The Deployment & Operations (D&O) Committee continues to drive progress across its two flagship technical initiatives: Fibre Deep – Passive Optical LAN (POLAN) Applications and Network Resilience & Maintenance. Both initiatives are advancing strongly, aiming to deliver comprehensive technical whitepapers ahead of the FTTH Conference 2026 in London.
The POLAN whitepaper has been completed and is currently circulated via the Member Engagement Platform for final review. It examines how Passive Optical LAN architectures can support fibre-deep deployment strategies, particularly in enterprise, campus, and multi-dwelling environments. The paper highlights key benefits, including scalability, energy efficiency, and reduced operational complexity, while providing comparisons with traditional copper LANs, deployment scenarios, and real-world case studies.
The Network Resilience & Maintenance whitepaper is progressing steadily, supported by active member contributions. It addresses resilient, fault-tolerant fibre network design, proactive maintenance, fault detection, and long-term operability, while exploring the role of AI and automation and resilience-by-design principles such as redundancy planning and security hardening.
Additionally, the Committee is initiating new workstreams to tackle emerging deployment challenges, including ultra-rural rollout strategies and planning the transition from HFC networks to full fibre, ensuring a smooth and efficient evolution of access technologies.