TECHNOLOGY
Say Goodbye to the Splitter Cabinet
Fiber optic network designers traditionally designed outside-plant networks to
look like the copper networks they replaced. Changing cost structures are making
this design obsolete.
By David Stallworth
F
or the last eight years, I have closely
followed the costs of deploying fber to
the home and tracked how those costs
afect operators' overall cost structures. To
confgure the most economical outside-plant
(OSP) FTTH network, one must take all these
costs into account, together with take rate,
labor rate and density – three factors that, I
have found, afect FTTH economics more than
any other outside factors. I am still surprised
how little is heard about these factors from the
vendor community, consultants or engineering
companies. In many cases, vendors or
consultants commit to a single design strategy
and stick with it even if the take rate, labor rate
or changes in cost relationships suggest a switch
to a diferent strategy.
ThE ECONOMICS OF OSP
As I've discussed in earlier articles in this
magazine, there are three major approaches
Figure 1: A centralized splitter cabinet can serve several hundred customers over a large area.
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| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com
| May/June 2013