Fiber-to-the-Home

Overview & Technical Tutorial

Jim Farmer, Vice President

Leonard Ray, Government Relations Committee Chairman
Fiber-to-the-Home Council
Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH)
Overview and technical tutorial
• The FTTH Council
• FTTH market overview
• FTTH technical tutorial
• Standards update
• Questions

2 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

The FTTH Council
Visit us on the web at www.ftthcouncil.org
• Mission:
– Educate, promote & accelerate FTTH and the resulting quality-of-
life enhancements
• Objectives:
– Supply a consistent and accurate view of FTTH
– Promote FTTH market development
– Be recognized by the industry as the FTTH resource
• 78 member companies, organizations and individuals
• We represent the interests of those interested in FTTH
– Our members are from every telecommunications group
– We do not represent any one group

3 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

The FTTH Council
Represented in every layer of the FTTH value chain
OEM Feasibility
consultants

ROW
owner
Network Network
Network construction owner
design Wholesale Retail
provider provider

Project Our members include service

management
providers (RBOCS, CLECs,
Municipalities, and Rural LECs),
network design and construction
Funding Content Content Financial companies, financial consultants,
source provider aggregator consultants and equipment manufacturers.

4 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH)
Overview and technical tutorial
• The FTTH Council
• FTTH market overview
• FTTH technical tutorial
• Standards update
• Questions

5 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH overview
List of ‘US Optical Fiber Communities’*
Kansas Oklahoma Virginia
Almena Hinton Ashburn
Hill City Oregon Brambleton
Braemar-Bristow
Norton Woodburn
Bristol
Osborne Pennsylvania Leesburg
Quinter Kutztown Purcellville
Sharon South Carolina Washington
Wakeeney Daniel Island Chelan County
Wamego Sandy Point Douglas County
Massachusetts Texas Grant County
Issaquah Highlands
Pine Hils Burleson
Mason County
Tauton Laredo
Michigan Canyon Gate Brazos
Cobblestone Lakes on Eldridge
Alabama Roseville Georgia
Minnesota Northpointe
Sylacauga Sacramento Dunwoody
Alberta Rock Creek
California Talavera Iowa
Chokio Grand Lake Estates * many more
Amerige Heights Colorado Cambridge
Canyon Hills Buckhorn Valley Guthrie Center East Ottertail Victory Lakes in construction
Evermoor Crystal Falls and pre-
Kenwood Colorado City Huxley
Morris Utah construction
Parc Metropolitan Eagle Ranch Slater
Nebraska Kamas
Palo Alto Rye Idaho
Blair Provo
Poppy Measdoss Florida Bear Creek
LPGA Community
6 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
FTTH overview
FTTH homes passed in US and Canada

350,000
2002 FTTH 315,000
300,000
networks
Greenfield Overbuild 250,000
29% 71%
200,000

150,000

100,000
72,100
50,000
19,400
0

2001 2002 2003e

110,000 as of March, 2003

Source: Render, Vanderslice

7 & Associates FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
FTTH overview
FTTH homes connected in US and Canada

FTTH Homes Connected

(United States and Canada)
40,000
38,000
35,000
30,000
25,000
22,500
20,000
15,000
10,000 10,350

5,000 5,500

0
Sep 01 Mar 02 Sep 02 Mar 03

8 Source: Render, Vanderslice & Associates

FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH)
Overview and technical tutorial
• The FTTH Council
• FTTH market overview
• FTTH technical tutorial
• Standards update
• Questions

9 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial Copper

What is FTTH? // Fiber

CO/HE

CO/HE
//

Old networks, optimized for voice 24 kbps - 1.5 Mbps

CO/HE
//

Optical networks, optimized for voice, 19 Mbps - 1 Gbps +

video and data
Note: network may be aerial
10 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
or underground
FTTH technical tutorial
What is FTTH?
• “An OAN in which the ONU is on or within the customer’s
premise. Although the first installed capacity of a FTTH network
varies, the upgrade capacity of a FTTH network exceeds all other
transmission media.”
– OAN: Optical Access Network
– ONU: Optical Network Unit
– OLT: Optical Line Termination

OAN
CO/HE
//

OLT ONU

11
Source: www.ftthcouncil.org FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
What is FTTH?

Philosophy Architecture
- Retail (Electronics)
Transport - Wholesale - PON?
- ATM? - Active node?
- Ethernet? - Hybrid?
Optical fiber and lasers
CO/HE
//

