Huawei, Rostelecom collaborate on FTTH distribution boxes

Huawei says it has collaborated with Russian service provider Rostelecom to develop floor distribution boxes (FDBs) for use in Rostelecom’s flexible fiber to the home (FTTH) deployments. The FDBs will help improve the efficiency of the operator’s FTTH deployments, particularly in sparsely populated areas, Huawei says.

Rostelecom is under a mandate from the Russian government to connect 13 million FTTH users by 2015, Huawei says. This task is complicated by the fact that much of the operator’s footprint covers rural areas.

To improve deployment efficiency, Huawei says it recommended what it calls "the thin-covered network deployment model." According to the model, fiber-optic networks are constructed to user access points and the FDBs, the latter of which are used as the interface between the outside plant and the inside plant. As the network expands and more users are connected, pre-made drop cables can be used for plug-and-play, quick service provisioning.

The customized FDBs were designed for success-based deployment. Rostelecom can deploy FDBs that provide access to a single user, then add connections as many as four or eight users as take rates improve. Technicians can complete the expansion in one minute without the use of tools, Huawei says.

Huawei and Rostelecom will further collaborate on other network elements, including the closure, optical splitter, and fiber distribution terminal (FDT), the technology provider added.

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