Fiber To The Home

Last updated: Mar 27, 2020

Fiber to the Home or simply FTTH is a technology that uses optical fiber directly from the central point to the residential premises (as shown in the following image). It provides uninterrupted high-speed internet service. Here, “H” includes both home and small business.

FTTH is the ultimate fiber access solution where each subscriber is connected to an optical fiber. The deployment options discussed in this tutorial are based on a complete optical fiber path from the Optical Line Termination (OLT) right to the subscriber premises.

Why FTTH?

Fiber offers a number of advantages over the previous technologies (Copper).

* Easily upgradeable
* Easy to install
* Allows fully symmetric services
* Reduces operations and maintenance costs
* Covers very long distances
* Strong, flexible, and reliable
* Allows small diameter and lightweight cables
* Safe and secure
* Immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI)
* Lower cost

Services	Bandwidth
Data Download	10 Mbps
VoIP and video-conference	1 Mbps
Music on demand, multimedia contents	2 Mbps
On-line Gaming	1 Mbps
SD Digital TV	3 Mbps
HD Digital TV	8 Mbps
Additional TV channels	16 Mbps

Optical Fiber Method can be deployed in two ways: Active Method and Passive Method. The current mass FTTH deployment is based on the passive method. Hence, let’s discuss the Passive Method in detail.