Technical considerations
12 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Why FTTH?
• Enormous information carrying capacity
• Easily upgradeable
• Ease of installation
• Allows fully symmetric services
• Reduced operations and maintenance costs
• Benefits of optical fiber:
– Very long distances
– Strong, flexible, and reliable
– Allows small diameter and light weight cables
– Secure
– Immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI)

13 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

FTTH technical tutorial
Why FTTH? - more capacity*

200

150
Gbps

100

50

0
Twisted Pair Co-ax Multimode Single-mode

* Typical system capability for 100 m link

14
Source: Corning Incorporated FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
FTTH technical tutorial
Why FTTH? - longer distances*

100
90
80
70
kilometers

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Twisted Pair Co-axial Multimode Single-mode

* Typical distance for 1 Gbps system capability

15
Source: Corning Incorporated FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
FTTH technical tutorial
Why FTTH? - symmetric services
• Outbound Internet
bursting to 80Mbps
• Inbound Internet
(download) averaging
about 35-40Mbps
• Upstream is
consistently twice the
download

Source:
16 Grant County Public Utility FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
District
FTTH technical tutorial
Why FTTH? - fiber versus copper
• A single copper pair is capable
of carrying 6 phone calls
• A single fiber pair is capable of
carrying over 2.5 million
simultaneous phone calls
(64 channels at 2.5 Gb/s)
• A fiber optic cable with the same
information-carrying capacity
(bandwidth) as a comparable
copper cable is less than 1% of
both the size and weight

17
Source: Corning Incorporated FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Why FTTH? - fiber versus copper

//

Glass Copper
• Uses light • Uses electricity
• Transparent • Opaque
• Dielectric material-nonconductive • Electrically conductive material
– EMI immune – Susceptible to EMI
• Low thermal expansion • High thermal expansion
• Brittle, rigid material • Ductile material
• Chemically stable • Subject to corrosion and galvanic
reactions
• Fortunately, its recyclable

18 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

FTTH technical tutorial
How do optical fibers work?
Len Ray
• Core
– Carries the light signals
245 μm 125 μm 8 - 62.5 μm
– Silica and a dopant
• Cladding
– Keeps the light in the core
– Pure Silica
• Coating
– Protects the glass CORE

– Acrylate (plastic) CLADDING

COATING

19
Source: Corning Incorporated FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
FTTH technical tutorial
How do optical fibers work?
• Optical fibers work on the principle of total internal reflection

CORE

CLADDING

• Light waves (“modes”) are reflected and guided down the

length of an optical fiber

20
Source: Corning Incorporated FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Types of lasers used
• There are two laser technologies that are used for nearly all
single mode communications applications
– Fabry-Perot (F-P) lasers
• Lower in cost, lower in power
• Poorer wavelength stability
– Distributed Feedback (DFB) lasers
• Higher cost, higher power
• Excellent wavelength stability
• Excellent temperature stability
– Internally modulated
• Good for moderate powers and distances
– Externally modulated
• Ultimate today for quality in broadcast applications
• Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs)
– Coming technology, promises lowest costs
21 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Types of lasers used
• Wavelengths used for Single Mode Fiber (long distances)
communications
– 1310 nm
• Usually lowest cost lasers
• Used for shorter broadcast runs and short to moderate data runs
– 1550 nm
• Can be amplified with relatively low-cost erbium doped fiber amplifiers
(EDFAs)
• Lasers are fabricated on a number of different wavelengths (about 1535 –
1600 nm) for wave division multiplexing (WDM) applications
• Slightly lower fiber loss at 1550 nm
– 1490 nm
• Increasingly popular for downstream data in 3 systems.
– Cannot be amplified as easily
– Somewhat higher device cost

22 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Single and Dual Fiber Systems
• Single Fiber
– Downstream broadcast* on 1550 nm
– Upstream data on 1310 nm
– Downstream data on either 1310 or 1490 nm* depending on
system
– Advantages
• Less fiber deployed
• Fewer optical passives (taps or splitters)
• Fewer labor-intensive connections

* Downstream data can be carried at 1550 nm if not used for broadcast

23 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Single and Dual Fiber Systems
• Dual Fiber
– Various plans, usually one fiber will be used for downstream and
one for upstream, or one will be used for broadcast and one for
data. Sometimes one will be used for specialized services, such
as returning RF-modulated data from set top terminals
• Advantages
– Simplifies terminal passive components
– Somewhat lower signal loss

24 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
What is FTTH?

