Clearfield

By: Johnny Hill

In the past 15 years, I have assisted hundreds of customers with their network design, planning, and associated fiber management needs. These networks have ranged from the booming CATV HFC days of the mid-90’s through fiber exhaust scenarios of the telcos to the gargantuan bandwidth needs of the various FTTH deployment strategies. One of the constants in all of them has been the consideration of link loss budget planning: How far out can I get with my current optical power before I have to terminate or amplify? I have always been amazed that more often than not, the first answer to distance limitation is to plop in more optical power in the way of EDFA’s, transmitters, and amplifiers.  Optical transmission and having the power to get it where you want it to go can be an expensive affair. However, boosting power is not the only way to gain distance. 

By: Tom Warren

Fiber is “future-proofing” technology. The bandwidth capacity of a single fiber dwarfs any other physical medium. In an effort to capture this advantage and to limit future infrastructure builds, many companies are dedicating fibers—running a single fiber between the central office or head-end and every customer premise unit.

By: Brian Schrand

FTTH is an ever evolving technology. However, the methods used to engineer and build FTTH networks are traditionally the same as those used for copper networks. These practices are cost effective and work well when building a FTTH network. The techs building the aerial or underground plant are familiar with the procedures carried over from the copper world so training is minimal and, in most cases, the quality of work is high.

By: Johnny Hill

The Access Network—the point where the distribution network breaks off for the final drop to the customer home, present a variety of choices and challenges. The biggest debate at this location of the network is what level of environmental protection is needed.

By: Johnny Hill

What is the problem?

There are many manufacturers of fiber optic patchcords, which provide for competitive, cost-effective pricing for the end-user of these products. As the product has been more and more commoditized, it is wrongly assumed that all patchcords will perform the same as long as a few given performance metrics are met. Most associate good insertion loss (IL) and return loss (RL) as the only recipe for a good patchcord and, because of this, the barrier to entry is small.

The whole point of every component within a fiber management system—from the 125um cladding on fiber cable construction, cable jacketing, splitter packaging for outside plant, and the route paths within them, is to protect and reduce the risk of fiber damage. Period.

By: Johnny Hill

When you’ve been in the field for more than 90 years, like SureWest Communications, you’re bound to pick up a few things. You pick up about 250,000 Northern California customers and a reputation as a trail blazer in the fiber-to-the-premises world. Perhaps most importantly, you pick up some best practices. What follows are 11 insights the company has learned in the field.

Johnny Hill, Clearfield’s COO, applies the Beta Partner TCO concept to passive connectivity and Clearfield’s approach to fiber management. The paper presents logical, cost-effective solutions, practices and methodologies for the deployment of fiber management across the entire passive network.

Beta Partners, a telecommunications consulting firm located in Minneapolis, conducted a survey of broadband service providers. This whitepaper takes a look at the findings—- how are service providers reacting to the changing marketplace of FTTx and what are they doing to reduce the cost of broadband. The study introduces financial measures, including a TCO or Total Cost of Ownership, approach to network planning, implementation and management.