FTTH Architecture Overview

Not all FTTH networks are built the same way. Since construction and outside plant account for the majority of total network costs, getting the architecture right has a major impact on the business case. The network architecture can also impact time-to-market, labour/training requirements, future upgradeability, network performance, and ultimately, customer satisfaction.

This paper provides an overview of two fundamental FTTH architecture categories—centralised and cascaded—that determines where in the network, the fiber is split. Splitter placement and split ratios strongly impact the location and amount of fiber required, and hence the cost of deployment, this is followed by a brief discussion of several designs:

• Centralized architecture using Fiber Distribution Hubs (FDH)
• Centralized architecture using closures
• Cascaded architecture using closures
• Cascaded architecture with fiber reuse
• Cascaded architecture with fiber indexing