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Noticias Teleco Jun2010

1.- GPON Sales Surge in First QuarterAccording to a new report by Dell’Oro Group, first quarter GPON equipment revenues from both optical line terminals and optical networking terminals surpassed EPON revenues for the first time and hit a record level, growing almost 40 percent sequentially and 70 percent over the year ago period.

“GPON growth in the first quarter was largely due to deployments in China,” said Tam Dell’Oro, president of Dell’Oro Group, in a statement. “China Unicom and China Telecom are deploying both EPON and GPON. China Mobile, which was recently granted permission to deploy broadband and for which GPON is its preferred technology, also contributed to first quarter GPON growth. Other sizeable GPON shipments in the first quarter included those to Korea, Malaysia, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, the UAE and the US."

The report shows that Huawei maintained its lead for GPON revenue largely due to being a primary supplier in the China market. Next was Alcatel-Lucent, which narrowed the gap with Huawei due to growth of its ONT shipments to North America and EMEA. Rounding out the top four was Motorola followed closely by Ericsson, which doubled its share mainly due to growth in its GPON shipments to China.(3 Jun CT)

2.- Actualización estandares de 100 GigEEl IEEE 802.3 ba espera ratificar este mes el soporte de optical transport Network (OTN), también posortar MAC data rate a 40 Gbits y 100 Gbps, y preservar el frame Etherner 802.3. La UIT-T en su grupo de estudio 15 pone al día su recomendación G.709 (interface for the Optical Transport Network) aprobando la velocidad de línea de OTU4, diseñada para señales de 100 GigE, a una tasa de 111,89973 Gbps.El Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) aprobó un acuerdo de implementación para soportar el formato de modulación QPSK para 100 GigE DWDM en transporte de larga distancia.

3.- Encore Electronics lanza módem ADSL 2+ con router inalámbrico

Encore Electronics presentó el nuevo Router Inalámbrico / Módem ADSL2+ de Alta Velocidad, el ENDSL-4R5G, como sucesor del popular ENDSL-A2+WIGX2. Esta central multifuncional de comunicación ofrece una velocidad de descarga hasta tres veces mayor que el ADSL. Además, el ENDSL-4R5G ayuda a los usuarios a ahorrar dinero y espacio, ya que con este dispositivo todo en uno, ahora no necesitan comprar un router, un switch de 4 puertos y un punto de acceso inalámbrico en forma separada.

El nuevo Router Inalámbrico / Módem ADSL2+ de Alta Velocidad de Encore Electronics permite a los usuarios acceder a Internet y crear una red de área local tanto con cable o en forma inalámbrica. Con el ENDSL-4R5G todos en la casa o en la oficina pueden navegar por Internet, descargar archivos, disfrutar juegos en línea, enviar mensajes instantáneos y hablar por la red. Además la función Universal Plug-&-Pla facilita a los usuarios a conectar rápidamente computadores de escritorio, notebooks, consolas de videojuegos, reproductores multimedia y

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cualquier otro dispositivo de red, como las tecnología de almacenamiento en red (NAS, Network Attached Storage) e impresoras equipadas con servidores de impresión.

El ENDSL-4R5G soporta los protocolos de Calidad de Servicio (QoS), que optimiza automáticamente el tráfico de entrada y de salida. Las actividades en línea que son en vivo, como los juegos, video streaming y VoIP (Voz sobre IP), ahora serán menos susceptibles a retrasos (time lags). Por el lado de la seguridad, el ENDSL-4R5G, está equipado por un firewall avanzado, que se caracteriza por utilizar Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) y protección Denial of Service (DoS) que funciona para bloquear ataques o acceso de intrusos. Además, la información inalámbrica a través del dispositivo está protegida con la más reciente encriptación de datos de 256-bit. Al mismo tiempo, incluye el diseño de One-Touch Button que permite a los usuarios montar una conexión inalámbrica segura y de manera sencilla con otros dispositivos de red, con sólo apretar un botón.(Mundo en Línea)

4.- RADIODIFUSIÓN SONORA DIGITAL (Radio Digital)El pasado 1º de junio el Colegio de Ingenieros organizó este Panel, en consideración a como ha sucedido en la Televisión y los medios de almacenamiento y reproducción de sonidos e imágenes fijas y en movimiento, en cuanto a que la tecnología digital comienza a invadir la radiodifusión sonora, tanto en las bandas de ondas medias (AM), ondas cortas (OC) y Frecuencia Modulada (FM), proporcionando las ventajas de costo, mejor calidad de reproducción, capacidad de más señales en el espectro radioeléctrico asignado y ausencia de ruidos e interferencias. Ya están establecidas las normas digitales de radiodifusión sonora en los E.E.U.U., Europa y Japón y varios países latinoamericanos comienzan a preocuparse del tema, por lo que es de vital importancia estudiar los modelos y normas técnicas de esta nueva tecnología, con el fin iniciar el debate en el país sobre el tema con miras a seleccionar en el futuro una Norma para Chile.

