Optical Communications Enter Consumer Home: Optical fiber considerations for the Access and In-Home Networks

Abstract:
Optical fibers are now commonly deployed in the Access Network, including within apartments buildings to the customer premises or to individual houses. Modern homes contain an increasing number of consumer electronic (CE) devices for communications and entertainment, which must be interconnected among themselves and to the outside broadband service providers that deliver entertainment content, telecom services and Internet access. New consumer applications and services, and more sophisticated CE equipment, are driving increased bandwidth requirements within the home and in the Access Network, and it is becoming apparent that optical communications will find new opportunities in very high speed short-reach consumer electronics interconnects and In-home Networking (IHN). In this paper, we review the optical fiber considerations for deployment in the Access Network and we outline the requirements for In-Home Networking. We discuss the suitability of various optical fiber types and underline the capability of a new bend insensitive fiber with 80 µm core diameter and NA = 0.29. Designed to handle intermittent bends down to 1.5 mm radius, while exhibiting both very low bend loss and mechanical integrity at these sharp bends, this fiber is capable to deliver bandwidth performance sufficient for 10 Gb/s over In-Home Networking distances.