Title :
Architecting a national optical fiber open-access network: The Australian Challenge
Author :
Sivaraman, Vijay ; Russell, Craig ; Collings, Iain B. ; Radford, Adam
Author_Institution :
Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract :
In this article we discuss the challenges faced when building a national optical access network that is ubiquitous (i.e., reaches all households nationwide) and open access (i.e., allows any provider to offer their services over it). Our work is inspired by a public fiber access network being built in Australia called the National Broadband Network (NBN) that will deploy fiber to 93 percent of premises, providing broadband access at potential data rates of 100 Mb/s and above. We highlight how the nationwide open access nature of the network creates new architectural challenges, in terms of both fiber layout as well as interconnection with private providers competing to offer retail services. We identify some of the technical choices related to the support of advanced features such as quality of service, multicast, and reliability, and discuss potential challenges providers may face when rolling out their services in such a network.
Keywords :
broadband networks; multicast communication; optical fibre subscriber loops; quality of service; telecommunication network reliability; ubiquitous computing; Australian challenge; NBN; National Broadband Network; bit rate 100 Mbit/s; broadband access; fiber layout; fiber-to- the-home; fiber-to-the-building; multicast feature; national optical fiber open-access network; public fiber access network; quality-of-service feature; reliability feature; ubiquitous access; Electron tubes; Optical fiber cables; Optical fiber couplers; Optical fiber devices; Passive optical networks;
Journal_Title :
Network, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/MNET.2012.6246746
