Deployment & Operations Committee

Patrick Faraj, Chair of the Deployment & Operations Committee of the FTTH Council Europe, takes stock of the latest evolutions in FTTH deployment technologies, and looks at the most pressing operational challenges the industry is facing nowadays. While reviewing the latest technology trends shaping the FTTH rollout scenario in Europe, Patrick provides a series of thought-provoking inputs useful to all actors in place. In this episode, our guest will answer to these questions and much more:

Let’s start general: what are your views regarding the evolution of FTTH technology?
From your experience, what innovations or new technologies have been most effective in overcoming deployment challenges?
What is the profile of the Member companies joining the Deployment & Operations Committee?
What are the key differences in deploying fibre networks in urban versus rural areas and how does your approach vary between these environments?

Read the full interview below to get the answers to these questions.

Let’s start general: what are your views regarding the evolution of FTTH technology?

Optical fibre connectivity is becoming the backbone of every high-bandwidth application, supporting everything from streaming high-definition video to online gaming and telemedicine. If we talk about FTTH specifically, it was initially seen as a nice to have, however, the need for FTTH became particularly evident in end-user applications that require consistent, high-speed connectivity. As we recently experienced, amongst other applications, remote work and online education demand reliable high speed and most importantly stable internet connections to support video conferencing and large data transfers.

Driven by the continuous evolution of end-user applications requiring more advanced high-bandwidth connectivity, FTTH technologies have also evolved to support and enable that. Advanced FTTH technologies like XG-PON, XGS-PON, and NG-PON2 helped improve network efficiency and enable network throughput of up to 40 GB/s, while coexisting with current PON standards, thus providing a future proof highly scalable solution for network expansions both in terms of bandwidth and number of users.

As we move forward, I believe the FTTH infrastructure will become a key enabler in achieving converged networks for example 5G integration, enabling deployments in a cost-effective way as described in one of the D&O committee’s whitepapers: “Optimizing FTTH networks to enable convergence”.

In the picture on the left, action from the "FTTH Technologies for the Balkans" panel session at the FTTH Congress 2024, in Dubrovnik.

From your experience, what innovations or new technologies have been most effective in overcoming deployment challenges?

I always like to address FTTH deployments by navigating across the network deployment lifecycle: Plan, Design, Build, Operate, and Maintain. Removing the challenges that come with manual processes and implementing process and workflow automation across those phases is key to optimizing and accelerating network deployments. To name one example, the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for planning and managing deployments allows for more precise and efficient network designs. If you want more insights about this topic have a look at the D&O committee whitepaper published last year that specifically addresses this area: “The role of IT in accelerating FTTH Deployments and Operations”.

Moreover, continuous innovations in areas like deployment techniques and passive components connectivity continue to play a huge role in accelerating and simplifying FTTH deployments. What I particularly find impactful are those innovations that revolve around reducing the dependency on highly skilled labor, enabling failure-free and first-time right faster installation practices. Micro-trenching, direct buried compact cables/fiber bundles, and pre-connectorized hardened solutions are a few field-proven examples. Last but not least, innovative ideas around network sharing on different layers to create an Open Access business model would help reduce deployment overbuild and offer a strategic approach to optimize resources, reduce costs and environmental impacts, and accelerate network rollout.

What is the profile of the Member companies joining the Deployment & Operations Committee?

I want to describe the majority of the members of the FTTH Council Europe: I would say it typically comprises a diverse range of member companies, including telecommunications operators, service providers, network equipment/ passive components manufacturers, solution providers, etc. If we focus on the Deployment & Operations committee itself, the most active members are from the solution providers group who continuously thrive to address technological advancements and innovations to overcome common challenges in FTTH rollouts. I want to use this opportunity to encourage operators and service providers to use the Deployment & Operations platform to share their knowledge and experience and present their best practices in the deployment and operation of fiber networks.

In the picture on the left, action from the Deployment & Operations Committee workshop at the FTTH Conference 2024, in Berlin.

What are the key differences in deploying fibre networks in urban versus rural areas and how does your approach vary between these environments?

The FTTH Council Europe's mission and goal is to accelerate FTTH deployments and enable every European citizen to have access to high-speed broadband connectivity, basically full fiber to everyone, everywhere. In order to get to this goal, FTTH deployments needs to expand far beyond urban and suburban areas and efficiently reach rural and ultra rural areas.

Deploying fibre networks in urban areas typically differs compared to rural areas in terms of challenges to overcome, solutions utilized, and business case justification. In urban environments, the primary challenges consist of building a network in a dense infrastructure, obtaining permits, and minimizing disruptions to existing services. The higher population density in urban areas leads to a higher take rate, meaning more subscribers per km of fiber, which reduces the costs of deployment per home passed (HP) and home connected (HC).

In contrast, rural deployments face challenges such as longer distances between connections, lower population density, and difficult terrain which means that fiber deployment reaches far fewer subscribers per km, making it less economically viable.

In the picture on the right, Patrick Faraj is moderating the "FTTH Technologies for the Balkans" panel session at the FTTH Congress 2024, in Dubrovnik.

