Proceedings Article | 4 November 1996
KEYWORDS: Fiber to the x, Video, Video compression, Asynchronous transfer mode, Reliability, Time division multiplexing, Stars, Interfaces, Fiber lasers, Silicon
Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks have always been the ultimate solution to a future-proof, broadband access- network. In the past, the major obstacle to implementing FTTH has been cost, coupled with the lack of symmetrical, bandwidth intensive applications. In recent years, however, there have been several technological, commercial, and regulatory developments that brighten the outlook on FTTH. This paper outlines these changes, and presents architectures that may be deployed in the near future. First, the current motivations driving FTTH, including high bandwidth, high reliability, and low operations cost, are discussed. This is then be followed by a review of various FTTH systems. This emphasizes key developments and trends that are influencing present system configurations. After this background, some recent technology developments that impact FTTH are presented. These include high-temperature loop lasers, battery technology, video compression, and ATM transport. It is shown how oak of these advances makes FTTH more attainable. In general, a FTTH system can be characterized by its service capability, network topology, and signal format. By specifying different combinations of these characteristics, one can generate many different systems which can then be compared to identify optimal designs. From these considerations, for distinct FTTH networks, including TDM-PON, FDM-PON, dense-WDM-PON, and FTTC with fiber drops are described and analyzed in view of their future potential.
