Misunderstanding of FTTH Technology Application

As The first company in China that specializes in R & D and production of Fiber To The Home-FTTH equipment, we have recently received many FTTH application requirements To communicate with different types of FTTH users, we found that many users have misunderstandings about FTTH technology selection and application. These misunderstandings include ignoring the FTTH technical risks and blindly requiring full-service access; failing to understand the FTTH market characteristics in China, and blindly selecting the FTTH access technology; subconsciously believing that FTTH Network Construction must be highly invested, lack of development vision to analyze FTTH investment benefits.

Misunderstanding 1. Ignoring FTTH technical risks and blindly requiring full service access

Many users require FTTH to support all their businesses and broadband Internet access, cable TV CATV access, and traditional fixed telephone access. This means the three-in-one access, and they hope to implement FTTH access technology in one step. We believe that it is ideal to support broadband Internet access, limited TV CATV access, and ordinary fixed telephone access, but this actually has a huge technical risk.

FTTH technology is a new technology that breaks the bottleneck of the last kilometer of communication. Currently, there are three main FTTH technology standards: Ethernet-based point-to-point Ethernet Fiber P2P) technology, Ethernet-Based Passive Optical Network-EPON) technology and General Frame-Based Passive Optical Network-GPON technology. The three FTTH access technologies have the following features:

From the table above, we can see that more than 5 million of FTTH users on the global 97% line only provide Internet broadband access services, because the cost of traditional fixed telephones provided by FTTH is much higher than the technical cost of existing fixed telephones, and the use of fiber-optic transmission for traditional fixed telephones still has the telephone power supply problem. Although EPON and GPON support the three-in-one access, but its standards have just been promulgated, the technology is still mature, the two standards of EPON and GPON compete with each other, there will be uncertainty in future promotion, however, the point-to-point passive network structure is not suitable for high-density residential area applications in China. Moreover, EPON and GPON related devices require at least five years of standardization and maturity, in the next five years, it will be difficult to compete with the current cost and popularity of Ethernet P2P devices. At present, optoelectronic devices are far from meeting the requirements of low-cost PON systems. It can be seen that the blind pursuit of FTTH full-service access at this stage will inevitably bring huge technical risks.

In the access network, replacement of optical fiber cables with copper cables is an inevitable trend. However, overnight replacement of optical fiber cables with copper cables is impossible for all businesses to access through optical fiber cables. The progress and application of any technology are gradual, and FTTH is no exception. Therefore, in the early stages of FTTH development and promotion, the coexistence of optical fiber and copper cable is inevitable. The coexistence of optical fiber and copper cable can effectively avoid the technical risks of FTTH between users and telecom operators. First, Fiber P2P access technology can be used in the initial stage to achieve FTTH broadband access at a low cost, while CATV and traditional fixed telephones still use the same axis and twisted pair wires for access, for villas, CATV access can also be achieved through optical fiber at a low cost without laying the same axis. Second, China's telecom business currently provides industry barriers, and telecom operators are not allowed to operate CATV businesses, on the contrary, CATV operators are not allowed to operate traditional telecom services such as telephones, and the current situation cannot be changed for some time in the future. Therefore, a single carrier cannot provide the three-in-one service on the FTTH access network. Again, because the optical cable can be used for 40 years, and the copper cable is generally used for 10 years, when the communication quality of the copper cable is reduced due to its service life, no additional cables need to be laid. You only need to upgrade the optical fiber equipment, the services provided by the original copper cables can be provided. In fact, as long as the technology is mature and the cost is acceptable, the optical fiber equipment can be upgraded at any time, and the convenience and high bandwidth brought by the new FTTH technology can be enjoyed in a timely manner.

To sum up, Fiber cables and copper cables are selected to coexist, and FTTH of Fiber P2P is used to achieve Internet broadband access. CATV and traditional fixed telephones are still connected through the same axis and twisted pair wires, it can effectively avoid FTTH technical risks and enjoy the convenience and high bandwidth brought about by the new FTTH access technology as soon as possible. When the technology is mature, the cost is acceptable, and the industry barriers are eliminated, you can upgrade your optical fiber devices at any time to enable full-service FTTH access.

Misunderstanding 2. Do not understand the features of China's FTTH market, blindly choose FTTH Access Technology

Many users think that the FTTH access technology only supports the Passive Optical Network (PON) access technology, while ignoring the point-to-point P2P) FTTH access technology. However, as long as we analyze the PON and P2P access technologies, we will find that, select residential active exchange point-to-point P2P) technology is more suitable for China's FTTH market characteristics.