More about Patrick Faraj

Patrick Faraj is currently VIAVI’s Global Product Manager managing an end-to-end SW and HW Centralized OTDR Test Solution that is designed to optimize the qualification and certification of FTTx networks across all phases of the deployment lifecycle. Patrick is a proven subject matter expert in solutions/products development, value propositions creation, and deployment practices in global FTTx networks and markets, with more than 16 years extensive product management experience including 13 years of Global Product Management in FTTX passive solutions at Corning, Prior to his industry engagement, Patrick worked for 5 years as a research and teaching assistant at the university of Kiel, Germany, at the Chair of Telecommunications with focus on fibre optic transmission research topics. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering and a Master of Science in Telecommunications from Riga Technical University in Latvia.

Unlocking a greener Europe with energy-efficiency labelling of broadband equipment

Nov 29, 2022

Company type: | Vendor/Reseller (Products) |

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Member company: S&T Isktratel
Country or geographical scope: Global
Period: 2022 and beyond
Company type: Vendor/Reseller
Product/service category involved: All broadband equipment

Abstract

To make environmentally responsible decisions, network operators need credible figures about power consumption of the broadband equipment they procure and use.

The introduction of energy-efficiency labels allows them to make well informed decisions and reduce their carbon footprint. The labels state a product's power consumption and the level of compliance with the Code of Conduct on Energy Consumption of Broadband Equipment as a framework for providing credible and comparable data.

S&T Iskratel believes that the whole broadband industry needs to join the initiative, help operators effectively reduce the environmental impact, and take a positive step towards a greener Europe.

Context

With the explosion of data traffic and the energy consumption of data transmissions increasing, undertaking steps to reduce the carbon footprint is the responsibility of the entire telecoms industry. In their effort to reach net zero emission targets, operators' attention has rightly shifted to utilising solutions that are more energy efficient: switching from copper to fibre [1][2], and selecting PON over P2P [3][4].

To make environmentally responsible decisions, operators need credible and comparable figures about power consumption of the broadband equipment they procure and use. At present, however, they have no tools to compare the products – they can receive data from equipment vendors, but there is nothing to help them compare the power-consumption figures. Even worse, they get exposed to misleading information and greenwashing.

Greater levels of transparency are needed.

The task for the entire telecommunications industry – and equipment vendors in particular – is to provide credible and comparable data about power consumption, and facilitate well-informed decisions that will help operators reduce their carbon footprint and environmental impact.

Solutions

The broadband industry already has the framework for credible and comparable power consumption figures in place: The Code of Conduct on Energy Consumption of Broadband Equipment [5] published by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

Specifically, the Code of Conduct (CoC) sets the limits of power consumption of broadband equipment, and specifies the test methodology. All (voluntary) signatories commit themselves to achieving the power consumption targets, and to publicly disclosing power consumption of their broadband equipment.

After having signed the Code of Conduct in early 2022, S&T Iskratel has fully committed itself to ensuring that its broadband-access equipment complies with the limits on power consumption imposed by the code, and to providing full disclosure and transparency to customers, users and general public.

For the operators, credible power-consumption figures are the first piece in the puzzle. S&T Iskratel has decided to make a step forward and provide also the “missing piece of the jigsaw” to unlocking a greener Europe and reducing operators’ carbon footprints, and introduce energy-efficiency labels.

In addition to power consumption (which is measured following test methods in the CoC), the labels state the product's level of CoC compliance, provided as a percentage of the limit set by the CoC. Similar in design to those used for energy classes of domestic appliances, the labels are easy to read and understand for operators and end-users alike.

The two labels below provide examples for labels of a compact OLT and of a home gateway.

S&T Iskratel is committed to label all its new broadband equipment; specifically, Iskratel Lumia optical line terminals and Iskratel Innbox customer-premises equipment. The labelling improves credibility and comparability, and allows operators to make well informed decisions when selecting products to put into their network.

S&T Iskratel believes that undertaking the steps to reduce the global warming is the responsibility of the entire telecommunications industry, and that everyone in the value chain – vendors, operators, end users, regulators and authorities – must participate in reducing the carbon footprint of their activities.

S&T Iskratel repeatedly calls on the whole industry to join the initiative and take a positive step towards a greener Europe with industry-wide adoption of energy-efficiency labelling. This will help operators and end users correctly estimate the contribution of electricity generation to their overall carbon footprint, and effectively reduce their negative impact on the environment.

Results

Since spring 2022 when the initiative was first presented, S&T Iskratel received impressively positive feedback from European operators. Their interest has proven that they understand their responsibility in contributing to limiting the global warming, and that they understand the role of their equipment vendors in the supply chain.

Besides lower carbon footprint as a result of deploying lower-consumption equipment, operators benefit from lower electricity costs. As a standout example, an established and rapidly growing full-fibre operator has realised that the investment in switching to S&T Iskratel's OLTs with record-low power consumption returns in 3-5 years, solely thanks to the energy savings. The operator's investment decision was based (also) on credibility of figures on the product's energy-efficiency label.

Conclusions

While operators understand that switching from copper to fibre (and to PON in particular) can reduce their energy consumption and the related carbon footprint by orders of magnitude, they still lack the tools to compare various vendors' products. Widespread, industry-wide adoption of energy-efficiency labelling will address the need, allowing operators to follow their sustainability strategy, avoid the traps of greenwashing and base decisions exclusively on credible and comparable data.

Contact

Tomo Bogataj, Head of Broadband Marketing, S&T Iskratel
t.bogataj@snt-iskratel.si

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