FEATURE: FTTH IN EUROPE
FTTH PROVIDES AN IDEAL COMPLEMENT FOR FAST-GROWING 5G APPLICATIONS
for promoting competitive investment.’ Looking at the technology, Novellini
General architecture of a PON network with details on the upstream
digital space. Te declaration also establishes once and for all that what is illegal offline should also be illegal online. We aim to promote these principles as a standard for the world.’
What next? Tese are all moves in the right direction, but there are still challenges, not least in terms of network deployments, sustainability and digitalisation/skills. Garnier said: ‘Te recent figures demonstrate there is still a massive growth potential in terms of connectivity in many EU countries, but overall deployment is progressing at a rapid pace. However, even with the infrastructure in place, there is still a long way to go to reach a fully digitised society. With 45 per cent take-up today, FTTH investments are under-utilised. We strongly believe that to embrace the next digital decade and shape Europe’s digital transformation by 2030, take-up is the next challenge, and we call on policymakers to take the necessary measures for end users to benefit from the world of new possibilities offered by full-fibre connectivity.’ Corbet concurred, highlighting a particular
challenge in the UK: ‘Provided the economic and regulatory conditions remain favourable, independent networks will deliver at least a third of the infrastructure needed to meet targets, helping achieve 100 per cent coverage and contributing £20bn to the UK. But a major threat [is] the UK incumbent’s Project Equinox, which is about reducing costs to encourage ISPs to move customers to the incumbent’s fibre networks. Yet the likely impact is to reduce the scope for wholesale competition. Tis will negatively impact service providers wanting to use those networks and, ultimately, consumers.’ Plans for the retirement of copper are
also essential; Garnier believes the copper switch-off will play a major role in the uptake of fibre. Tis transition needs to be prepared, so that no citizen or business is leſt behind. Public authorities must play a role, ‘both with the digitalisation of their services and by incentivising citizens with demand-side measures, such as vouchers for fibre.
14 FiBRE SYSTEMS n Issue 35 n Spring 2022
Going green Novellini highlighted the environmental benefits of deploying fibre. ‘Te CO2 footprint is significantly lower for a passive network than for an active one,’ he explained. ‘Despite these advantages, Europe has been slow in moving away from copper wire. One reason is cost, with the CAPEX investment falling on operators who have litle incentive to upgrade their copper network. In the absence of any alternatives, operators do not see any economic advantage in upgrading the network. Garnier was of a similar view, he said: ‘Full
fibre is the most futureproof technology with unmatched quality parameters (latency, robustness, reliability, symmetry) and it is also the most energy-efficient technology. As a result, mandating the use of full-fibre networks can help to achieve the objective of carbon neutrality as set in the European Green Deal.’ Overall, the FTTH Council Europe feels that
Europe is on a good path from a connectivity perspective. Garnier stated: ‘Countries with strong legacy copper networks or important coaxial cable presence, which started deployment of fibre later than others, are now lagging behind, but they have announced very ambitious deployment plans. Te only uncertainties are how deep public authorities can go in stimulating demand, how fast the migration from copper to full fibre networks can happen and what measures to develop digital skills will be taken to ensure all can reap the benefits of an ultrafast connected society.’ INCA likewise feels there is a strong
opportunity ahead, if everyone plays their part. Corbet said: ‘Te best way to reduce the digital divide is by encouraging a plethora of market players to rapidly build new networks across the country. Deterring the competitive investment that has done so much to accelerate the pace of new fibre deployment will slow fibre roll out and push the UK even further behind its European counterparts. We need to bring all the investment available to the table and we hope to see Ofcom reverse its current position in 2022 and return to its core responsibility
reiterated some of the benefits of full fibre. ‘Most importantly,’ he said, ‘FTTH is an inherently reliable technology. It is based on passive optical networks (PON) instead of active devices that are susceptible to failures and power outages. Wired solutions like ADSL are also passive, but too slow.’
Need for speed By contrast, he went on, fibre by itself does not suffer any speed limit and the electronics can be upgraded over time to track technology improvement. ‘In PON,’ he said, ‘the electronics are only at the central office and the user’s home (modem), not in the kerb-side cabinets. In addition, FTTH provides an ideal complement for fast-growing 5G applications. Fibre is the only solution to cope with the bandwidth and the latency required by IoT.’ Speaking about the point-to-multipoint structure of PON networks, Novellini said: ‘In the downstream direction, the optical line termination (OLT) transmits the same data to all optical network units (ONUs) continuously. Each ONU can decrypt only its portion of the data. In the upstream direction, each ONU is given a time slot, during which it can transmit data back to the OLT. Only one ONU can be active at a given time.’ He added that the OLTs in the central office
can dynamically orchestrate time slots for the ONUs, and that these time slots do not have to be balanced, depending on contractual conditions. ‘Adoption of the market,’ he said, ‘which includes development and deployment time, happens about five years later. Te line rate for upstream and downstream depends on the generation of PON in use, and the evolution of FTTH protocols follows behind the availability of faster electronics.’ Novellini concluded by highlighting that,
while deployed fibre is an asset that lasts for multiple decades and so does not change between one generation and the next; ONUs, however, can be optionally upgraded when the operator upgrades an OLT. He said: ‘Tis allows operators to upgrade their deployed network smoothly over time, tracking the needs of their own customers. Future developments will focus on increasing bandwidth (upstream and downstream) and lowering the carbon footprint per port. Passive structures are significantly beter than active copper structures, simply because they consume no power. It is likely that the standard HS-PON will be very closely following the 25GS-PON. Te market will decide how successful the 25GS-PON will be.’n
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Xilinx
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