through optical fiber from the operator’s switching equipment to the home or business, thus replacing the existing copper infrastructure, such as telephone wires and coaxial cable.

Fiber for home use is a relatively new and fast-growing method, providing consumers and businesses with much greater bandwidth, thus enabling more robust video, Internet and voice services.

Fiber to the Home or simply FTTH is a technology that uses fiber optics directly from the central point for residential installations (as shown in the image below). It provides high-speed, uninterrupted Internet service. Here, “H” includes both domestic and small businesses.

FTTH is the ultimate fiber access solution, in which each subscriber is connected to an optical fiber. The deployment options discussed in this tutorial are based on a complete fiber optic path, from OLT (Optical Line Termination) to the subscriber’s premises.

This option facilitates high-bandwidth services and content for each customer and ensures maximum bandwidth for future demands for new services.

Therefore, hybrid options involving ‘part’ and ‘part’ fiber infrastructure networks are not included.

With access to domestic fiber, the use of FTTH is mainly for the single-family unit (SFU), providing a comparatively small number of ports, including the following types – POTS, 10/100/1000 BASE-T and RF (18dBmV).

The optical fiber method can be implemented in two ways: active method and passive method. The current deployment of mass FTTH is based on the passive method. Therefore, we will discuss the passive method in detail.

Passive method

The two typical technologies used in this method are the Passive Optical Ethernet Network (EPON) and the Passive Optical Networks with Gigabit capability (GPON).

Connecting homes directly to the fiber optic cable allows for huge bandwidth improvements that can be provided to consumers.

Current fiber optic technology can provide bidirectional transmission speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.

In addition, as cable modem and DSL providers are struggling to extract greater bandwidth increments from their technologies, continuous improvements in fiber optic equipment constantly increase the available bandwidth without having to change the fiber.

That is why fiber networks are considered “future proof”.

What are the advantages of an FTTH network?

An FTTH connection can have a number of advantages. Among them are:

1. Internet speed: One of the biggest advantages of FTTH is the improved Internet speed.

The Internet is continually becoming the backbone of most communications worldwide.

Whether people want to stream videos, download files or even have video chats – Internet speed is the deciding factor.

By improving the speed of the Internet that people have received, FTTH is enabling people to stay in touch.

In addition, an increasing number of people are working from home; faster Internet speeds help them stay connected at all times.

2. Technology: When we consider traditional copper, they use analog lines that generate signal through the connected telephone device.

As the description suggests, this technology is less defined, especially when you compare it to fiber optics.

3. Upcoming applications: There are several new applications coming to FTTH. Therefore, when maintaining FTTHs, households remain connected to the latest technologies.

4. Suppliers: it is easy to find Fiber to the Home suppliers, and this is another benefit of having this totally new technology.

How does an FTTH network work?

The fiber optic cable is used for a long time in the backbone network, which is the network that interconnects telephone switches and data centers. It is selected because of the advantages it has over other means of transmission.

It carries information such as optical pulses (not electrical signals, such as twisted pair or coaxial cable); therefore, it is immune to interference (EMI and RFI), crosstalk and noise.

It can also provide information over a distance greater than copper or coaxial cable. It has abundant bandwidth to carry information, limited only by the equipment that illuminates the fiber.

FTTH or FTTP (fiber to installations) takes fiber optic cable deeper to the customer’s premises, compared to FTTN (fiber to the node) or FTTC (fiber to the curb), which is commonly used to provide ADSL / VDSL or cable TV.

Due to the drop in the price of fiber optic cables and equipment (among other reasons), in recent years, more telecommunications companies and independent service providers have started deploying FTTH networks, targeting people who are not satisfied with the DSL Internet experience. / cable.

With competitive prices and SLA (Service Level Agreement), most heavy Internet users would like to switch to FTTH.

An FTTH operator or Internet provider provides various types of services from the Central Office (CO) or Point of Presence (PoP) over a fiber optic wire to a subscriber’s home.

The types of services that can be offered via the FTTH network include VoIP, lifeline POTS, RF video, MPEG video, IPTV, HDTV, video on demand, pay-per-view, high-speed Internet and several other services.

In general, FTTH is the means of choice for the provision of triple reproduction services (voice, video and data).

The CO or PoP is fed with content from the Video Headend and the Internet. It has interfaces that connect you to content sources, such as ATM / Ethernet switch, router and voice gateway GR-303 (PSTN).

From the CO, the content mix in the form of electrical signals is converted into optical pulses before being transmitted by the Optical Distribution Network (ODN) to the subscribers’ homes.

In each subscriber’s home, a CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) converts the optical pulses into electrical signals.

What is the difference between an FTTH and FTTx network?

FTTP and FTTx refer to different types of fiber optic cables.

Fiber optic cables encapsulate small glass wires, which help to create a more agile and fast Internet connection. Compared to traditional copper cables, there is more space for signal traffic.

When it comes to choosing your connectivity method, it can be confusing with all the different options available. So, how do you know which one to choose?

FTTH means fiber for the home, which is basically the same as FTTP (fiber for the place).

Both refer to a fiber optic cable that runs directly from an Internet service provider (ISP) to a residential or commercial location.

Since this connection goes directly to individual homes, FTTH and FTTP offer greater bandwidth, although it can be expensive to install in some areas.

Some operators will install fiber optics as a sales resource in new developments.

FTTx refers to all types of fiber infrastructure, including fiber for home (FTTH), fiber for installations (FTTP), fiber for curb (FTTC) and fiber for node installations (FTTN).

The “x” in the FFTx represents a specific name or object, such as ‘home’ or ‘closet’.

It is used within the local loop, that is, the last section of the provider’s network that extends between the end user’s premises and the edge of the operator’s network. It offers broadband connections to homes, businesses and organizations worldwide.

Many of the legacy copper-based networks are being replaced by FTTx systems due to the speed and capacity benefits that come with fiber optic cabling.

What is the difference between FTTH and FTTC technology?

Fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) involves installing fiber optic cables from the distribution point or switchboard to street cabinets that then connect to a standard telephone line to provide broadband.

This is combined with a copper cable from the cabinet to the home or business, which uses VDSL or similar technology that can provide much faster speeds over shorter distances.

FTTH and GPON: What’s the difference?

PONs are also called fiber home networks (FTTH).

A PON is a fiber network that uses only passive and fiber components, such as splitters and combiners, instead of active components, such as amplifiers, repeaters or modeling circuits.

These networks cost significantly less than those that use active components.

The main disadvantage is less coverage, limited by signal strength. While an active optical network (AON) can cover a range of about 100 km (62 miles), a PON is typically limited to stretches of fiber cable up to 20 km (12 miles).

A GPON uses multiplexing by optical wavelength division (WDM) so that a single fiber can be used for both downstream and upstream data.

Conclusion

Home fiber (FTTH), also called “facility fiber” (FTTP), is the installation and use of optical fiber from a central point directly to individual buildings, such as homes, apartment buildings and businesses, to provide high unprecedented speed.

Internet access. FTTH dramatically increases the connection speeds available to computer users, compared to the technologies currently used in most places.

Although FTTH promises connection speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps) – 20 to 100 times faster than a typical cable modem or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection.

However, to achieve this speed, deploying FTTH on a large scale will be expensive, because it requires the installation of new sets of cables on the “last links” of existing fiber optic cables for individual users.

Currently, some communities enjoy the “fiber on the curb” (FTTC) service, which refers to the installation and use of fiber optic cables on the curbs near homes or businesses, with a “copper” medium transmitting signals between the curb and the end users.

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