What is FTTX and what are its variations?
First up, let’s clarify that FTTX itself appears in two formats: FTTX or FTTx. However, they both mean the same thing and that’s ‘Fiber to the X’, which is a collective term for all the various fiber delivery methods.
ADSL (or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is the more traditional, wired cable method of internet that uses electric signals. Fiber, on the other hand, uses light to transmit signals to the ‘X’ which represents a particular object, for example, a home or end-user premise.
FTTX is a central component of what’s called Next-Generation Access or NGA, which is the evolution of broadband infrastructure towards faster speeds and Quality of Service (QoS), something that’s obviously crucial with the increasing adoption of IoT, VoIP and even blockchain technology.
Tuesday morning, 9.10am
Paul, IT Director, ABC Company
“Morning James, how’s it going?
So, what’s our plan to fix this FTTX issue that’s affecting our VoIP service at the moment?”
James, IT Infrastructure Manager, ABC Company
“Morning Paul. Well, I spoke with our supplier and we seem to have two main options – either FTTP in the form of FTTB, or FTTC. We could go with FTTR but that would be quite a bit more expensive.”
Paul
“Ok, well, as you know, our CEO is really keen to have the best of the best – is there anything available that would give us that?”
James
“The ultimate option is to actually build our very own FTTX network, but that might be a bit extreme for the size of the company right now.”
Paul
“Hmmm, right. Well, can you draw up the different options with pros and cons so we can present them to the ExCo? We really need to get this FTTP thing fixed ASAP.”
James
“Sure, I’ll have that ready by EOB.”
Sound familiar? We’ve probably all been subject to the ‘acronym conversation’ at work, and the world of FTTX is no different.
Don’t worry though as we’re here to sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak, or the fiber from the copper to use a more relevant analogy!
What are the benefits of FTTX?
Old copper-based networks are fast being replaced with FTTX all across the world, mainly because of speed and capacity issues. FTTX is essentially faster and can cope with a lot more traffic. It’s also able to transmit data at higher transmission rates and with more consistent connectivity, something we’re all more than happy to hear!
On a more technical level, it not only provides long-distance signal transmission and immunity against electromagnetic interference, but it also operates at a lower overall energy consumption too. Again, music to many a business’ ear!
When it comes to ‘Fiber to the Home’ (FTTH) in particular, what’s essentially happening is that you’re moving fiber closer to the user, allowing for traffic bottlenecks to be almost eliminated. Some analysts even claim that the maintenance costs are much, much lower than for the copper network too – which makes the network suppliers happy as well.
What are the different types of FTTX?
The world of FTTX is fraught with acronyms, but they’re actually quite simple to get your head around.
FTTX architecture can be categorised into two main groups:
FTTP architecture and acronyms explained
FTTC architecture and acronyms explained
So, to recap, FTTX refers to all types of fiber infrastructure. FTTP goes all the way to the premises and includes FTTH, FTTB and FTTR. FTTC, which is very similar to FTTN, goes only partway, with copper cabling usually doing the rest.