Expositores: El Ing. Jorge Atton. Subsecretario de Telecomunicaciones: la visión de SUBTEL referente a la introducción de esta nueva tecnología. El Ing. Eduardo Costoya. Presidente de la Subcomisión de Radiodifusión: la interrogante: ¿Por qué Radio Digital? y sus posibles respuestas. El Ing. Marcos Caballero. Socio y Gerente General de Continental Lensa: las características técnicas del sistema IBOC (HD Radio) de Radio Digital implementado en los EE.UU. El Ing. Daniel Morales. Subgerente de Ingeniería de Ibero Americana Radio Chile: las características técnicas de los sistemas DAB y DRM implementados en Europa y el sistema ISDB-Tsb implementado en Japón. El Sr. Luis Pardo. Presidente de la Asociación de Radiodifusores de Chile ARCHI: sobre el impacto que significa para su asociación el advenimiento de esta tecnología. El Sr. Tomás Mosciatti. Director de Radio Bio Bío y comentarista de CNN: sobre los desafíos técnico-económicos que representarían para un radiodifusor la radio digital. 5.- Paraguay adopta el sistema japonés-brasileño de televisión digital

El Gobierno paraguayo decretó la adopción del estándar japonés-brasileño (ISDB-T Integrated Service Digital Broadcasting) para la televisión digital del país y ordenó al organismo regulador su implementación. La Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Conatel) deberá realizar "los análisis de las cuestiones técnicas y regulatorias que posibiliten la implementación de los sistemas de TV Digital Terrestre", según el decreto firmado por el presidente Fernando Lugo.

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El decreto, difundido por la Presidencia en su sitio web, señala que la adopción de ese formato es el resultado de una serie de consultas y debates entre expertos del sector que se cerró el 30 de abril pasado con una audiencia pública en el Congreso paraguayo.

"Los criterios de decisión están alineados con las recomendaciones de la Comisión Interamericana de Telecomunicaciones (CITEL) y de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA)", añade el texto oficial. Paraguay se suma a siete países latinoamericanos que optaron por el ISDB-T, frente a los formatos ofrecidos por Europa y Estados Unidos, después de que Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Perú y Costa Rica lo hicieran en su momento.

En contrapartida, por la normativa europea se decantaron Colombia, Panamá y Uruguay.(de El Mundo en Línea)

6.- GTD inaugura nuevo datacenter "a prueba" de terremotos

El Grupo Gtd inauguró su nuevo Datacenter. Se trata de un edificio de ocho pisos y de más de 2.500 metros cuadrados con tecnología de útima generación ubicado en el centro de Santiago.

En su construcción se utilizó un factor sísmico de 1,57 (equivalente a factor de importancia), el cual fue puesto a prueba el 27/02 entregando un resultado óptimo, lo que permite brindar una completa tranquilidad a los clientes. Su diseño se destaca por equilibrar variables de gran importancia como lo son los espacios, la generación y respaldo eléctricos, el consumo, la capacidad de enfriamiento y la seguridad entre otras cosas.

Entre los elementos que utilizan tecnologías de vanguardia se encuentran sistemas de climatización que utilizan tecnología “super chiller” los que sacan provecho de la temperatura exterior cuando esta lo permite mediante el proceso llamado “free cooling”. Así no sólo se disminuye el consumo eléctrico sino que además reduce el nivel del ruido.

El nuevo edificio de Datacenter está construido según las recomendaciones constructivas de la norma TIA942, homologable a un estándar de nivel Tier3. Desde la perspectiva de procesos, están certificados con la norma ISO-9001:2000 y está en proceso de adopción e implementación del estándar ITIL para toda su plataformas de servicios TI.

7.- USM tiene nuevo Canal de Televisión vía web

La Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María ya cuenta con un canal de televisión. Se trata de “Sansanos TV”, un proyecto comunicacional creado por la Red de Ex Alumnos USM y que busca reafirmar la identidad de las personas que han sido estudiantes de la Institución.

