Optical fiber access-perspectives toward the 21st century

The vision of an all-fiber telecommunications network delivering an ever increasing variety of services to both business and residential customers has been the subject of much speculation for more than a decade. However, although optical fibers are now used routinely for longer haul transmission and for connections to large business customers; fiber to provide the final link to the generality of customers has proved to be a tougher challenge than originally expected. The extent to which fiber will penetrate the network depends not only on technical capabilities and economic performance, but also on regulation, competition, and the types of service that customers will actually want. The interplay between these complex factors is discussed, and potential scenarios are described. An endpoint vision of a future broadband infrastructure is described in order to illustrate the major new service delivery and operational benefits, which can flow from the revolutionary new technologies that can now be unleashed