The challenge of managing Fiber Optic Infrastructure in FTTH
Challenging Access fiber deployment ROI prompts variety of operator actions, addressing both cost and revenue. Operators strive to reduce initial deployment and ongoing operation costs. Network sharing models are implemented to boost revenue. Access fiber may be shared by service providers, by fixed access and backhaul, by business and residential, or by some combination of these. TeliSwitch AODF modularity is prime network sharing enabler.
New markets, with converged fiber access
AODF could be managed by a single organization providing dark fiber to various service providers. AODF could be also managed by few organizations, such as fixed and mobile operations which have not converged. To this end TeliSwitch EMS supports network segmentation, where every organization controls exclusively resources allocated to it.
Residential service take rate by service providers is uncertain and varies over time. Therefore, resources allocated to any provider need not be fixed. Instead, TeliSwitch recommends a two-stage solution, where a CO-deployed AODF serves the first stage, equipped with point-to-point or low split ratio plates. This stage will effectively re-allocate remote AODF resources between service providers, as respective take rates vary. Two-stage solution allows service differentiation by oversubscription and rapid response to bandwidth consumption changes.
Financial Estimation
More information about AODF for FTTH
Accurate record-keeping
– Automation of the fiber verification testing and integration after fiber construction
– Remote control AODF with embedded splitters, allowing immediate assignments of ports to 2nd stage splitters (distributed splitters) or to users (centralized splitters)
– Load-balancing, to even average load on PONs and improve end-user satisfaction with a potential to additional revenue
– Variable split-ratio over the life cycle of the network, to meet changing bandwidth requirements and support revenue growth
– Remote testing & troubleshooting
– N+1 port & line protection, making it possible to leverage cost-effective access technology deployed for residential customers, into additional market segments such as SME/SMB and cell-sites with a level of reliability matching the target SLA
The potential savings with AODF at the OPEX were reviewed earlier (ref’ section 4, and section 5), and will be added after we can gather information based on measurable experience from live deployments, in the field. Please check again with TeliSwitch soon for the latest version of this study.
Users are generally connected to splitter ports in sequential order, with a goal to maximize splitter occupancy yielding to the best resources utilization all the way to the OLT ports in the CO. However, service utilization is not known and bottlenecks can develop on the PON segment when several users would order high-bandwidth packages, now in the 200 & 300 Mbps with targets already set for 1Gbps. Traffic balancing is the normal reaction to these situations, rearranging users’ connections in the centralized splitters option (or 2nd stage connections in the distributed topology) in order to spread the heavy users optimally across the splitter and OLT ports. Figure 4 shows a simplified example, where the top PON and its splitter in the top drawing exhibit higher than normal loads, as illustrated with the thick lines. Rearranging the port assignments in the field would be a complex manual task, with many cross-connections involved at the FCP, a significant potential for errors and down-time for some customers, pushing the service provider to reduce to absolute necessary this type of changes, generally when customers have complained for some time. With AODF at the same FCP, the carefully crafted balancing plan is implemented automatically with no errors, as frequently as needed, resulting in higher customer satisfaction which opens the door to higher revenues.
