CommScope

The optical fiber network infrastructures installed today will typically see four generations of transmission systems over the network’s expected lifetime. As recent history has shown, the amount of data traffic these networks will carry will increase dramatically and continuously.

In order to cope with this increasing growth and anticipate the networks of tomorrow, a completely open spectral transmission window from 1260nm to 1625nm for data transmission and up to 1650nm for network monitoring is necessary in optical fiber cables.

Not all FTTH networks are built the same. Since construction and outside plant account for the majority of total network costs, getting the architecture right has a major impact on the business case.
 
The network architecture can also impact time-to-market, labor/training requirements, future upgradeability, network performance, and ultimately customer satisfaction. This paper provides an overview of two fundamental FTTH architecture categories—centralized and cascaded—that determines where in the network the fiber is split.