Innovation drives FTTH and FTTA ahead
25. January 2022
7 Min read
Steady expansion of the networks
Demand for fiber cable has been growing at a steady pace for years and will continue to do so, driven by ongoing rollouts, incumbent and alternative network (Altnet) activity, and the continued uptake of, for example, bandwidth-hungry applications such as Internet of Things, 5G, and Artificial Intelligence.
Reportlinker’s “Fiber Optic Cable Market – Growth, Trends and Forecasts” predicts that the global fiber cable market will surpass US$16.3 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 14%. A more cautious estimate from Research & Markets expects the market to reach US$ 13.5 billion by 2025. In telecom, we see a marked need for compact, highly reliable outdoor connectivity for aerial, Fiber-to-the-Antenna (FTTA), and small cell applications.
Aerial Rollouts
Factoring in remote locations, sparsely populated areas, long distances, or rocky ground will make broadband expansions difficult and costly. To bring more and more fiber to remote areas to provide broadband and mobile service, an easier, less expensive solution will increasingly be required. Due to its favorable CAPEX/ OPEX ratio and lower cost, aerial cabling is an attractive – and often the only – option for rollouts in such conditions. Aerial cables are easy to suspend between masts and buildings – even over longer distances.
Networks can be expanded quickly, using existing poles, at short notice, and with reduced planning effort. Residents and traffic are not disturbed by civil engineering works and digging. Ideally, solutions should be based on familiar industry installation practices and processes and should require no special tools or training.
Outdoor connectivity: ongoing innovation
Business cases for rural fiber, Fiber-to-the-Antenna, and other currently important types of rollout require extreme efficiency. Optimizing outdoor connectivity plays an important part in this. Field connectors, which are required in ever-growing volumes in the telecom sector, need to be easy to use, affordable, and failsafe. Fiber optic connectors for outdoor use need to withstand demanding conditions and everything from environmental extremes to mechanical forces.
Products have to be rugged and capable of resisting any difficulties related to outdoor installation, ultra-violet light, and temperature fluctuations. Connector sizes need to be smaller without compromising on handling, or interference and attenuation performance over long distances, adding protection against extreme temperatures and dirt.
New technologies and plug-and-play systems for outdoor applications are making connector installation easier, faster while reducing issues that might be caused by human error. For example, by making it easier to access cabling. A push-pull mechanism can support quick, safe locking and unlocking of connectors, allowing greater connectivity and cabling density in racks, or even splice-free polarity reversal. Bayonet closures can help improve fiber connections, ensuring a correct fit every time.
An optical fiber is usually contained in a precision alignment sleeve called a ferrule. These ferrules are aligned and within an adapter to complete fiber optic connections. Dedicated outdoor connectors support correct alignment, even in the most difficult, harsh, or dirty environments.
Fiber optic cable sleeves protect the cabling from moisture, temperature changes, and other elements when fibers are being spliced. The latest generation of products features cable-specific fast sealing, prepared outside the manhole.
Use Planning-Tools
The anticipated lifetime of cable in a fiber network is at least 25 years and the working life may well be far longer. During that period the active equipment will be upgraded several times. Strategic fiber network planning is essential to ensuring long-term network operation and accommodating upcoming technologies while keeping the business case profitable and managing TCO.
Software-based network documentation tools for asset, capacity, and change management will play an increasingly important role in realizing strategic network planning is essential to deploying continuously optimized, effective networks that meet the requirements of today and the foreseeable future.
5G: Small cell rollout in buildings and convergence with access network
Significant investments are currently being made in the area of the 5G rollout, which is key to large-scale digitalization. Performance associated with 5G, such as low latency, high capacity, and reliability depends on having sufficient fiber. The inherent limitations of wireless solutions mean fiber and high-density architectures are essential to connecting billions of sensors and enabling extremely high, uninterrupted, low-latency symmetrical bandwidth.
To make 5G possible, fiber optic networks need to be extended to reach antenna masts, and a far greater number of access points will be required. Cabling and equipment will need to fit into increasingly small spaces, while at the same time the number of fiber-optic connections will have to be significantly higher. The larger fiber counts also introduce increased quality requirements. 5G combined with macro and small cells offers significantly higher transmission performance than 3G and 4G/LTE and enables critical and low latency services.
The FTTH Council has quantified potential cost savings of building converged 5G-fibre networks. The cost of FTTH5G (equivalent to Fiber to a 5G antenna/base station), when built on top of an FTTH network with limited or no spare capacity, is 2 to 3.5 times higher than when there is sufficient spare capacity available.
New developments in fiber cabling
Telecommunication networks are employing more optical fiber than before and have greater requirements when it comes to densification (especially in the drop portion), reduced sizes, or low macrobending losses, for example. Formerly deployed ITU-T G.652 SMF cable is no longer the standard. The latest G.657 category A1/A2 single-mode fiber cabling can help optimize fiber deployments across all G.652D specified networks, without increasing costs in any significant way, and is fast becoming the new standard.
Rollouts will be further facilitated by new fiber products offering up to 200my, that won’t require new types of connectors to be used, even when splicing is required.
Sustainability: An increasingly important selection criterium
As the need for more devices and network equipment grows, many companies and end-users will wonder how this can be realized while also keeping a close eye on sustainability, A recent report from BREKO*, Germany’s leading broadband association, indicates that copper networks consume up to seventeen times more electricity than fiber networks. This is also affected by the number of active network elements. A recent study by the German Umweltbundesamt* (Environmental Agency) shows that the CO2 emissions per hour of video streaming for FTTH are just half of that of the fastest copper network. Furthermore, optical fibers are light and thin, reducing logistics emissions. What’re more optical fibers are made of silicate, which is available in virtually unlimited quantities. Raw materials can be extracted or recycled at a reasonable cost, and less material is required. In data transmission, 1 kg of glass is as powerful as 1000 kg of copper.
A study from the FTTH Council Europe* study concluded that copper switch-off and transition to fiber has significant environmental benefits, emphasizing the fact that fiber networks emit 88% less greenhouse gas emissions per Gigabit compared to legacy technologies – and the fact that fiber is 70-80% more reliable than copper, reducing considerably operational expenses such as maintenance and fault repair.
*Sources: BREKO, German Umweltbundesamt, FTTH Council Europe