The rapid growth of fast, low-latency, and high-capacity information communication around the world has also increased the demand for inexpensive high-speed access by millions of Internet users and customers.
Internet service providers are finding that fiber-to-the-home is a future-proof solution to this problem.
FTTH is one of the most important technologies for today's and future networks, because it not only increases access to bandwidth, but also reduces equipment and maintenance costs, while greatly improving service quality.
Forecasts indicate that Internet usage by individual users will reach speeds of 100Mbps and eventually 1Gbps. Optical fiber is the only transmission medium that can support such long-distance transmission speeds.
So, what is fiber to the home?
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is the installation and use of fiber optics directly from a central point to individual buildings such as homes, apartment buildings, and businesses to provide high-speed Internet access. FTTH significantly increases the connection speeds available to computer users compared to the technology in use in most places today.
FTTH can achieve connection speeds of 100 megabits per second ( Mbps ), which is 20 to 100 times faster than a typical cable modem or DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) connection. Implementing FTTH on a large scale is costly because it requires installing new cable sets along the "last mile" from existing fiber optic cables to individual customers. Some communities currently have fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) service, which refers to the installation and use of fiber-optic cables at the curb near a home or business, and the "copper" medium that carries the signal between the curb and the end user.
How does FTTH work?
The defining feature of FTTH is that it connects fiber optics directly to homes, which is used in most or all last-mile telecommunications. Fiber uses light signals to transmit data to achieve higher performance.
The basic structure of an FTTH access network is this: Fiber optic cables start at a central office, pass through a fiber distribution hub (FDH), then pass through a network access point (NAP), and finally enter a home box through a terminal used as a connection point.
The photo below shows a soil ditch with an orange pipe laid. Once the duct infrastructure is buried in place, fiber optics (similar to rope) are threaded through the orange duct from the network access point.
FTTH Architecture and Components
There are two types of systems that allow fiber optic cables to transmit data using light:
Active Optical Network (AON)
Passive Optical Network ( PON )
AON uses electric switching equipment to actively direct the signal to a specific user, and PON uses optical splitters instead of electric switches to direct the signal, which means that PON users only need electric equipment at the receiving end of the network.
Both types are used in FTTH implementations and each has advantages, but most FTTH implementations use PONs because of their lower installation cost and higher performance.
The PON network topology is as follows:
The Optical Line Terminal (OLT) at the provider central office.
An Optical Network Unit (ONU) near the end user's premises.
An optical distribution network (ODN) between the OLT and the ONU to split and distribute the signals transmitted along the PON.
FTTH network equipment
FTTH deployments require extensive planning and elements to scale from the access node to the subscriber's premises.
There are two basic elements in a fiber optic network:
Optical Line Termination (OTL) at the ISP side
An Optical Network Unit (ONU) located at the customer's premises.
The connection between these two elements is made through optical and non-optical devices and components.
Non-optical devices include
hardware
cupboard
patch panel
Fiber sealing
pedal
When it comes to optical components, we talk about splices, couplers and adapters, connectors, fiber optic cables, connectors, splitters, jumpers, drop cables and drop terminations.
optic fibre cable
Installing fiber optic cables is one of the most expensive processes when deploying a PON network, and cable installations can be underground (buried), in ducts, and on poles and towers (aerial).
Splitter
According to the Fiber Optic Association, these passive components take the input and divide it to send the signal to multiple users, greatly reducing costs.
Connector
Simplex connectors are used the most in FTTH deployments.
The most commonly used are:
SC/APC.
ST/APC
LC/APC
Multi-fiber connectors are also growing in popularity as they can accommodate anywhere from 4 to 72 fibers simultaneously and are the most popular MTO.
The most common connector type used in PON networks is the APC (Angle Physical Contact) connector because of its 8 degree polished ferrule which minimizes losses:
Return Loss: -60dB.
Typical loss: 0.5 dB.
Thus avoiding transmission problems. APC connectors can of course be identified by their green color
Benefits of using FTTH
The main benefit of FTTH is improved network performance, especially higher speeds over long distances, which cannot be achieved with older methods using coaxial cables, twisted-pair conductors, and DSL.
Due to its significantly higher bandwidth, FTTH is considered by experts to be the best technology for handling consumer network demands in the coming decades. Some of the benefits that come with it include:
Improved performance for streaming HD video.
Several upgrades can be made without replacing the fiber, so some refer to FTTH as "future proof," updating the infrastructure around the fiber without updating the fiber itself.
Higher speeds over longer distances than previous technologies.
Better than other fiber optic configurations because the fiber connects directly to the residence, and Ethernet or coax can be used to complete the remaining network segments.
FTTH with FTTN, FTTC, etc.
FTTH is a more specific version of the term fiber-to-the-x (FTTx), where x denotes the point in the network where fiber optic cables are connected to nearby buildings to provide service. In each term, the point where the fiber stops and the transmission of the signal to the metal cable begins is different. All versions of FTTx are the driving force behind Next Generation Access (NGA), which means an upgrade to the speed and quality of broadband networks.
Fiber-to-the-home is so named because the cable runs directly into the user's home. FTTB (fiber-to-the-building) can be used interchangeably with FTTH because the network structure is the same, and the three words home and building are used to describe residential buildings connected directly to the fiber optic network.
A small difference between FTTH and FTTB is that FTTH connects fiber optics directly to the residence, of which there may be several in one building, in FTTB the fiber optics go to the building and then metal cables go to the individual units inside - home or office.
Fiber to the Curb (FTTC), so named because the fiber optic cable is not connected directly to a building, home or establishment, but to a curb near the home or business, where the twisted pair connection carries the signal from the curb to the building to the end user.
Fiber-to-the-Node (FTTN) refers to a setup where optical fibers are connected to a network cabinet or node and pass the signal to copper wires at that point.
Several other FTTx versions exist, including:
Fiber-to-the-terminal (FTTT): Fiber-optic cables connect directly to desk-top equipment in the office.
Fiber-to-the-office (FTTO): Similar to FTTT, fiber optic cables connect to tiny switches on office users' desks, and there are often multiple switches throughout the office, managed from a central location.
Fiber to the Street (FTTS): FTTS is between FTTB and FTTC, transitioning to copper wires that are closer than FTTC but farther than FTTB directly connected to buildings.
Fiber to the Distribution Point (FTTdp): FTTdp is a hybrid of FTTC and FTTN, where the end of the fiber is connected to the last possible distribution point before the end user's premises.
There are many other acronyms in the FTTx category, but the only major difference between them is where the fiber optic cable ends and the metal wire begins.
A term that is slightly different from FTTH is fixed wireless, where instead of switching from fiber optics to metal cables at the end of the fiber, the wireless signal is carried into the home. This eliminates the need to run cabling on the last segment of the network, which is the most expensive to install.
Evolution of FTTH
FTTH has continued to evolve since the 1980s to accommodate the ever-increasing network demands of the modern world, and many of the cables implemented in the 1980s are still in use today, a testament to their flexibility over time. Since the 1980s, fiber optic technology has become easier to install and cheaper than before, and today, the use of FTTH and fiber optics continues to increase.