A decade ago, when PON technology was proposed, it was because the optical fiber was very expensive, and each core was tens of Yuan or even dozens of Yuan per meter), while PON's point-to-point P2MP technology could effectively save optical fiber, in particular, when the Passive Optical splitter is very close to the user, the PON is also a passive network for easy maintenance and management. Today, with the maturity and popularization of optical fiber production technology, the market price of optical fiber cables per core is only a few cents per meter) is already lower than the price of ordinary copper cables, moreover, because the materials used to produce optical fiber are the inexhaustible silica used in nature, the price will continue to decline over time, so the advantage of PON to save optical fiber cables is not prominent today. At present, the main target market of FTTH in China is undoubtedly the residents of residential communities in small and medium-sized cities. Urban residential communities are generally garden-type residential communities. Their prominent features are: high household density, residential areas include commercial buildings) generally, communication equipment rooms are used to install communication access devices and line connections in the entire residential area. This configuration is required for telecom operators to compete with each other and comprehensive access to a variety of telecommunication services, therefore, the advantages of PON passive networks cannot be fully realized and embodied in residential communities in China. Due to the scattered distribution of inherent PON distribution nodes, it is difficult to place numbers and manage the nodes. Users cannot freely select carriers, and the utilization of network devices and access ports is low, the disadvantages such as high equipment costs and inflexible network structures are exactly what P2P network structures can easily overcome and avoid.

We believe that Ethernet-based point-to-point Ethernet Fiber P2P) FTTH technology is more suitable for residential areas in China, and can give full play to the advantages of Ethernet point-to-point technology:

Low network construction costs;

Flexible network structure and low O & M cost;

It is centrally deployed in the residential data center for easy numbering, maintenance, and management;

Allowing users to freely select carriers is conducive to multi-Operator Competition and can be effectively protected by competing user interests;

No need to add optical cables from the central data center to the residential area;

The port usage of the device is very high and can be expanded gradually based on the increase in the number of connected users;

In the future, devices will be upgraded to support Internet broadband access, CATV access, and telephone access, enabling triple play in the access network;

Support for foreseeable new businesses in the future: videophone, VOD, digital cinema, remote office, Online exhibition, TV education, telemedicine, data storage and backup, etc.

Misunderstanding 3. The subconscious believes that FTTH Network Construction must be highly invested, and the FTTH investment benefits cannot be analyzed from a developmental perspective.

When we mention optical fiber communication, we often think of its high cost. The subconscious thinks that FTTH Network Construction must be a high investment, but it lacks a rational and developmental perspective to analyze the FTTH investment benefits. This kind of optical fiber network must be a subconscious of high investment mainly manifested in the following: the mistake is that the price of optical fiber cables is high, the construction of optical fiber cables is difficult and the cost is high, and the management and maintenance costs of optical fiber networks will be high in the future, the initial investment in optical fiber networks is high.

Just three years ago, the price of optical fiber cables was indeed more expensive than that of copper cables. But today, with the maturity and popularization of optical fiber production technology, the market price of optical fiber cables per core is only a few cents per meter) the price of copper cables is lower than that of copper cables, and because the materials used to produce optical fiber cables are inexhaustible silica used in nature, their prices will continue to decline over time, copper cables, on the contrary, will rise over time as copper materials are consumed. The times when the price of optical cables is higher than that of copper cables are gone forever. Undoubtedly, cable laying is more difficult than copper cable construction and the cost is also higher than copper cable, but this is mainly the construction cost. We know that cable laying and erection are labor-intensive work, in the case that China's labor price is very cheap, it is undoubtedly not a prominent problem. Besides, because the cable life can reach 40 years, and the copper cable is generally 10 years, the cable does not need to be replaced or re-laid on a regular basis. From the perspective of development, the cost of laying a single optical cable is undoubtedly far lower than the cost of laying multiple copper cables. The future maintenance cost of the communication network depends on the reliability and manageability of the network. Because optical fiber communication has a bandwidth that is not subject to electromagnetic interference, the communication content is absolutely confidential, and there is almost no limit, in particular, the reliability of the optical fiber connection head is far higher than that of the copper fiber connection head such as RJ45. These advantages ensure that the FTTH optical fiber network is much more reliable than the network composed of copper cables, while the optical fiber transmission distance is far, with the same physical requirements and network functions, the FTTH optical fiber network connected by broadband must be simpler than the copper network in terms of structure, and the network is undoubtedly easier to manage and maintain. Obviously, in terms of future maintenance and management expenditure, the optical fiber network should be generally lower than the copper network. As far as the current equipment price is concerned, compared with traditional broadband access technology, the investment in FTTH access network construction is indeed slightly higher at the initial stage, but if the optical cable is depreciated for 40 years when analyzing the investment benefits, FTTH optical fiber networks have lower maintenance and management costs in the future, while FTTH optical fiber networks have higher reliability than copper networks, resulting in higher user access rates, we will find that optical fiber networks have higher investment benefits than copper networks.

It can be seen that it is very important to analyze the FTTH investment benefits from a developmental perspective and scientifically and rationally.

1. Low-cost FTTH Solution
2. FTTH-based three-network integration implementation