PPC blog

PPC Broadband, Inc. has acquired the Nebraskan-based fiber provider, Net-Tech Technology (NT2) - a move that will add a range of innovative optical passives products to PPC's fiber business unit.

"Broadband providers are driving fiber deeper into their networks, increasing speed and capacity to meet subscriber demand," says PPC President Dave Jackson. "The year-over-year spend continues to increase and we believe this trend will continue well into the future." 

The broadband headend environment evolves with the advance of technology and expands to satisfy consumer demand for data service. This poses challenges in many ways – space is at a premium, reliable power is essential, security has to be perfect, and the air has to be kept to specific parameters.

With respect to space, the headend environment has seen a transition from standard RG6 cable to high-quality mini-coaxial cable and connectors that have a smaller footprint, such as MCX-type connector products. So to accommodate technologies from video programming to 2-way digital service - the processing, receiving, and transmitting has to be better as the threshold of services such as DOCSIS 3.1 demands a more stringent network performance.

Connecting a building to a fiber or coax network can be extremely complex. When planning the deployment, you need to take into account the environmental and topographical conditions, select the best installation methodology, and choose the right equipment for the job.

Then you have to implement the plan, essentially carrying out a civil engineering project to ensure the cable successfully reaches its destination. This can involve re-using existing ducts or creating completely new paths into, and then around, buildings.

However, this is not the end of the job, and perhaps the most vital part is yet to come – testing. This not only enables you to check that the connection works correctly, but, most importantly, that it is reliable, meets relevant industry standards, and is acceptable to the network owner. This should be required on all installs, even if the network owner hasn’t mandated it.

We all regularly talk about Fiber to the Premise (FTTP)/Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks. But, in an era of specialisation, often we only know about the parts that we come into contact with during our working lives - such as the last drop connection, in the case of installers.

So what’s in an FTTP network and how does it work?

In brief, an FTTP network is made up of two main parts:

• The physical layer.
• The active optoelectronics. These can be in the central office, the outside network (if any) and at the customer premise.

The ITU-T standard helpfully defines the extent of a fiber network through the G series of recommendations.

It is G.984.2 that is most relevant here, as it covers GPON networks, and it is PONs I’ll address during this post.

Extending high speed fiber access through inside plant installations within buildings is often difficult, expensive and time consuming.

Often installations have to fit within very small spaces, such as congested ducts, and take up as little real estate as possible so as not to interfere with working areas. The environment is dynamic - floor plans change and new equipment is installed, so deployments need to be flexible and easy to upgrade, and if necessary re-route.

Fiber has to be protected with cables and ducts that are tough enough to withstand wear and tear from a whole range of enemies, such as accidental knocks from rogue technicians/installers, as well as needing to be small and easy to install. Protecting business critical data and communications that travel over fiber cables is a priority, but this requirement can be in conflict with the need to save space.

The move to the Cloud and explosion in Big Data is driving unprecedented growth in the data centre market. Analyst company TechNavio forecasts a 10.7% global compound annual growth rate in the years up to 2016. And data centres themselves are becoming larger and more central to business operations. Over the same timeframe IDC predicts that US data centre total square footage will rise from 611.4 million to 700 million, even though the number of facilities would drop by half a million. IDC analyst Richard Villars believes that “The datacenter is evolving from a term to describe a room or building where I put my IT equipment to a term to describe the facility on which I’ll build and run my business.”

Data centres are complex environments, with particular needs. Continued availability is crucial, meaning they have to meet stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) but at the same time it must be simple to move, add or replace equipment without disrupting operations as requirements change.