Wired Communications Installing Outside Fiber Optics (OSP)

WIRED knows Fiber Optics!!!

Telephone networks are mainly outside plant (OSP) systems, connecting buildings over distances as short as a few hundred meters to hundreds or thousands of kilometers. Data rates for telecom are typically 2.5 to 10 gigabits per second using very high power lasers that operate exclusively over single-mode fibers. The big push for telecom is now taking fiber directly to a commercial building or the home since the signals are now too fast for traditional twisted copper pairs.

CATV also uses single-mode fibers with systems that are either hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) or digital where the backbone is fiber and the connection to the home is on coax. Coax still works for CATV since it has very high bandwidth itself. Some CATV providers have discussed or even tried some fiber to the home, but have not seen the economics become attractive yet.

Besides telecom and CATV, there are many other OSP applications of fiber. Intelligent highways are dotted with security cameras and signs and/or signals connected to fiber. Security monitoring systems in large buildings like airports, government and commercial buildings, casinos, etc. are generally connected on fiber due to the long distances involved. Like other networks, premises applications are usually multimode while OSP is single-mode to support longer links.

Metropolitan networks owned and operated by cities can carry a variety of traffic, including surveillance cameras, emergency services, educational systems, telephone, LAN, security, traffic monitoring, and control. Sometimes even traffic for commercial interests using leased bandwidth on dark fibers or city-owned fibers. However, since most are designed to support longer links than premises or campus applications, single-mode is the fiber of choice.

For all except premises applications, fiber is the communications medium of choice, since its greater distance and bandwidth capabilities make it either the only choice or considerably less expensive than copper or wireless. Only inside buildings is there a choice to be made, and that choice is affected by economics, network architecture, and the tradition of using copper inside buildings.