Philosophy Architecture
- Retail (Electronics)
Transport - Wholesale - PON?
- ATM? - Active node?
- Ethernet? - Hybrid?
Optical fiber and lasers
CO/HE
//

Technical considerations
25 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Transport - ATM

53 byte cell

5B Data Next cell

Destination
header

26 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Transport - ATM

Ted Alice
Kathy Jim
Jeannie Travis
Susan Kyle
Joy Craig
• ATM has its roots in the telephone business
• Connection-oriented protocol with excellent QOS
• When a connection is made, it exists for the entire
communication session, ensuring a reliable channel

27 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Transport - Ethernet

Type/length
Destination
address

Idle until the

8 6 6 2 up to ~1500 bytes 4
next cell arrives
Preamble

Data and pad

address
Source

Frame
check
& SFD

Packet of data

28 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Transport - Ethernet
Opportunistic
data moves Opportunistic
during idle times data
Ted When data is available, it gets the
Alice
Kathy first available chance to be sent. Jim
Jeannie Travis
Susan Kyle
Nothing to send
Joy Craig
• Ethernet has its roots in office data systems
• Connectionless-oriented, with excellent efficiency
• Packets are transmitted individually, requiring resources only
when they are being transmitted
29 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
What is FTTH?

Philosophy Architecture
- Retail (Electronics)
Transport - Wholesale - PON?
- ATM? - Active node?
- Ethernet? - Hybrid?
Optical fiber and lasers
CO/HE
//

Technical considerations
30 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Architectures
• Passive Optical Networks (PONs)
– Shares fiber optic strands for a portion of the networks distribution
– Uses optical splitters to separate and aggregate the signal
– Power required only at the ends

• Active Node
– Subscribers have a dedicated fiber optic strand
– Many use active (powered) nodes to manage signal distribution

• Hybrid PONs
– Literal combination of an Active and a PON architecture

31 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Architectures – PON (A-. E- or G-)

Usually 10-20 km
//
OLT

//

//
// // ONU
//

//

Optical splitter
//
1x16 (1x2, 1x8)
1x32 (1x4, 1x8)

32 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Architectures – PON (2) (A-. E- or G-)

1550 nm broadcast
(if used)
//
OLT
1490* nm data
//

//
// // ONU
//

1310 nm data //

//

* Data may be transmitted at 1550 nm if not used for video

33 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Architectures – Active Node

Up to 70 km Up to 10 km
//
OLT

//

//
// ONU
//

//
Processing
(powered)
//

34 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Architectures – Active Node (2)

//
OLT 1550 nm broadcast
(if used)
//

//
// ONU
//

//

Data, 1310 or 1550 nm //

(depending on
distance) on separate
fibers

35 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Architectures – Hybrid PON

Up to 70 km Up to 10 km

OLT // //

Optical splitter //

//
// ONU
//

Processing //
(powered)
// //

Optical splitter

36 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Architectures – Hybrid PON (2)
Single fiber, 1550 broadcast, 1310 bidirectional data

OLT // //

1550 nm broadcast //

//
// ONU
//

//

Data, 1310 or 1550 nm // //

(depending on distance)
on separate fibers

37 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
What is FTTH?

Philosophy Architecture
- Retail (Electronics)
Transport - Wholesale - PON?
- ATM? - Active node?
- Ethernet? - Hybrid?
Optical fiber and lasers
CO/HE

Technical considerations
38 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Philosophy
• Two types of FTTH networks exist today
– Retail
• Vast majority of FTTH builds today
• Network owner sells services directly to subscribers
• Follows traditional telecommunications and cable television
models
– Wholesale
• Market created by a few state laws
• Network owner sells capacity to multiple providers who in turn
sells services to subscribers
• Only examples in US today are some municipal FTTH networks

39 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
What is FTTH?

