Presenters:
Tom Craft, Engineering Director, CommScope
Craig Culwell, Director, Market Development – Broadband, CommScope
Overview
Deploying broadband to a rural location presents different challenges than in an urban setting. Choosing the right-fit network architecture for any environment can make broadband deployment easy and profitable
Key Takeaways
Optimizing broadband deployment to maximize ROI depends on architecture and technology.
Deploying broadband in different environments presents distinct and varied challenges. While a traditional centralized network architecture approach might be an optimal fit for dense urban areas, it is not always the best choice for rural communities. Variation in environments requires sound strategies and techniques for efficient deployment of broadband over FTTH and wireless networks.
Matching the right architecture with the environment depends not only on density and distance of housing, but other considerations such as take rate and customer churn, availability of labor and equipment, connectivity technology selection, future expansion requirements and the impact of the chosen approach on operations and maintenance.
"As we look at these rural environments, we may need to consider a different, unique approach to our architectures compared to what we do in suburban and urban environments."
- Craig Culwell, CommScope
| Architecture | Description | Ideal for... |
|---|---|---|
| Centralized | Single-level splits, co-located at the same location | Urban, Suburban |
| Distributed | Single-level splits distributed throughout the network | Suburban, Rural |
| Cascaded --Star | Multi-level splitters cascaded within the network | Urban, Suburban |
| Cascaded -- Daisy Chain | Cable accessed at each terminal location spliced to splitter | Suburban, Rural |
| Cascaded -- Indexing | Plug-and-play cascaded PON | Urban, Suburban |
| Cascade -- Optical TAP | TAP cascaded PON | Rural |
To make the best architecture and technology selection to optimize ROI, service providers must understand and balance expected revenue with deployment costs. For example, fiber splicing offers the lowest materials cost but highest labor cost, due to the high skill level required to connect the fibers, while fully hardened plug-and-play solutions cost the least in labor but have higher upfront materials cost. Network operations, maintenance aspects, training requirements and other factors also impact ROI.
PowerShift® Metro addresses key industry challenges.
Changes in technology drive increases in demand for capacity. Although the industry is working toward decreasing its carbon footprint and energy usage to reduce environmental impact, additional features are driving an overall net increase in energy—a recent study found that energy usage in the ICT network is projected to increase by 211% between 2022 and 2030.
In addition, as networks grow, more equipment and features are added into the network, making power delivery challenging and increasing network complexity, which can have a negative impact on a network’s lifespan.
To address these challenges, CommScope develops innovative power solutions to:
- Keep the tower smarter, now and in the future.
- Deliver power and fiber at the same time to wireless and home networks.
- Reduce energy consumption.
“Our overall goal is to move beyond the difficult pieces of bringing these features out to your site. We're trying to do that through long-term innovation and keeping simplicity in mind.”
- Tom Craft, CommScope
PowerShift® Metro from CommScope is a power bus architecture that enables both connectivity and power delivery to a remote site without stranding electricity. Powershift Metro provides the performance required for any architecture by converting an AC connection to +/-190 volts DC, then distributing that power—along with fiber—down a single cable. With multiple cables extending from the cabinet and daisy-chained through wireless or wireline devices, PowerShift Metro brings power and fiber to multiple sites through a single connection.
PowerShift Metro offers centralized intelligent power and high-performance fiber fronthaul in a solution that is:
- Cost-efficient. In analyzing AC vs. DC cost, CommScope found that some of its deployments have achieved a 70% cost savings (DC at 30% of the cost of an AC-powered solution).
- Configurable. The distributed split architecture supports an infinite number of different configurations, including variations in nodes, power requirements, distance between nodes or small cell sites, and more.
- Unintrusive. Combining power and fiber into a common cable and a common splice closure to feed remotes means less equipment to deploy, decreasing construction cost. Both buried and aerial plant options are available.
- Energy management function manages how the system operates, reducing both capital and operational costs. During AC outages, non-critical nodes can be turned off, leaving only critical nodes operating to extend battery backup runtime.
- Adaptable. PowerShift Metro was designed for future growth in mind. Because the system is a DC bus, no syncing is required—simply plug in remotes to the system as needed.
Figure 2: PowerShift Metro network elements
PowerShift Metro is an obvious choice for environments where AC connection is expensive or difficult to get. The combined power and fiber solution adds significant benefits to any environment, to include compliancy to the latest safety standards, improved network efficiency, reduced costs, and support for future growth.
Additional Information
To learn more, visit https://www.commscope.com/solutions/broadband-networks/broadband-for-everyone/
https://www.commscope.com/globalassets/digizuite/924035-powershift-metro-fact-sheet-co-116014-en.pdf