Fiber to the premises

Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) or Fiber to the Home (FTTH) refers to a Broadband or Ethernet telecommunications system based on fiber-optic cables and associated optical electronics for delivery of broadband service such as tripleplay to homes and businesses.

Fiber-optic technology deployment costs are decreasing, making this technology a competitor to existing services. KMI Research forecasts that the total FTTP market for equipment, cable, and apparatus will reach $3.2 billion in 2009.

= Technologies =

Two competing FTTP technologies are Active FTTP and PON (Passive Optical Network) architectures.

Active FTTP networks utilize equipment in neighborhoods (usually 1 equipment cabinet for every 400-500 subscribers). This neighborhood equipment performs layer 2/layer 3 switching and routing, offloading full layer 3 routing to the carrier s central office. The 802.3ah standard enables service providers to deliver 100 Mbps full-duplex over a single singlemode fiber to the premise. Service providers using Active FTTP technologies include SureWest, iProvo, Grant County, UTOPIA, and Broadweave Networks.

PON FTTP networks on the other hand avoid the placement of electronics in the field. PON networks use passive splitters to distribute fiber to individual homes. 1 fiber is split into 16, 32, and 64 fibers (depending on the manufacturer) to then be distributed to residential or business subscribers. In PON architectures, the switching and routing is done at the carrier s central office. Service Providers using PON include Verizon and several greenfield development networks.

= Availability in the U.S. =

In the United States, the largest FTTP deployment to date is Verizon s FiOS. Verizon is the only RBOC thus far to deploy FTTP on a large scale.

Several municipalities and planned communities across America are deploying their own fiber networks, including:

Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA), a consortium of 14 Utah cities deploying a fiber optic network

[http://www.broadweave.com/ Broadweave Networks] deploying FTTP to multiple greenfield communities in the west.

[http://www.iprovo.net/ iProvo] in Provo, Utah (also see iProvo in Wikipedia)

[http://www.ashlandfiber.net/ Ashland Fiber Network] in Ashland, Oregon

[http://www.bvu-optinet.com/index.htm BVU OptiNet] in Bristol, Virginia

[http://www.dutil.com/optilink/ OptiLink] in Dalton, Georgia

[http://www.sfcn.org/ Spanish Fork Community Network] in Spanish Fork, Utah

[http://www.gcpud.org/zipp.htm Zipp] in Grant County, Washington

[http://www.click-network.com/ Click Network] in Tacoma, Washington

[http://business.surewest.com/internet/fiber/ SureWest Communications] in Sacramento, California

[http://www.lus.org/site184.php/ Lafayette Utilities System] in Lafayette, Louisiana

[http://www.sbc.com/ SBC] has several small greenfield projects, most notably the Mission Bay (San Francisco)

neighborhood of San Francisco, California

[http://www.paulbunyan.net/ Paul Bunyan Telephone] in Bemidji, Minnesota and Grand Rapids, Minnesota

[http://www.sctelcom.com SCTelcom] in Medicine Lodge, KS

= Availability in the U.A.E =

Dubai Internet City, formally Sahm Technologies offer Tripleplay services to properties within the Emaar properties, Dubai Marina, Emirates Lakes, Hills development.

[http://www.telecom.dic.ae/index.html]

= External links =

[http://www.ftthcouncil.org/ Fiber to the Home Council]

[http://kmi.pennnet.com/press_display.cfmARTICLE_ID=211004 KMI Research FTTP article]

[http://kmi.pennnet.com KMI Research Homepage]

[http://www.ftthblog.com FTTH Blog] Daily updates on the business and technology of FTTH

[http://www.telephonyonline.com/fttp/ Telephony Magazine - FTTH One-Stop] news, metrics, technology, regulatory information and industry commentary

[http://www.kingfisher.com.au/applicationnotes.htm Kingfisher International Application Notes] Fiber Optic Testing information about FTTH backbone Terminology.