Héctor Hidalgo, Coordinador General de la Red de Ex Alumnos USM, manifestó que “las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación han experimentado un gran avance, y debemos adaptarnos a esa realidad. Sansanos TV representa una nueva forma de comunicación con nuestros ex alumnos, que nos permite sacar provecho a una nueva tecnología como lo es un canal online”.

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“Los objetivos del medio no se reducen a la mera transmisión de información, sino que rescata la identidad sansana, potencia la vinculación y fomenta la participación colaborativa para la elaboración de contenidos. Cuando un ex alumno se siente parte del proyecto se logra una mayor afinidad, una cercanía que refuerza el sentido de partencia con su Alma Mater”, señaló.

El Coordinador de la Red de Ex Alumnos afirmó además que “el mundo sansano” ha ido cambiando. Hoy conviven distintas generaciones, con distintas formas de vida e intereses muy diversos. Sin embargo, como Unidad hemos apreciado que existen ciertos aspectos que nos identifican valóricamente y que son transversales para todos. Eso es lo que queremos rescatar con este nuevo medio”.

En tanto José Rodríguez, Rector de la Universidad Santa María, se mostró satisfecho con el nuevo medio de comunicación y dijo que “este nuevo proyecto es de calidad, y queda de manifiesto luego de ver el primer capítulo. Es una gran iniciativa que está muy acorde con las nuevas tecnologías”.Primer capítulo publicado el 28/05/2010 a las 18:08, www.sansanos.tv

8.- RSS una nueva herramienta WEB:RedifusiónRSS son las siglas de RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary, un formato XML para sindicar o compartir contenido en la web. Este acrónimo se usa para referirse a los siguientes estándares:

• Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91) • RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 y 1.0) • Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)

Se utiliza para difundir información actualizada frecuentemente a usuarios que se han suscrito a la fuente de contenidos. El formato permite distribuir contenidos sin necesidad de un navegador, utilizando un software diseñado para leer estos contenidos RSS (agregador). A pesar de eso, es posible utilizar el mismo navegador para ver los contenidos RSS. Las últimas versiones de los principales navegadores permiten leer los RSS sin necesidad de software adicional. RSS es parte de la familia de los formatos XML desarrollado específicamente para todo tipo de sitios que se actualicen con frecuencia y por medio del cual se puede compartir la información y usarla en otros sitios web o programas. A esto se le conoce como redifusión web o sindicación web (una traducción incorrecta, pero de uso muy común). A pesar que se introdujo en 1999, aún son muchas pas páginas web que aún no disponen de RSS.Información adicional en:

http://www.xul.fr/en-xml-rss.htmlhttp://www.rss.nom.es/

Existen muchos lectores, pero sobre todo de dos tipos: lectores RSS vía software y lectores RSS vía web. Son preferibles los últimos, ya que pueden consultarse desde cualquier sitio, aún sin disponer de su propio PC o notebook, donde esté instalado el software.Dentro del primer grupo tenemos programas como FeedDemon o FeedReader (éste último totalmente gratis) y dentro del grupo de lectores RSS vía web tenemos Bloglines, o NetVibes, éste último muy popular y gratuito.

9.- Verizon Conducts Field Trial of 10 Gbps XG-PON for Residential

June 23, 2010

fam’s teleco news 5/13

Continuing to leverage its fiber-to-the-home network, Verizon has completed a field trial of a second XG-PON fiber-optic distribution system connecting a FiOS customer location with 10 gigabits per second downstream to the home and 2.5 Gbps upstream.The latest field trial was conducted in May in Taunton, Mass., with a XG-PON system developed by Motorola, a supplier of BPON and GPON optical networking equipment to Verizon.At the customer's home, the optical network terminal (ONT) received the 10/2.5 Gbps feed and used two data communication ports to simultaneously provide transmission speeds of close to 1 Gbps to each of two PCs inside the home. Combined, the two ports delivered approximately 1.85 Gbps in aggregate bandwidth in each direction.Tests were designed to simulate what two different customers might experience while using their PCs to download, upload or share files to the Internet when served by a 10G PON system. In addition, speed tests were performed to Verizon's speed test server located more than 400 miles away in Reston, Va., realized speeds of up to 915 Mbps between the PC and the speed test server."XG-PON can provide the capacity needed to support the explosive growth in bandwidth envisioned for new and emerging services such as 3DTV and Ultra HD TV, and the growing demand for streaming video content to the PC and TV, as well as the increased use of concurrent applications," said Vincent O'Byrne, director of technology for Verizon's FTTP architecture and design effort, in a statement.The Verizon technology team plans to continue testing XG-PON with other suppliers in the laboratory and in the network, and also, by year-end, to submit to suppliers a request for information for XG-PON technology.

