Network Flexibility
July 28, 2009  - Chronicles for the Next Gen Network - Vol. 2

A Plan for Success: Building a Network for Customer Responsiveness

Being able to respond to customers needs, quickly and efficiently, is fundamental in building customer loyalty and keeping an organization at the competitive forefront. For service providers deploying and managing fiber networks, customer responsiveness holds even more significance where missing out on a potential service opportunity can result in a loss of a customer – cutting into the organization’s bottom line.

Flexible Architecture: Eliminating the Obstacles
The needs of the telecom customer are changing on a daily basis. As fiber technologies and applications emerge, customer demand for those services are quick to follow. For service providers, the window to respond and capitalize on these new service opportunities is fleeting. If service providers do not have the flexibility or means to accommodate demand quickly, that customer may be lost forever. And in market blooming with broadband choices for the consumer, clearly, this is not a winning strategy.

It is important for providers to identify and remove obstacles in their organization that would otherwise slow their response time to a service request. This starts with examining the readiness of their infrastructure; specifically, the fiber optic network in the central office and outside plant.

GPON: A Network Architecture Built for Flexibility
Clearly, having flexibility in the service provider’s network can help meet the challenges of customer responsiveness. But what kind of network architecture offers the most flexibility? What applications will service providers need to be able to respond to – to achieve customer responsiveness in the future?

Service providers that want to respond to next generation fiber services would be smart to consider expanding their network to a GPON architecture. GPON is IP-centric, but also supports higher split ratios which make it possible to deliver higher-bandwidth services to residents and businesses not seen with previous architectures.

Consumer demand for bandwidth-eating video services will continue to push service providers in the direction of GPON. Consumers want the convenience of watching videos in their home. They also want the ability to watch programming on their personal computers, iPods, PDA’s and other portable devices. GPON can deliver multiple signals to an individual customer at a rate of 2 GBits per second – making it ideal for delivering video on demand (VoD) services, voice and data-related services. And GPON can do this all simultaneously.

New technology such as IPTV may also drive the need for a GPON architecture. Unlike RF, IPTV transfers video signals as data. Using the Internet Protocal (IP) standard, IPTV has the potential to deliver data-rich video, voice and other applications to almost any IP device imaginable: the computer, iPod, PDA’s and other portable devices. Consumers, like never before, will expect to be able to watch their favorite programming wherever they are, and the technology of IPTV will help make that a reality.

Historically, service providers have looked at consumer’s bandwidth requirements as being asymmetrical, where more focus is placed on downloading as opposed to uploading. But this trend is changing. For example, more and more consumers are working from home - sending files back and forth to their place of employment requiring massive bandwidth. Just explore some of the more popular social networking web sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and it is clear how important uploading content has become. The good news is: GPON delivers download speeds of 2.4 Gbits per second and 1.2 Gbits upload speeds per second. This gives service providers the necessary bandwidth to future-proof their network, and the means to be able to respond to customer needs for years to come.

Connectorization: A Flexible Approach to Respond to Customer Needs
Responding to customer’s needs with speed, coupled with the right solution - this is the approach a service provider must take to become a customer responsive organization.

To ensure service providers have the right solution in place to respond to customer’s demands, they need to begin with a detailed examination of their network infrastructure. Starting at the central office and continuing through to the outside plant, each critical network interface point must be designed with the proper flexibility to respond to network changes. Flexibility is the key factor here because, without it, the integrity of the network can be affected. Ultimately, it can limit the service provider’s ability to respond to customer’s specific requests.

Using plug-and-play connectorization at key network interface points is a winning strategy to ensure service providers have the flexibility to respond to customer’s needs. In a Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, service providers can see immediate benefits by implementing a connectorized solution at the fiber distribution hub (FDH), service terminal and at the drop.

To turn up a subscriber in a spliced architecture, a technician would need to be dispatched to splice a single fiber within the FDH; and this process would be need to be repeated for each individual home - a costly plan in terms of labor and equipment.

The connectorization approach: When a plug-and-play interface is used at the FDH, service turn up is quicker and much more efficient. The distribution fibers are simply plugged into the splitter output to complete the subscriber circuit. Individual homes can be turned up as needed in less time, without the added expense of splice labor.

At the access and drop portion of the network, a connectorized approach also holds unique advantages. To turn up a customer in a spliced architecture, construction crews have to be dispatched to splice drop cable from the home or business to a service terminal located on the street. This approach requires a splice technician - labor that is typically billed at a higher rate. Each service call may also require cleavage, stripping equipment and splicing machines. In areas that require multiple customer turn ups, this spliced approach can be logistically taxing and costly in terms of labor and capital equipment.

In connectorized architecture, splices are traded for connectors to speed the installation process and reduce labor requirements. In this scenario, construction crews install the drop cable by inserting factory connectorized cable into adapter ports at the service terminal and at the ONT on the home. Due to the ease of mating the connectors, drop cable installation can be deferred until service is requested. This can help simplify larger fiber deployments and the costs associated with connecting each building. More importantly, when a customer needs turned up, crews can install the drop cable quickly without needing to be experts in fiber splicing or handling. This quick connection approach gives service providers more flexibility to respond to a variety of service requests, whether it is to turn up service, provide maintenance or to make other changes in the network.

