Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Technology Benefits

Astonishingly fast Internet access with simultaneous delivery of high definition IPTV and voice over IP services -- all at a cost comparable to a single, low-speed DSL service. These are the tantalizing benefits of Fiber to the Home (FTTH) broadband access technologies.

PMC-Sierra has announced plans to develop ITU-T G.984 standard-compliant GPON devices for central office and CPE equipment.

Already deployed to over a million homes in Japan, the future of high bandwidth network access is bright with new gigabit/second and faster technologies becoming affordable to consumers across the globe. Who dares predict what new applications will evolve when accessing information from the web is as fast as accessing your local PC hard drive and when high-definition television can be intertwined with true interactive data networking and voice services?

Market Drivers

Telecommunications service providers who will profit from the new integrated communications services they can offer consumers are driving the deployment of FTTH technologies. They know that consumers will leap at the chance to obtain Internet access that is thousands of times faster than DSL and cable solutions if that service is comparable in cost and comes with extras such as the ability to add hundreds of high definition video channels and services such as video on demand.

Prices for fiber optic cable and transceivers have dropped significantly since the 1990s so that today, point-to-multipoint fiber infrastructure offers reach, scalability, and almost unlimited bandwidth at a cost that makes FTTH deployment practical. By deploying FTTH infrastructure, service providers and telecommunications carriers can put into place a long-term service solution that can provide a host of existing and as yet unimagined services for the consumer and for business. Unlike active copper-based infrastructure designed to last only a few years, passive fiber links do not deteriorate in the field and last indefinitely unless they are cut or removed.

With the potential to reshape the relationship between consumers and the telecommunications carriers and service providers, FTTH offers an opportunity that few carriers can afford to pass up. Consequently, there is worldwide interest in successful deployment of FTTH broadband access networks.

What's Being Done Today

The acknowledged leader in FTTH deployments is Japan. The world's largest telecommunications carrier NTT began volume deployments of gigabit Ethernet PON FTTH in 2003 and ramped up rapidly in 2004 and 2005. By the first half of 2005, in Japan there were more new installations of FTTH to connect consumers to the Internet than there were new DSL connections, marking a major milestone for the entire worldwide FTTH industry.

Keys to Successful Mass Deployment of FTTH

The single most important factor to spur widespread deployment of FTTH in the broadband access network is lowering the cost of equipment. There is no question of the performance advantages of FTTH technology over DSL and cable access technologies. FTTH delivers far greater bandwidth. There is no question that consumers will rapidly adopt FTTH technology if the cost is comparable to existing access solutions. The only question is for the carrier -- can the cost of laying fiber to the home and installing the FTTH infrastructure be low enough to allow the carrier to charge a reasonable service fee and recoup its investment in a reasonable amount of time?

This is where PMC-Sierra provides its advantages. PMC-Sierra FTTH semiconductors and supporting firmware are low-cost single-chip semiconductors that provide full-featured high-speed FTTH performance and give carriers the ability to customize performance to fit their preferred service portfolio. PMC-Sierra supports carriers and the system OEMs that supply them in their efforts to deliver gigabit performance at the lowest possible bill of materials.

There are several factors that play into lowering the cost of FTTH deployment. One is standards compatibility. When equipment can be designed for interoperability, this lowers the cost for carriers, for system OEMs and ultimately for consumers. Another is the ability to pack more features, higher performance and scalability into the FTTH components themselves. PMC-Sierra components are standards-compliant, provide the highest available performance and include customizable features that will allow carriers to extend the life of their FTTH infrastructure.