Driven by unprecedented demand for Gigabit and fast emerging 10 Gigabit Broadband, Fiber to the Home (FTTH) deployment is expected to reach record numbers in the coming years. According to iDate, FTTH connections will more than double in Europe over the next six years, while RVA forecasts that FTTH investment in North America will double in the next five years compared to the previous five. In addition to homes, service providers are bringing fiber to the living unit in multiple dwelling units (MDUs) and into commercial and institutional buildings.
In all these scenarios, a cost-effective and compact optical network terminal (ONT) is typically placed inside each living unit or office to enable Gigabit or even 10 Gigabit connectivity. However, there are aesthetic and cost challenges to placing fiber inside residences or buildings. While service providers typically prefer to deploy ONTs deep within subscribers’ units with co-located Wi-Fi:
• there may be no existing fiber ducts or pathways to the ONT location.
• installing new ducts or cutting and patching walls can be very expensive and disruptive.
• surface mounting conventional fiber cables can be unsightly and result in optical signal loss when the cables are bent around the many sharp corners on the pathway to the ONT.
• wire molding or tape systems to house fiber are typically cost prohibitive, visible. and very slow to install.
To overcome these challenges, OFS has developed two new fiber solutions - EZ-Bend® cabling and InvisiLight® Solutions - that are virtually invisible and faster and easier to deploy. This paper explains these new enabling technologies that are being widely adopted by communications service providers (CSP).