Huawei introduces fiber-to-the-door

Does the industry really need another FTTx network architecture? Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. seems to think so. The Chinese vendor has released what it calls the industry's first “fiber-to-the-door” (FTTD) portfolio, which provides broadband as fast as 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps by reusing existing twisted pairs or coaxial cables in the final drop.

Huawei says the new architecture overcomes the difficulties of the traditional fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) or fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) scenarios, such as drop fiber installation, slow deployment, and large initial investments, and will therefore provides operators with ultra-fast broadband access in a more practical and cost-effective manner.

Huawei says it has invested many years of technical research and engineering verification into this latest innovation. The FTTD access equipment is deployed at an outdoor position nearest to the user, such as in the corridor or the telecom riser. The existing twisted pairs, coaxial cables, and Ethernet network cables are reused to resolve the drop fiber installation issue. In addition, VDSL2, vectoring, and Giga DSL technologies can be used to provide broadband at speed from 100 Mpbs to 1 Gbps (see “Huawei touts 1 Gbps via Giga DSL”).

The FTTD equipment uses new techniques such as reverse power supply, free grounding, and free configuration to support the plug-and-play feature and remove the need to perform configurations on site. For service provisioning and OAM, the FTTH OSS system is reused so that equipment matching becomes easy.

"We believe that the FTTD solution can help our customers resolve difficulties in deploying FTTH networks," said You Yiyong, president, access network product line at Huawei. "Relying on the advantages of the FTTD solution such as ultra-broadband access through any medium, simple deployment, and remote management, operators can stay ahead of the fierce market competition and achieve business success."

The FTTD equipment is a component of Huawei's SingleFAN FTTx product family, which serves roughly one-third of broadband users globally, the company claims. According to Infonetics, Huawei's SingleFAN portfolio has maintained its number one ranking in the global passive optical network (PON) and DSL markets in Q3 2012.

Huawei says the FTTD equipment has been tested on the live networks of many operators worldwide with high satisfaction levels, and is to be put into trial commercial use in Europe and the Middle East.

For more information on FTTx/access systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.