FTTH, Fiber To The Home
Fiber to the Home (FTTH) or Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) refers to a broadband telecommunications system based on fiber-optic cables and associated optical electronics for delivery of multiple advanced services such as the tripleplay of telephone, broadband Internet and television to homes and businesses.
Fiber-optic technology deployment costs are decreasing, making this technology a competitor to existing services. KMI Research forecasts that the total FTTH market for equipment, cable, and apparatus will reach $3.2 billion in 2009.
Two competing FTTP technologies are Active FTTP and PON (Passive Optical Network) architectures.
Active FTTP networks utilize equipment in neighborhoods (usually 1 equipment cabinet for every 400-500 subscribers). This neighborhood equipment performs layer 2/layer 3 switching and routing, offloading full layer 3 routing to the carrier’s central office. The 802.3ah standard enables service providers to deliver 100 Mbit/s full-duplex over a single singlemode fiber to the premise. Service providers using Active FTTP technologies include SureWest, iProvo, Grant County, UTOPIA, and Broadweave Networks.
PON FTTP networks on the other hand avoid the placement of electronics in the field. PON networks use passive splitters to distribute fiber to individual homes. One fiber is optically split into 16, 32, or 64 fibers (depending on the manufacturer) which are then distributed to residential or business subscribers. In PON architectures, the switching and routing is done at the carrier’s central office. Service providers using PON include Verizon (FiOS) and several greenfield development networks.
Resources:
Fiber to the Home Council
FTTH Blog
From the Wikipedia article on Fiber to the Home/Fiber to the Premises