Frequently asked question

FTTB stands for "Fiber to the Building", which is a communications architecture in which the fiber reaches the boundary of the building, such as the basement of a multi-dwelling unit, with the final connection to the individual living space being made using any non-optical medium, such as twisted pair, coaxial cable, wireless, or power line communication. This is sometimes also called "Fiber to the basement".

In simple terms, if the fiber reaches a junction box or panel within the subscriber's apartment, then it is FTTH, while if the fiber reaches only as far as the apartment building's shared electrical room or junction box, then it is FTTB. In FTTB, the fiber terminates at the junction box for carrying communications for the building with potentially multiple subscribers, while in the case of FTTH, the fiber reaches all the way up to the home of the subscriber.

FTTH allows high bandwidth services to be delivered directly to the home or premises of the subscriber. Unlike copper wires or other conventional delivery networks, which restrict the bandwidth of the network, FTTH offers huge bandwidth for higher quality and broader spectrum of services to be delivered.

A passive optical network (PON) is a point-to-multipoint, FTTP network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to enable a single optical fiber to serve multiple premises, typically 32-128. A PON configuration reduces the amount of fiber and central office equipment required compared with point to point architectures. Downstream signal from the central office is broadcast to each customer premises sharing a fiber.

Active optical networks rely on some form of electrically powered equipment, such as a switch or router, in the Optical Distribution Network (ODN) to transmit the signal forward. Active finer optical networks are deployed in point-to-point architectures.

There are many advantages of using optical fiber based network instead of the standard copper based networks. A few of those are noted below:

> It allows transmission of signals to longer distances without any loss in signal quality.

> It allows high bandwidth data transmission.

> They are immune to electromagnetic interference, which prevents deterioration in signal quality.

> Therefore, these can be used even at locations where there is high voltage electrical equipment present.

> It can be used at electrically hazardous environments.

> Because no electricity is passed through optical fibers, there is no fire hazard.

> It can be operated at low power.

> Optical fibers can be drawn to much smaller diameters than copper wire.

> Glass, which is used to make optical fiber, is cheaper and lighter than copper.

> There is no corrosion of the fiber.

> Optical fiber does not get heated up during operation.

> With improvements in optical fiber communication technology, the same fiber can be used for higher bandwidths in future.

NANO, which stands for Neutral Access Network Operations, is an FTTH unified last mile optical fiber network solution based on passive optical network architecture. It helps provide different services from various service providers to individual subscribers. Through the NANO network, multiple high quality services can be delivered over a high bandwidth network. The subscriber has the ease of switching service providers for any service without having to worry about the communications infrastructure being laid again.

All services that can be delivered over high speed optical networks can be delivered over NANO. Typically, these include telephone, broadband Internet, IPTV, building management services, etc.