How does optical fibre work?

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shaker111

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#13414 9-May-2007 08:53

Hi all,
Can anyone give me a brief run-down on how fibre works. I understand that Vector is using its fibre for telecommunications and also onselling it on a wholesale basis (to Orcon I think it was ). So, that means they're competing with Telecom right?
Can anyone go and set up a fibre network, or do you essentially need access to the "last mile" per Telecom and Vector? Basically I'd like to find out how fibre works in comparison to the standard copper wires.

Cheers

B.

Bung

6480 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#70009 9-May-2007 09:18

It's a good idea to do basic homework questions on a site like Google or Howstuffworks.

lestag

100 posts

Master Geek

#70018 9-May-2007 11:29

shaker111: Hi all,
Can anyone give me a brief run-down on how fibre works. I understand that Vector is using its fibre for telecommunications and also onselling it on a wholesale basis (to Orcon I think it was ). So, that means they're competing with Telecom right?
Can anyone go and set up a fibre network, or do you essentially need access to the "last mile" per Telecom and Vector? Basically I'd like to find out how fibre works in comparison to the standard copper wires.

Cheers

B.

Fibre uses light trasmission and in a simple point to point example , there is a tranciever at each end to convert to CAT5/6 UTP

"Dark fibre" onselling is basically someone leasing fibre pairs (e.g. maybe vector leasing to orcon )

You can also lease lit fibre , this generally means you sell fixed bandwith on your network to a third party (wholesale) withw certain level of service.

Anyone can set up a fibre network, so long as they check with their council regarding their district plan regarding cable laying. This is assuming you want to use public roads, verges etc. If you want to run it in your building , then you can do what you want within reason)

Some councils (waitakarie for example) require new developments (subdivisions)to put in ducting as part of the development contribution and the council takes over those ducts. I think the idea is to alow any company to use the ducts for fibre (within reason)

cost of fibre is not great (say $7/mtr for 100+ core) the cost of getting it underground is the kicker :-) plus any resource consents if required :-))

shaker111

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#70019 9-May-2007 11:33

Cool - that was very helpful thanks Lestag.
One further question - does fibre run right to the home or do you still need to rely on Telecom for their local loop?

Cheers

lestag

100 posts

Master Geek

#70027 9-May-2007 13:05

shaker111: Cool - that was very helpful thanks Lestag.
One further question - does fibre run right to the home or do you still need to rely on Telecom for their local loop?

Cheers

Typically no it does not run to your home.

Typically for the last mile , either copper wire or wireless is the options available and will be for some time due to the cost of getting firbe to "your home"

It requires telecom or some other provide to build a fibre network in your suburb/town/city and to have the backhaul (links between suburbs/towns/cities) . That means cost (millions to billions) for backhaul.
Think of it like having fibre to your home is like a 600 lane highway in your street and having to go between suburbs/towns/cities on a gravel road (the ISPs backbone). Which IMHO is the current case.

ADSL Internet connections are currently quoted at a 150:1 contention ratio. that means that for your 7MB ADSL cct there may be up to 150 others connected to that same "road" theoretically you arn't all on the road at the same time , except of course for "rush hour".

Different towns have different fibre networks operating Citylink http://www.citylink.co.nz/ is one such example.

Most typical is a fibre network for "business" in the Central Business District of a city. In most cases a fibre connection is significantly more expensive than ADSL and businesses can justify such expense (even tho they still complain about the cost :-) )

Where I work we have a fibre connection , more for technical reasons (that I won't bore you with ) rather than ADSL. Well actually I lie , we use ADSL for web browsing and fibre (Telecom CID) for the rest. ADSL is still the best bang4buck.

shaker111

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#70028 9-May-2007 13:14

Thanks Lestag - it makes a whole lot more sense now!