10.- PON Power Cable Operators Get 'Passive' AggressiveInteresante artícilo publicado en Communication Thecnology, el que se adjunta como anexo

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Fam /25 de Junio de 2010

fam’s teleco news 6/13

All flavors of PONs are being pushed closer to the customer, and cablecos are weighing their network options.

By George Lawton CT contributor. Contact him at glawton@gmail.com

Cable operators are starting to explore a variety of technologies for moving fiber closer to homes and businesses using Passive Optical Networks (PONs). Analog PON technologies like RF over Glass (RFoG) promise to increase bandwidth while keeping operational costs down. Meanwhile, digital PON technologies (including Ethernet PON [EPON] and Gigabit PON [GPON]) are being used to provide high-bandwidth commercial services.“If cable operators can put money on construction into fiber instead of coax, it will have a longer service live and more long-term value,” said Bill Dawson, business development manager at Arris.PON networks also promise numerous operational advantages, added Roger Hughes, senior operations engineer at Armstrong Cable. They eliminate RF amplifiers, which reduces the need for sweeps and command line interface (CLI) testing. Furthermore, the fiber plant is less impacted by thunderstorms because the lightning does not affect the fiber. During thunderstorms, the technicians end up spending time replacing fuses, which is not an issue in the fiber plant.Almost everyone seems to agree that fiber will continue to be pushed closer to the customer. Jeff Heynen, directing analyst with Infonetics Research, believes operators will have to weigh the tradeoffs between running fiber deeper into the neighborhood to reduce coax splits and running it all the way to the home.“Operators will push more fiber out to then optical nodes to split them logically and physically so you can reduce the number of homes supported per node,” he explained. “There is also a way of using PON as an aggregating device.”In the short run, Heynen expects smaller cable operators, particularly in rural areas, to adopt RFoG because they don’t want to disrupt their heavy investment in set-top boxes. Digital PON technologies like EPON and GPON would require residential service providers to move to Internet-protocol (IP)based set-top boxes. On the other hand, PON is an attractive technology for telcos planning to offer triple-play services.

Bringing Fiber HomeRFoG is a class of PON in which a single analog signal is transmitted over a fiber-optic network directly to multiple homes. It uses the same types of protocols found in traditional hybrid fiber coax (HFC) system, only the optoelectronic (OE) conversion is done on the side of the house rather than inside the network; a single optical signal is shared among multiple homes. A smaller number of homes share a return path to the headend. Consequently, in a RFoG network, one broadcast fiber is shared by a large number of homes, while a return fiber is shared by a smaller number of homes (between 32 and 128, depending on service requirements).RFoG systems cost less to build in rural areas than do traditional HFC networks. They also promise to reduce maintenance and powering costs greatly for rural and urban network operators over time. Once the fiber for RFoG is in place, it can be shared or reused for other types of networks in the future.As such, subdivisions that would have been cost-prohibitive to build out in the past now can be justified with fiber. For example, Buckeye Cable is building RFoG out to areas with only 15 to 30 homes per mile. “It has been expensive to build out there, so they have not had have good cable-TV service,” said Joe Jensen, Buckeye’s CTO.Armstrong Cable has used RFoG for all of its new networks during the last couple of years. The Armstrong network uses equipment from Aurora Networks for optical transport, All Optic's ONTs on the

fam’s teleco news 7/13side of the house, and splice enclosures from Preformed Line Products. The Armstrong network currently passes some 12,000 homes, of which about half already are on the RFoG network.According to Hughes, RFoG deployments can be profitable in rural areas with as few as 15 homes passed per mile. “In general, RFoG networks cost between 10-percent and 15-percent less to build per mile. Furthermore, there’s no CLI or sweeping of the amplifiers,” he said. “This means that we expand the network without adding technicians to maintain it.’The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) still is debating the emerging RFoG standard (SCTE IPS SP 910); finalization of the standard will help bring prices down, Hughes said. He expects two separate standards to be developed, one designed to coexist with EPON services using more expensive optics and a simpler approach that would not allow an RFoG network to share the fiber as easily. A RFoG-only network could use cheaper 1310 nm lasers for the return; the use of a more expensive 1610 nm laser would allow the same fiber to be shared with an EPON network.