Philosophy Architecture
- Retail (Electronics)
Transport - Wholesale - PON?
- ATM? - Active node?
- Ethernet? - Hybrid?
Optical fiber and lasers
CO/HE
//

Technical considerations
40 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Technical considerations
• Data
– How much per home?
– How well can you share the channel?
– Security – how do you protect the subscriber’s data?
– What kind of QoS parameters do you specify?
– Compatible business services?
• SLAs
• T1
• Support for voice?
• Support for video?
– Broadcast
– IPTV

41 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Technical considerations
• Data
– How much per home?
– How well can you share the channel?
– Security – how do you protect the subscriber’s data?
– What kind of QoS parameters do you specify?

42 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Technical considerations - Speed
• Data requirements
– Competition: ADSL, cable modem ~0.5 to ~1.5 Mb/s shared,
asymmetrical
– FTTH ~10 to 30 Mb/s non-shared or several 100 Mb/s shared,
symmetrical
– SDTV video takes 2-4 Mb/s today at IP level
– HDTV takes maybe 5 times STDV requirement
– Pictures can run 1 MB compressed
– 5.1 channel streaming audio would run ~380 kb/s

43 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Technical considerations - Speed
Required Data Rate

FTTH 

HDTV

DSL or cable
modem Streaming Picture in
SDTV

audio 15 seconds 
VoIP
Service

44 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Technical considerations – Speed (IPTV Reference)
Estimated minimum time to acquire Braveheart
August 17, 2001:
MGM, Paramount Pictures, Sony
Pictures, Warner Brothers, and
Technology Minutes Hours Days
Universal Studios unveiled plans
for a joint venture that would Modem 56
allow computer users to kb/s
2
download rental copies of feature
films over the Internet. ISDN 128
20
kb/s
December 9, 2002:
12
“Hollywood's Latest Flop”
Fortune Magazine DSL 1 Mb/s 2.5
“The files are huge. At 952
Megabytes, Braveheart took just Cable 2.5
less than five hours to download 1
Mb/s
using our DSL Line at home… in
the same time we could have 45
made 20 round trips to our
FTTH 0.4
neighborhood Blockbuster ”

45 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Technical considerations
• Security
– Data is shared in the downstream direction in most systems
– Your Gateway filters out all packets not intended for you
– But there is fear that someone will snoop on your data
– FSAN has a low-complexity, low-security encryption scheme
– 802.3ah has formed a committee to study security
– Manufacturers have taken their own tacks on security, from
none to robust

46 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Data Flow and Security - Downstream
Time division
multiplex (TDM) –
each subscriber’s //
data gets its turn.

T D H //

// Tom D Dick
// // T
//

//

Box on side of home separates out Harry

only the data bound for that H
subscriber. But the fear is that
someone will fool his box into giving
data intended for another subscriber.
Solution is to encrypt the data.
47 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Data Flow and Security - Upstream
Time division multiple
access (TDMA) – similar to
downstream, with gap for //
laser start/stop

T D H //

// Tom Dick
//
// //

//

Harry
Due to the physics of the H
network, Harry’s data flows
upstream but does not come
to Tom’s box, so Tom
cannot see Harry’s data
48 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Data Flow and QoS
If Dick has paid for
more bandwidth, he
gets more //

T D H //

// Tom D Dick
// // T
//

//

Harry
If Tom’s packets need higher H
priority (e.g., telephone), they
go first

49 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Telephony Considerations

Depending on whether the FTTH system is

based on ATM or Ethernet, the basis of the
phone technology is either conventional
switched circuit or the newer VoIP

50 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Conventional Switched-circuit Telephone

During conversation, line is

continually tied up in both
directions To other class 4
Bob ... ... and 5 switches Carol

Concentrator
(DLC) Switch
Alice

Ted
Donald
Switched Circuit Telephony

51 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Example VoIP System
During conversation, line is shared
with other data packets on each
side of the router
Telephone Other data
To PSTN packets packets
Bob Carol
Customer Media Customer
Gateway Data Gateway Gateway Data
Router
Softswitch
(switch)
Alice
Ted Customer
Donald Data
Customer Gateway
Gateway Data Customer
Gateway Data
One Form of Voice on Internet Protocol (VoIP)

52 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Video

Video is a popular service, which is a good basis

for any new entrant FTTH provider. There is one
way to provide video on cable and satellite
(broadcast) and one way to provide video on DSL
(IPTV). There are two ways to provide video on
FTTH (broadcast and IPTV). The market place
can sort out the use of each, to the benefit of the
subscriber. We will describe the differences.

