FTTH deployment can be plagued with pitfalls, strategic planning can sidestep them
Effective tactics can help telecoms overcome the challenges associated with FTTH installation.
By Donna DonnawitzOctober 31, 2012
Fiber to the home projects are a somewhat interesting phenomenon that sometimes seems a little bit like the new toy that is a big deal every year during the holidays. There's a little bit of hype, people start to get into it, there is more hype, people get very excited, the news starts covering it, people line up at stores to make sure they get one, kids open the gift, the toy breaks and the hype is over.
FTTH infrastructure is not, on any level, as fragile as these overhyped children's toys. It is also much more useful to society. However, the cycle of anticipation and anti-climax is, in many ways, accurate.
FTTH hype and anti-climax
The hype surrounding FTTH infrastructure is not unfounded. The reality is that FTTH infrastructure is likely going to drive the future of network services and is needed in many areas now. However, some people tend to look at FTTH as the Holy Grail of internet infrastructure, and it just isn't that perfect. This creates inflated expectations that can leave us caught up in the technology like a kid coveting toys at the holidays.
Then, when a town does install FTTH, it is often received in a manner disproportionate to its hype. In some cases, not enough residents buy into the new network because of economic issues, in others, a truck drives into the FTTH line and cuts off internet to thousands of houses, leaving everybody wondering if it is right to put so much trust in such a fragile setup.
In many cases, these issues have nothing at all to do with the technology itself. When a kid opens a toy at Christmas and it breaks in a few minutes, it is just as often because nobody bothered to read the instruction manual as it is because the toy is a piece of junk. In the same way, FTTH investments that do not deliver on expectations often do so because of flaws in deployment, not the technology itself.
Avoiding problems with FTTH setups
You need to take a strategic approach to deploying FTTH if you want to overcome common pitfalls. The infrastructure of the town may influence how cables are deployed. Furthermore, construction costs, environmental limitations and other considerations all have to be taken into account. Once an effective plan is in place, fiber to Ethernet media converters can enable flexible and scalable FTTH installation, making it much easier to reach homes with the advanced network system and allowing for a more tactical approach to deployment.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
FTTH infrastructure is not, on any level, as fragile as these overhyped children's toys. It is also much more useful to society. However, the cycle of anticipation and anti-climax is, in many ways, accurate.
FTTH hype and anti-climax
The hype surrounding FTTH infrastructure is not unfounded. The reality is that FTTH infrastructure is likely going to drive the future of network services and is needed in many areas now. However, some people tend to look at FTTH as the Holy Grail of internet infrastructure, and it just isn't that perfect. This creates inflated expectations that can leave us caught up in the technology like a kid coveting toys at the holidays.
Then, when a town does install FTTH, it is often received in a manner disproportionate to its hype. In some cases, not enough residents buy into the new network because of economic issues, in others, a truck drives into the FTTH line and cuts off internet to thousands of houses, leaving everybody wondering if it is right to put so much trust in such a fragile setup.
In many cases, these issues have nothing at all to do with the technology itself. When a kid opens a toy at Christmas and it breaks in a few minutes, it is just as often because nobody bothered to read the instruction manual as it is because the toy is a piece of junk. In the same way, FTTH investments that do not deliver on expectations often do so because of flaws in deployment, not the technology itself.
Avoiding problems with FTTH setups
You need to take a strategic approach to deploying FTTH if you want to overcome common pitfalls. The infrastructure of the town may influence how cables are deployed. Furthermore, construction costs, environmental limitations and other considerations all have to be taken into account. Once an effective plan is in place, fiber to Ethernet media converters can enable flexible and scalable FTTH installation, making it much easier to reach homes with the advanced network system and allowing for a more tactical approach to deployment.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