Fiber to the BusinessDigital PON technology like EPON and GPON are used by telcos to provide triple-play services. Cable operators in general are using these technologies today only to provide business services. EPON has been more widely used in Asia, but many believe it will gain traction in the United States, particularly with cable operators because of ease of integration with DOCSIS.The data rate described for both EPON and GPON systems is shared by all of the subscribers on a network. For example, on a 1 gigabit/s EPON, each of 32 subscribers on a loop only would have access to 31.25 megabit/s.The telco set of PON technologies include ATM PON (APON), broadband PON (BPON), GPON and 10G-GPON. These have seen the most traction domestically, such as Verizon’s deployment of GPON. The technology also is used widely by cable operators to provide business-networking services, but there are challenges with integrating GPON management and provisioning systems with DOCSIS , which has limited its use for wider deployments. Cable operators using GPON have to manage these services separately, unlike traditional HFC-based services. The IEEE-based EPON and its successor, 10G-EPON, are starting to attract interest from cable operators, driven in part by the development of tools and standards to provide better integration with DOCSIS.Although Buckeye is just getting into RFoG, it is currently on its third-generation deployment of GPON for commercial services. When these services were launched five years ago, GPON was the most practical technology for reaching business subscribers with high-bandwidth services in a cost-effective manner, said Jensen. Using equipment from Calix, Buckeye has deployed GPON across about 70 percent of its hubs to hundreds of business customers.

PON vs. ponThere are many different approaches for building passive optical networks, only a few of which are sold with the marketing label “PON.” Here’s a quick rundown of the various approaches to put them in perspective.Passive optical networksTechnically speaking, a passive optical network is any networking architecture that does not convert optical signals into electricity and back to optical in a process called OE or OEO (optical-electrical-optical) conversion. This is an important property, particularly when you start to insert multiple optical signals onto a single fiber, because the lack of OEO conversion means the network can scale just by switching out the equipment in the headend and the home without having to touch any of the equipment in the middle of the network.A passive optical network (PON) can include electrically powered optical amplifiers that boost the optical signals of multiple wavelengths without having to convert each one into an electrical signal. These optical amplifiers use less power than does an electrical switch, and they don’t have to be replaced when a particular link is upgraded.Analog PON – RFoG (SCTE IPS SP 910)

fam’s teleco news 8/13RF over Glass (RFoG) is an approach to deploying traditional cable-TV services over fiber to the home. It fits in with the traditional cable-TV transmission models, set-top boxes and cable modems. The SCTE currently is working on standards for RFoG.Digital PON: EPON and GPONGPON ( ITU-T G.984) and 10G-GPON (ITU-FSAN)EPON (IEEE 802.3ah), 10G-EPON (IEEE 802.3av)A second class of passive optical technology shares a single digital optical signal across multiple homes or businesses, and is usually the only technology called “PON” in marketing literature. Two separate families of standards have emerged based on IEEE Ethernet (EPON/GEPON and 10-GEPON) and ITU ATM (APON, BPON and GPON). Both technologies are used by traditional telcos for commercial and residential services. However, cable operators only are using GPON/EPON for commercial services, owing to management challenges. Video services over EPON and GPON also require a transition to an IP-based set-top box for MSOs. These provide 1.25 gigabit/s to 2.4 gigabit/s of service, which can be shared by as many as 32 locations.Active NetworksActive networks typically run 100 megabit/s to 1 gigabit/s Ethernet links to homes or businesses over a dedicated optical connection. These are called “active networks” because hubs in the field do OEO conversion. However, some operators are moving the active electronics into the central office, thereby eliminating all of the active components from the field. These kinds of networks can reduce the cost of equipment, but they increase fiber management costs and challenges.WDM-PON and Wavelength StackingMultiple optical signals can be added to a single optical fiber. Many vendors are starting to offer wavelength stacking equipment, which can carry between two and eight different wavelengths for RFoG, EPON and 10-GEPON at the same time. At the extreme, vendors are developing a new class of PON called a WDM-PON, which uses a separate wavelength for each PON subscriber. These systems can support 32 or more wavelengths. WDM-PON still is in its infancy, and it’s not widely deployed.Jensen said the GPON equipment is reliable and allows Buckeye to deliver a tailored Ethernet pipe to customers, but one of the downsides is that it has to use a separate management-and-billing system for the GPON services. “We do have some nice provisioning capabilities on the DOCSIS side that we don’t have on the PON side,” Jensen explained, “but, at this point, we are a small-enough operation that full automation is not an issue for us.”If EPON had been available earlier, Buckeye may have chosen a different path. “I have an inherent distaste for ATM. If EPON had been available, it would have been the preferred solution,” Jensen said. “We have not seen fit to change it. We are contemplating on when we could make that transition, but we have an installed base that is strong. We have a lot of legacy equipment that we would like to get the return on our investment from.”