53 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Technical considerations - Video
• Can send video several different ways on FTTH
– Broadcast (cable TV standards)
• Analog
• Digital
• Cable TV good engineering practice is 47-48 dB C/N
– FTTH can achieve 48-51 dB C/N
• Benefit from high volume and plethora of applications of cable boxes
• RF return support for STTs
– IPTV – TV transmitted over Internet Protocol
• Feasible, and some people are doing it in place of broadcast
• Bandwidth hog, but statistics can work for you
– Interesting hybrid model awaits hybrid STTs, but can give the
best of both worlds

54 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video
Other channels
Baseband Modulated Analog
analog analog video optical
video white
black transmitter
Analog RF Broadcast
sync modulator optical
Ch 2 55.25 network
Encoder
Ch 3 61.25
Digital etc.
MPEG-2 compressed
transport video
stream ...101101001... Digital RF
modulator
OR

Place MPEG L2/L3 Digital

packets in
Switch optical
IP packets
transceiver
Digital
optical
Other ... network
data
sources

55 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – wave division muxing
Analog Analog
(Broadcast) optical RF
optical receiver Diplexer
transmitter Always H
1550 nm 1550 nm AGC Video to TVs
L and STTs
Wave Wave
Digital Optical network RF return from STTs
division division
optical multiplexer multiplexer A/D &
transceiver (WDM) (WDM) proc
1310 and Voice (typ
possibly POTS)
Several wavelength plans: Proc
1. 1310 nm bidirectional 1490 nm Data (typ
2. 1490 nm downstream, Digital 10/100Base-T),
1310 nm upstream optical includes IPTV
transceiver
Headend, Central Office, Home terminal, NID, Gateway,
OLT ONT

56 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – broadcast headend
Analog RF
modulator,
IRD
stereo,
Analog scrambler
Linear (broadcast,
...
channels Analog RF analog) optical
IRD modulator, transmitter
stereo,
scrambler To
Digital distribution
channels Transcoder, plant
Earth IRT digital RF
station modulator, Amplitude
upconverter
Analog
Transcoder,
channels Digital
digital RF channels
VOD server modulator,
upconverter Spectrum ...
diagram:
Frequency
Ch
RF return
2
signals
Ch
57 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
3
 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – broadcast subscriber
Analog (broadcast,
linear) optical
receiver, one per
endpoint
Set top terminal

Optics Tuner Demod Descrambing Subscriber's TV

in Select channel by
...

selecting frequency

(opt. RF Return)

(Not required for

analog-only
service)

58 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – IPTV headend
IRD Encoder
Digital (binary) optical
Analog transceiver (part of
... channels router)
IRD Encoder

switched network
Packet-
IRT Transcoder To groups of
subscribers
Digital
...

channels
IRT Transcoder
Downstream data

... H D H D
...
VOD server

Other data
sources

59 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – IPTV subscriber
Digital (binary) optical
transceiver, one per
endpoint

Optics
in
FTTH interface

Select data Other

In-home
packets for
routing
applications
subscriber

...
H D H

IP Set top terminal

Packet request and

Decoding Subscriber's TV
selection

Select "channel" by requesting to join a

multicast group, or requesting a stream
from a VOD server
60 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)
 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – IPTV unicast (VOD)
Router B

Router A
(headend) Router E In-home
routing

Router C
(network)
VOD server
In-home
Router D routing
(NID)

In-home
Program routing
stream
In-home
routing

Program
request Set top
Subscriber's TV
terminal

61 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – IPTV unicast (VOD)
Router B

Encoder Router A
(headend) Router E In-home Larry's STT
Program routing and TV
. . .

packets
Router C
Transcoder
(network)
In-home Moe's STT
Router D routing and TV
1 multicast (NID)
video program

In-home
routing
In-home
routing

STT Curley's TV

62 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – IPTV multicast
Router B

Encoder Router A
(headend) Router E In-home Larry's STT
Program routing and TV
. . .

packets

? Router C
Transcoder
(network)
In-home Moe's STT
Router D routing and TV
1 video (NID)
?
program
?
Program In-home
requests routing

? In-home
routing

STT Curley's TV

63 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
Ways of transmitting video – IPTV multicast
Router B

Encoder Router A
(headend) Router E In-home Larry's STT
Program routing and TV
. . .

packets

? Router C
Transcoder
(network)
In-home Moe's STT
Router D routing and TV
1 video (NID)
?
program
?
Program In-home
requests routing

? In-home
routing

STT Curley's TV

64 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
PON link budgets

A system is limited in the distance you can

send signals and the maximum number of
times you can split the signal to go to different
subscribers. The main problem is usually that
the signal level drops too low to be usable.
Other considerations sometimes dominate.

