Abstract :
This article is a progress report on the use of optical fiber as a successor to copper twisted pair of coax for "last mile" broadband access. We point out that the pressures for more per-user bandwidth are growing; that effective architectures have been designed, standardized, and placed in service; that fiber economies have become at least competitive with copper; and that promising early deployments have succeeded, particularly outside North America. As for North America, which lags the rest of the world in per-capita fiber access deployment, we note that there is already a modest "first wave" of deployments, but the full promise of fiber to the premises awaits a change of heart by the major carriers, probably driven by loss of copper-based broadband customers to the cable companies, user bandwidth growth (including HDTV), and issues of international competitiveness.
Keywords :
broadband networks; digital subscriber lines; optical fibre subscriber loops; broadband access; coax cables; copper twisted pair cables; fiber to the home systems; optical fiber; per-capita fiber access deployment; Cable TV; DSL; Delay; Games; Motion pictures; Optical fiber cables; Optical fiber communication; Teleconferencing; Video on demand; Video sharing;