Huawei launches intelligent optical splitter for FTTH networks

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. launched what it claims is the industry's first intelligent optical splitter for passive optical networks (PON) at the FTTH Conference in London last week. With this new optical splitter, operators can automatically identify and generation topological maps of the optical distribution network (ODN) for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, the company says.

The large-scale deployment of FTTH networks makes it challenging for operators to manage huge quantities of optical fibers, says Huawei. During the construction phase, operators have had to document the network topology through manual reports, which is an inefficient and time consuming process and not always 100% accurate, which affected operations and maintenance (O&M).

In addition, during the operational phase, the optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR)-based fault finding process detects faults according to the signal intervals returning from different branches, which fails when optical fiber branches are of the same length and sometimes requires reverse fault diagnosis by sending engineers out to households. Consequently, customer satisfaction decreases because it takes longer to find and remedy faults.

With the built-in optical domain identity and the advanced ID identification technology applied in the central office, the newly released intelligent splitter enables remote detection of optical splitter branches and automatic topology identification, which greatly improves the management efficiency and quality of the optical fiber network, according to Huawei.

The intelligent optical splitter also implements fault alarming, diagnosis, and responsibility definition for each branch by using a two-dimensional fault detecting system featuring optical domain identity and OTDR-based signal interval feedback, which significantly enhances the efficiency of operations and maintenance processes.

“The newly added intelligent optical splitter to the iODN solution truly realizes intelligent intensive management of optical fibers in FTTH networks,” said Wang Dexiang, director of fiber infrastructure business unit at Huawei.

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