Broadband delivery of digital services

A not so quiet revolution in the deployment of broadband communications systems began in 1989 with the first successful field deployment of analog fiber optic trunking systems for the North American CATV markets. A hybrid fiber/coaxial cable distribution architecture is now the de facto standard worldwide for new facility builds as well as system rebuilds. Referred to by names such as fiber to the bridger or fiber to the serving area, the basic architectural shift is away from traditional tree and branch architectures to serving area concepts similar to fiber deployment in loop telephony plant. A successful evolution scheme for the replacement of copper conductors with optical media must consider the wide range of services and formats currently supported, particularly when the services terminate in consumer interfaces with long lifetimes. The article presents a current view of those services and the implementation costs which must be improved upon if a successful business is to develop