Becoming a Customer-Responsive Service Provider
What’s at stake for service providers with poor customer responsiveness? Reputation, growth, profit - just about everything that is important to a service provider’s sustainability. Simply put, service providers need to consider all aspects of their organization’s readiness to deliver customer services. This requires having a network architecture built on flexibility, which will allow the service provider to respond swiftly to emerging technologies, fiber applications and customer demands. It requires examining all key connection points in the provider’s network to ensure fast and efficient service calls, network configurations and upgrades. Service providers will then place themselves in the best possible position to respond to customer requests – in the present and future - and in the process, they may transform themselves into a successful, customer-responsive organization.

Misconceptions of Splicing vs. Connectorization

Service providers grow accustomed to their own rules and methodology for deploying fiber. This is often influenced by key management decision-makers, budget challenges or past deployment experiences. Whatever the reasons, service providers develop misconceptions on the benefits of splicing vs. connectorization, specifically when it comes to the performance, value and cost of these solutions. Consider the following common misconceptions of splicing vs. connectorization before your next fiber deployment:

1) A splice solution offers the lowest equipment cost and ensures the least amount of signal loss in a fiber network.
There was a time where all connection points in a network could be justified using an optical splice. But to adopt this approach today would be short sighted. Though it is true that there is loss at every plug-and-play connection point in the network, the benefits and savings gained as a result of the added flexibility far outweighs any loss in network performance.

2) Using connectorization for test access points creates unnecessary CAPEX and lessens network performance.
It is a significant challenge for a technician to pinpoint a faulty optical fiber in the network, especially outside the FDH. Though there is more upfront equipment cost for the connectorized solution, the costs are inconsequential when you consider the high labor costs of a splice technician who have to locate, break and splice each cable back together. In a connectorized approach, no fiber has to be broken, which results in less risk to the network.

3) A connectorized solution is not needed in neighborhoods where the take rate is expected to be high.
Where take rate is expected at 100%, an argument could be made to use a spliced approach. However, a spliced approach takes away flexibility. To upgrade service for a single customer, typically, the service provider would have to upgrade all subscribers in the service area – an expensive and logistically challenging proposition. A connectorized approach gives the service provider more flexibility to customize their service offering for individual customers.

4) Customers do not experience any added benefit of a connectorized solution vs. spliced solution.
Initially, a customer may not care if their service relies on a connectorized or spliced solution. However, if a customer wants to make changes to their account, in a spliced architecture, the service provider may not be able to accommodate them. In this case, a connectorized solution is a benefit the customer will experience first hand. With the flexibility of a connectorized architecture, service providers can deliver more combinations of services and cater to customer’s specific requests. As a result, service providers can appeal to a larger audience and gain more opportunity to bring in revenue.

Throughout the service provider’s network, there will be numerous locations where fiber will need to be joined together. Splicing will continue to provide its value in portions of the network, especially in longer cable runs. But where technicians are expected to visit frequently for re-configuration services, testing, and troubleshooting, connectorization offers significantly more advantages. Understanding the value and benefits of each solution will ensure providers are making the best investment in their network; and will prevent any misconceptions of splicing vs. connectorization from dictating their deployment plans.

Learn how connectorization can add flexibility to your network: Contact an ADC professional today at 800-366-3891 or visit www.adc.com.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Deploy to Win…

I LOVE MY NGF:

Spotlight Company: Consolidated Telcom

Consolidated Telcom proudly serves over 20,000 customers in the southwest region of North Dakota region – delivering state-of-the-art telephone, cable TV, high speed internet and wireless services to residents and businesses.

Prior to 2000, residents of southwest North Dakota lacked access to high speed broadband services. Responding to this demand, Consolidated Telcom put forth an aggressive multi-million dollar plan to bring next generation broadband services to its North Dakota residents.

Consolidated Telcom explored a variety of infrastructure solutions to meet this goal, including wireless technology, but would ultimately decide on a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) approach as it offered the most flexibility and bandwidth.

In 2004, Consolidated Telcom began construction of its FTTH network.
To manage the new subscriber connections at its 18 exchange buildings, Consolidated Telcom would need to adopt a proven fiber management system.

“We asked ourselves: How can we match up new, outside plant infrastructure to coincide with our inside plant infrastructure,” said Forrest Mikkelsen, Outside Plant Manager at Consolidated Telcom.

ADC’s Next Generation Frame (NGF) would ultimately be chosen to manage the subscriber connections in Consolidated Telcom’s larger exchange buildings.

“We were familiar with ADC and the NGF solution just made the most sense.”

The NGF would give Consolidated Telcom needed flexibility going forward, where its adaptable design allowed electronics and fiber technology to be easily changed to accommodate growth and future services.

“We liked the fact that all fiber connections tied to one panel. This is very helpful,” said Forrest. “The NGF gives us more flexibility for an active frame.”

Looking ahead, Consolidated Telcom plans to build a new Central Office facility in downtown Dickinson, North Dakota. An additional 3 NGF’s will be brought in to manage subscriber connections and fiber optic services.

Recommended
Readings:

Central Office Readiness Considerations for FTTX Deployment Download
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Migration to GPON - Practical Considerations from the Central Office to the Outside Plant
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Splicing vs. Connectorization in FTTP Networking
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Adding New Video Services Warrants New Central Office Considerations
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