Tapped OutThere are several different ways of splitting out the fiber in a PON or RFoG network. A PON hub typically is configured to support 32 homes. Although it is possible to run a single fiber from this hub to each node, many operators use a more distributed approach in which multiple splitters are deployed closer to the home. At the extreme, equipment makers like CommScope are developing systems that allow operators to deploy networks with the same kind of split characteristics as coax networks.Buckeye chose this technology in its RFoG retrofit project in a neighborhood with buried cable. This project calls for retrofitting the existing HFC plant installed underground throughout a subdivision with 15,000 feet of cable. The project is using Alloptics transceivers and networking equipment from CommScope BrightPath.

fam’s teleco news 9/13

PON ManagementOne of the big challenges with PON technologies has been the limited support for DOCSIS. GPON has no DOCSIS support, and cable operators that have deployed the technology have needed to use a dedicated provisioning-and-billing system.EPON has been gathering more interest by cable providers because it can coexist with DOCSIS better, said John Homsey, senior director/sales & applications engineering at Hitachi. “MSOs are looking for an incremental solution that can coexist with the existing network,” he said. “DOCSIS over EPON is opening the door for that.”This approach promises to provide a better migration path for cable operators looking to get into PON. According to Homsey, there currently is a big gap between the DOCSIS world and what EPON does. What is missing is the translation tool from the DOCSIS OSS to the EPON equipment.The cable provider also liked the CommScope BrightPath technology because it allowed the operator to mimic the layout of the existing coax network with taps and splitters. With this layout, a main distribution cable runs down the street, which is connected to a series of 2-, 4- or 8-port taps in line with the distribution architecture.Carl Meyerhoefer, vice president/marketing at CommScope, said, “This architecture has similar tap values as splits in the HFC world. From the installation-and-design standpoint, the layout looks and smells like a HFC network, which makes it intuitive for cable operators to understands and deploy.”Other operators used EPON from the beginning. For example, Chesterfield, Mo.-based Broadstripe, with some 32,000 subscribers, launched a commercial data service over EPON about a year ago to an industrial park with 34 tenants. Fiber-optic cables were built from an Aurora VHub to each building in the park. Broadstripe already had dark fiber at the main street outside of the park, and all it had to do was run the fiber through the park.“EPON gave us the most bang for our buck in terms of providing what the industrial park and the city were looking for,” said Dave Harwood, Broadstripe’s general manager. “But the technology only makes sense in areas where there is a concentrated need for high bandwidth. EPON is something that only works if you have enough business customers in a group. Otherwise, it is not cost-effective today.”

Getting ActiveWhile PON has been gathering a lot of momentum, some early PON operators are moving toward active networks. For example, CT Communications, a triple-play provider with about 10,000 subscribers near Urbana, Ohio, has deployed a fairly substantial BPON network. It recently made a transition to an active network using Allied Telesis equipment.Tim Bolander, director of network operations at CT Communications, noted, “The amount of bandwidth we can offer is not comparable with passive. We are offering 100 megabit/s now and could offer 1 gigabit/s if we needed to.”Making that kind of transition is more difficult with PON, and Bolander believes a PON network requires more labor. The active network also is more user-friendly to monitor. When a problem occurs, it’s easy to identify the source when every customer has his or her own dedicated link, Bolander added.Active networks use a single point-to-point fiber-optic link between the service provider and the customer. They are called active networks because an OEO switch can be used in the field to manage the connections with multiple homes or businesses. Because the line is not shared, the electronics and lasers can be cheaper than in PON networks.Traditionally, a telco would deploy a single high-speed link to an OEO node in the field, which would manage the connections electrically with multiple customers. However, many operators are starting to build networks that blur the line between passive and active technologies by moving these OEO nodes into the central office and running a single dedicated fiber from the central office. In essence, they are building a PON using lower-cost active ONTs and ONUs.

