With the imminent need to connect everything, everywhere and every time, the technologies are in a race to evolve and rise to the times. While the different layers in the network contrive to the new requirements they also poke at the bottom most layer to handle the enormous traffic volume ensuring they meet the (i) Customer requirements for added speed & data volumes (ii) market trends specifically for broadband, quad play and convergence (iii) network quality which remains key for customer experience management.
Talking of Layer-1, historically wireless access has been the dominant player for its flexibility and easy reach however over time with mounting volumes of data and critical quality requirements it is toiling hard to cope to the uphill demand.The other obverse technology of wireline access has just been to the respite with its inherent and potent capabilities. Fiber in wireline access is well known for its speed and enormous data volume and interestingly it is ideally suited to enable converged enterprise, mass market platforms, gateway for virtualization and increase service agility.
Historically fiber has been single purposely serving theaccess networks but in recent times the most economical and effective fiber deployments are those that are planned to meet the enterprise, radio access and residential needs.
FTTx , the erstwhile buzzword has gained popularity for its versatility. Lets give a look at the different fiber deployment scenarios;
Specifically in FTTH which is gaining ground for high to very high broadband network connectivity there are a wide technology trends at play;
- PON – Passive optical network is the most effective solution for demographics which are dense. In this technology we have close to 97% in point-to-multipoint scenario whereas rest 3% in Point-to-point active Ethernet connections.
- Centralized Splitting – For high density plug and play this technology is easy to install and need low skilled staff for deployment.
- Distributed Splitting – This helps in fast deployment and pre-terminated hardened connectivity.
The deployment of FTTx in the access networks is also enabling and facilitating an evolution in the PON technology;
To conclude we will see fiber revolutionize the way network offers data speed and volumes. Some of the key points network providers need to take note of are;
- The high cost of fiber deployment will get compensated with economies of scale by combining business and residential services
- New deployment techniques going to reduce cost burden
- Fiber technology will inherently enhance customer experience
- Fiber being future proof from speed perspective can help operators stay ahead of race