65 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 FTTH technical tutorial
PON link budgets

Fiber loss per km is 0.25 dB (1550 nm) to Every time the signal is
0.4 dB (1260 - 1360 nm) split two ways, half the
power goes one way and
half goes the other. So
f
al each direction gets half
H
the power, or the signal
//
// is reduced by

Ha 10log(0.5)=3 dB.
lf
Practical loss is 3.5 dB
nominal, so every two-
way split costs about 10
km distance @ 1310 nm

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PON link budgets
• Broadcast analog video often sets the budget
– Maximum practical level without SBS issues ~16 dBm (long
spans)
– Minimum receive level for 48 dB C/N ~-5 dBm
• Link budget is ~21 dB, a bit more if you are careful
– At 1550 nm, fiber exhibits loss of about 0.25 dB/km, so
maximum distance without amplification is ~80 km
• Requires good externally-modulated transmitters (available)
– Each two-way split results in a loss of nominally ~3.5 dB of
level, assume 4 dB worst case.
• Thus, each two-way split costs about 16 km distance

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Analog video link budgets
Split Nom. Avail. fiber Nom.
splitting loss (dB) Distance
loss (dB) (km)
4 7 11 44

8 10.5 7.5 30

16 14 4 16

32 17.5 2.5 10

64 21 -1 -4

Notes: based on nominal fiber and splitter loss, not worst

case. Practical distances are less. Includes 2 dB for
connectorization loss, 1550 nm externally modulated
transmitter
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Gigabit EPON link budgets (example, based on GBE best case)
Split Nom. Distance Distance
splitting (km), 40 km (km), 70 km
loss (dB) GBIC GBIC

4 7 14 44
8 10.5 4 34
16* 14 - 24
32 17.5 - 14
64 21 - 4

Notes: based on nominal fiber and splitter

loss, not worst case. Includes 2 dB for
connectorization loss, 1310 nm DFB laser
* EFM standard split ratio, 10 and 20 km
optics
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 Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH)
Overview and technical tutorial
• The FTTH Council
• FTTH market overview
• FTTH technical tutorial
• Standards update
• Questions

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Standards?
• Customers want to use standardized systems for maximum
choice in equipment, lowest cost, and widespread
availability
• There are two known groups working on standards
– FSAN – Full Service Access Network
• Reports submitted to ITU as the standards body
• Formed by 7 telecom companies in 1995
• Now many more members
• G.98x series of standards, most based on ATM but now adding others
– IEEE 802 EFM – Ethernet in the First Mile
• First standards due out 2004
• Fiber and copper Ethernet to the home and business

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ITU-T G.98x series
• Only published international standard for FTTH
• Describes a Passive Optical Network carrying ATM traffic
and TDMA subscriber access
• Several versions published since October 1998
– G.983.1 - Basic ATM-PON system
– G.983.2 - ONT management and control interface
– G.983.3 - WDM system for enhanced services (i.e. analog
video)
– G.984.1 and -.2 – GPON (hybrid ATM and Ethernet)
– G.985 – 100 Mb/s point-to-point, Ethernet

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IEEE 802.3ah - Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM)
• Organized informally via the IEEE 802.3 in Fall 2000
• Chartered as IEEE 802.3ah in Spring 2001
• Develop 1 Gb/s Ethernet access standards including FTTH
– Point-to-Point (home run)
– Point-to-Multipoint (PON)
– Twisted pair standards too
• Publication expected September 2004

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IEEE 802.3ah EFM status
• PON Physical Medium Dependent (PMD) based on ITU-T
983 series
• Home run PMD based on fast and gigabit Ethernet
standards

74 FTTH Council FTTH Tutorial (8/07/03)

 Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH)
Overview and technical tutorial
• The FTTH Council
• FTTH market overview
• FTTH technical tutorial
• Standards update
• Questions

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www.ftthcouncil.org