fam’s teleco news 10/13

Cleaning Out the CoaxWhen a cable operator decides to bring fiber to an existing neighborhood, it needs to consider the most cost-effective way to replace whatever technology already is installed. With aerial cable systems, the best option is to bring a new line of fiber across the poles. When the existing plant is buried underground, the costs of digging a new trench can be prohibitive.Rather than trying to run new fiber-optic cable throughout the neighborhood, Buckeye is experimenting with a technique to clean out the unused ½-in. coax cable sheath, repurposing it to be a conduit for carrying fiber. This “Kabel-X” technology injects a thick fluid into the coax under pressure and compresses the foam core so it can be pushed out. This piece is extracted from the core with the central aluminum-copper-clad member in the middle of it.Buckeye was in a unique position to test this approach without disrupting service because it had an unused half-inch coax cable buried from a previous dual-able installation that had been upgraded to run on one 860 MHz cable in the late 1990s. “We are in a unique circumstance of having extra coax. One of the things we will need to consider is whether that technology can also apply to runs with one coax,” Jensen said. “Then we need to come up with ways to minimize customer outage time as we replace that core with fiber.”The Buckeye maintenance team cleaned out all of the cable in this particular neighborhood before winter hit. It took the operator about 45 minutes to set up the system and to blow the core out of the coax. It took two crews a total of 2.5 weeks to clean out the entire 15,000-sq.-ft. coax plant.“This is more cost-effective than trenching or horizontal drilling (and we didn’t have to dig up yards), other than having to extend fiber drops, and we have had no disruption of service,” he said. “Our customers will not see any outage other than when we roll home service from coax to fiber.”Proponents of this approach argue that the biggest capital expense is the construction cost rather than the extra fiber. Each link can run as far as 80 kilometers. Furthermore, these types of networks can use less-costly transceivers than PONs. Phil Jopa, CTO at Allied Telesis, said PON chips are two or three times more expensive than active chips because they need special lasers and receivers for sharing the optical channel, while active systems don’t.The latest trend is for operators to use dedicated point-to-point connections. Juan Vela, director/strategic products and markets at Occam, explained, “We are seeing the splitter is being designed closer and closer to the central office or headend so that if an operator wants to take the splitter out, they can replace it with active equipment.”As noted previously, most of the cost of new builds is in construction rather than in the cable itself. When installing fiber, it costs the same to trench 144 fibers as it does to trench 12. However, some cable operators are skeptical about the operational issues associated with having to manage so many fibers. As Armstrong’s Roger Hughes noted, “I don’t like going directly to each home because, when you have a fiber cut, you have a lot of fiber to fix. In my model, there are only four to six active fibers to each home. In the event of a break, the technician can be in and out in a few minutes, but a cable with dedicated fiber for each home would take days to replace.”

MaintenanceA little bit of upfront planning can greatly improve the maintenance process in the long haul. For example, Hughes said his company spent a considerable amount of time and research developing a fiber plan that simplifies maintenance and makes it easy to restore service in the event of a fiber cut.Armstrong has standardized on 12-, 24- and 36-count fiber, with some 60 percent of the Armstrong plant being 12-count fiber to help simplify ordering and inventory. Hughes said this makes sense even though the company only is using a fraction of the fibers strung between poles. According to Hughes, Armstrong wanted to have plenty of extra fiber to expand when required.The cables were segmented in the order in which they were to be spliced. The main feed fibers were replaced first, followed by the distribution fibers. “We’ve come up with a way where you don’t need a written record at the fiber because you can go through them in a sequence,” Hughes said. “The first

fam’s teleco news 11/13fibers carry the most traffic, while the last one will be single-customer. We designed this process with operations in mind so you don’t have to resort to operations sheets in the event of a break.”

WDM and PONThere are two ways to increase bandwidth on an optical network: add more optical wavelengths or increase the capacity on a particular wavelength. There are tradeoffs in both approaches.Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) is the process of inserting multiple optical signals onto a single fiber. Coarse WDM (CWDM) can allow a network to stack two to eight wavelengths together. A number of vendors, including Hitachi, CommScope, Aurora and Arris, are delivering CWDM solutions today. One version of the RFoG specification even calls for modifications for RFoG wavelengths to be stacked with EPON.More advanced technology allows for dense WDM (DWDM), in which as many as 80 separate wavelengths are stacked on a fiber. A few vendors, including ADVA Optical, have developed WDM-PON, which uses DWDM to deliver a separate wavelength to each home.Jim Theodorus, director/technical marketing at ADVA, said that, in the long run, these techniques will provide the management efficiencies of a reduced fiber count, and the increased bandwidth possible by giving each subscriber a dedicated wavelength. The technology has been deployed commercially in South Korea and China, but it has seen only limited interest in the United States.Individual optical fibers are stored in a colored plastic buffer tube, with as many as 12 fibers carried in one blue, orange or green buffer tube. The blue buffer tube is for distribution fiber, used only for 12-count fiber; it is used to feed the couplers. The orange tube provides feeds from facilities-based locations; it goes back to the headend or it provides a return path to the facilities.Cable operators also need to think about developing a wavelength plan as they begin to place multiple optical signals on a single fiber, recommended Bill Dawson, business development manager at Arris; it’s important to think through how to stack services like RFoG and EPON together. “This plan creates a framework for how to deploy wavelengths in the long run to get the most out of the fiber plant,” he said.

