FTTH the answer for future-proof networks

If you want a contemporary network capable of standing the test of time and sustaining high-performance operations for an extended period of time, you want to go with FTTH. At least, the FTTH Council Europe thinks so. The fiber-optic network advocacy group has been encouraging FTTH adoption throughout the world for a long time, and its European branch has long been frustrated by slow technological development on the continent. The discrepancy between what the FTTH Council wants and what is happening in Europe has been growing greater, as a recent release from the council admonished the European Commission for poor regulatory guidelines and clearly stated that FTTH is vital for future networks.

Looking at the European Commission's regulations
According to a release from the FTTH Council Europe, the current European Commission regulations for network deployment are holding back FTTH development and are wildly behind the times.Hartwig Tauber, director general of the FTTH Council Europe, explained that, as they stand, regulatory guidelines actually encourage copper network investments in the continent, leading to the neglect of FTTH systems, the only future-proof network technology that makes sense for telecoms.

""European policy makes no distinction between the regulatory regime for low cost copper upgrades and more expensive but future-proof fiber to the home investments," said Tauber. "The result is that regulatory policies effectively promote copper upgrades. Prioritizing copper upgrades and making the pricing regime for copper a central element of the single market reforms shows a lack of vision that does not augur well for Europe.We need a greater emphasis on future-proof fiber networks and need to facilitate new models of financing."

Easing FTTH deployment
Regulatory guidelines can improve the market for FTTH and make it much easier for telecoms to build networks more efficiently. However, regulatory improvement is not the only thing service providers need if they want to deploy FTTH solutions more effectively. Having the right technology is also important, and fiber to Ethernet media converters are a critical consideration for FTTH networks. Fiber is not inherently interoperable with copper Ethernet systems and telecoms need to convert signal before it reaches copper networks. This can be done through a few methods, but cost-efficient, but high-performance media converters often provide the best value. This is especially true when media converters introduced advanced functions, like quality of service, into the telecom network.

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.