Page 9 - 20180911 Access Transformation white Paper Final

Fiber Action - A Different Animal

The architecture actions described in a copper world above do not apply to deployed FTTH architectures. For both P2P and PON FTTH
distance is not a practical limitation so there is no need to move active equipment deeper into the outside plant. PON networks are
designed from the initial deployment with a low split ratio and a flexible outside plant passive splitter architecture with the intent to
accommodate different split ratios in the future. Reducing the physical split ratio, in most cases involves reconfiguring connection in
splitter panels and OLT ports rather than moving physical equipment.
With the introduction of multiple wavelengths in Time and Wavelength Division Multiplexed Passive Optical Network (TWDM-PON)
and the fact that an ONT can only tune into one of these wavelengths, the spatial scope for each wavelength is effectively reduced.

Fixed Wireless Action - Small cells,
Frequency Overlay

Architecture actions are even more important in
wireless than in wireline networks.

Much like in wireline networks, deep fiber
architecture actions are becoming commonplace for

two reasons.

Firstly, to reduce the number of subscribers sharing the spectrum. In the mobile wireless networks small cells are introduced in a Macro
cell coverage area to provide more bandwidth per active subscriber. Secondly, wireless signal propagation and material penetration
drops of very steeply in the higher frequencies. This is prominent with the usage of the cmWave and the mmWave access technologies
as shown in the figure above.
Another network architecture action being considered is to have antennas in multiple frequency domains serving the same sector on a
tower. With each client designed to tune into only one of the frequencies the number of subscribers per frequency decreases and the
bandwidth per subscriber increases.

Network Convergence

The access architecture models described in this paper are single technology architectures. In real networks often a combination of
access technologies needs to be used to reach the subscriber. The access technology used to backhaul traffic can be different from the
technology used to reach the customer customer premise equipment(CPE).

As an example, in Multi Dwelling Units (MDU) service providers do now always have the rights to install or replace cabling in the
building and are forced to use the existing wiring ro reach each living unit. FTTH service providers will in this case use PON access
technoloy to a MDU-ONT in the building and use a copper technology such as VDSL or HFC to go from the MDU-ONT to each
individual living unit.

Another very interesting example is mobile backhaul. For macro cells (even to a certain extent for small cells) dedicated fiber
connections exist for every single cell to bring traffic back to the metro and core networks. With the proliferation of cell locations that
are needed in full small cell coverage and especially in ultra-smalls cell deployments, dedicated fiber build outs become unpractical
giving rise to the use of existing access networks to backhaul cell traffic.

In the past when fixed-mobile convergence was discussed, it was mostly converged IP infrastructure in the edge, metro or core of the
network. Lately converged access networks are gaining a lot of traction giving rise to hybrid access networks.

pg. 9 © First Principles Innovations Proprietary