PON Power

Fiber Skill SetsAs cable operators bring more fiber to their RFoG and PON networks, they need to think about improving the operational and technical issues associated with the physical placement and interconnection of that fiber. This kind of expertise typically only existed in pockets of fiber experts.Mechanical fiber-optic connectors can allow technicians to turn up new service quickly, but Hughes said they are the weakest link in a fiber network and are one of the most common points of failure. To reduce these problems, Armstrong fusion-splices almost every connection in its network. The fusion-splicing process adds about 40 minutes to the traditional HFC install time, with Hughes explaining it takes a little longer because there are a few more steps compared to putting on a F-fitting.“The biggest problem with the traditional model of connectors and cross connects are the mechanical connectors,” said Armstrong's Hughes. “This is a big maintenance point somewhere in the life of an optical connection. The other thing is that if you run a whole bunch of fiber to a cross-connect location, the fiber counts can get high and hard to manage.”It’s becoming easier to equip technicians with fusion-splicing equipment. The newest handheld fusion slicers cost about $6,000, comparable in price to a digital signal level or DOCSIS meter. The older fusion splicers cost between $30,000 and $40,000, and they weren’t as portable. Armstrong provides one fusion splicer for every 1,000 homes, which appears to be doing well. And on an initial build, the techs get extra splicers.Buckeye has been doing fiber to buildings for 10 years. It has built up some expertise, but it is only used on special installations. Jensen said, “As we went through this test, we identified that we cannot use

fam’s teleco news 12/13traditional fiber-splicing methods, which means putting up a tent and doing this under clean lab conditions. We will have to improve that significantly."As it grows its RFoG network, Jensen pointed out that the amount of time to connect to fibers can be a bottleneck in a larger rollout. This can be even more significant during rain or snow. Consequently, he is investigating a variety of approaches to reduce fiber-splice time significantly. Today, most of the time is spent setting up the splice and removing the equipment.In its first deployments, a little more than an hour was spent to set the tent up, get the gear in place and then take it away. “I would like to see that time cut by twothirds,” said Jensen. “If we could get a better setup, we could do a splice in 15 or 20 minutes. We’re not where we could do this in volume yet.”The only really critical part is during the actual splice, when water could damage the equipment or interfere with the process. Hughes explained that, with today’s fusion splicer, most of the prep work can be done with the fusion splicer stored in a pocket. The area only needs to be covered during the actual splicing process, which takes about a minute.Hughes added, “The guys have developed a techniques where they prepare everything, pull the fusion splicer out, do the splice. The prep takes 10 minutes to get a drop in. If it’s raining hard, there are tents to help prepare the splice but most installers say it’s more of a hassle than to just do the splice under their raincoats.”While the use of PON technologies promises to help cable operators shave their power bills, at the same time, it raises some new challenges. Arris' Dawson said, “Powering RFoG is a good news/bad news story. You don’t have to pay the cost of power, but you do have to offer power integrity even if the power goes out.” Cable operators need to take into account a few power considerations with the transition to PON for powering the PON hubs and powering the electronics on the home.One of the nice elements of PONs is that the equipment in the field requires significantly less power. The networks typically are built with an optical amplifier that can be mounted on a pole and requires some power. This can sometimes be powered by the existing coax plant. For example, when Broadstripe rolled out G-EPON services to a business park, it was able to mount the equipment on the pole with a module that is powered over the 60-volt AC current carried on the HFC network. A traditional power supply with 120-volt power would have required an electrician, a meter and a permit.Al Humphrey, a regional engineer for Broadstripe, said, “We did not have to wait for permitting and the installation of an active OTN. With the traditional network design, we would have had to build a larger cabinet and install active equipment that required AC in the park. Part of our cost advantage came from not needing those permits and not having to build an active OTN.”With PON, operators eliminate the need to power the network over the coax, but this creates a need to deliver power to the device mounted on the side of the home. Unless the box is installed in a garage with a power outlet, operators typically have to install a power unit inside the home and then transmit power to the side of the house over coax, Ethernet or twisted pair wires. If the network is used for telephone service, a UPS has to be built into the power supply to keep the phones working in the event of a power outage.As an example, for its first trial, Buckeye is powering the optical nodes with a UPS and power inserter from APC that can provide an eight-hour backup for the device in the home. Armstrong uses the Alpha FlexPoint to provide better backup and power on the coax.

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