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ON TOPIC
What Will
be Hot in
2023?
This year has certainly been eventful – and set the stage for a number
of advances next year. What will we be talking about in 2023? Here
are a few predictions for the technologies, trends, and requirements
that will drive optical networking over the next 12 months, all within
this edition of Lightwave On Topic.
Copyright @ 2022 Endeavor Business Media
WHAT WILL BE HOT IN 2023?
SPONSORED BY
PAGES 2-5PAPER DIES, DIGITALIZATION FLIES FOR NETWORK
DEPLOYMENT IN 2023
PAGES 7-92023: A YEAR OF PUBLIC INVESTMENTS, NEW INNOVATIONS
AND ARCHITECTURES, AND GREENER SOLUTIONS
PAGES 11-13MOVING THE GOALPOSTS FROM HOMES PASSED TO HOMES
CONNECTED
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RESOURCES
1
PAPER E
DI S, G
DI A
IT LIZ ATOIN LFE
I S
FO R E
N T WORK DEPLYOE
M NT NI 2023
T
echnology is fast becoming the primary enabler in
the successful delivery of the network infrastructure
fueled by the $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity,
Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding and billions of
additional dollars available through private, federal, and
state grants. And while it remains difficult to predict
impact, the consumer demand for next-generation,
future-proof fiber networks far outpaces the rate at
which telecommunications infrastructure is currently
built. Fortunately, the industry is united in the need
to reduce network construction time without reducing
quality and effectiveness.
availability of public and private capital. Despite the
volume of tasks required, traditional methods rely
heavily on manual processes and contribute to the
following challenges:
Traditional construction management uses longstanding
project methodologies that are not designed for today’s
network deployments. Further, broadband networks
a re i n c re a s i n g l y m o re co m p l e x a n d g e o g r a p h i c a l l y
distributed than ever before with coverage and expansion
re q u i re m e n t s d i c t a t e d by m a r ke t d e m a n d a n d t h e
• P a p e r- b a s e d c o n s t r u c t i o n p a c k s a n d m a n u a l
p ro ce s s e s p l a g u e d w i t h va r y i n g l eve l s o f d a t a
capture capability and accuracy.
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• Data integrity issues in the absence of a unified,
geospatial view of project progress
• L a c k o f t i m e l y a n d e f f e c t i v e c o o rd i n a t i o n a n d
communication between the field and office
• Asset and contractor management difficulties
• Manual, inefficient task scheduling, forecasting,
and allocation
Moving to an all-digital and geospatial view of
co n s t r u c t i o n u p d a t e d i n re a l -t i m e w i t h p ro d u c t i o n
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2
from the field eliminates all these challenges. A single,
unified view of the project can be kept in the cloud
t o ke e p eve r yo n e o n t h e s a m e (v i r t u a l ) p a g e w h i l e
maintaining an accurate network record instead of
the incipient delays in manually updating progress via
paper prints from the field to the office. Construction
progress is documented and logged as it occurs, keeping
all stakeholders, from planners through to project and
network executives, abreast of completions by location.
Digitalization also enables the agile allocation and
reallocation of resources as needed. Teams can be
instantly dispatched to the next ready construction
task - with dependencies considered - instead of
having to go back to the office for the next paperbased construction pack. If a resource or asset is not
available, crews can be allocated to the next available
t a s k w i t h o u t co n s t r u c t i o n d e l ays w h i l e wa i t i n g o n
paper, parts, and people to deliver what’s next.
INFORMATION FLOW FROM DESIGN TO
CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATIONS IS CRITICAL
Across the industry, there is a recurring disconnect
between feasibility, engineering, and the breakdown
of work that’s required to optimally construct a quality
network. As the design is shared with general contractors
and their subcontractors, build requirements and data
quality are further diluted.
The quality of construction and change data and
its integration into finance, network management,
maintenance, and customer relationship management
(C R M ) sys t e m s d i re c t l y a f fe c t s h ow o p e r a t o r s c a n
generate revenue and maintain an accurate system
of record.
Purpose-built digital construction solutions convert
network design into project scope – including work
definitions, dependencies material, and resource
requirements at the task level – before the project
commences. By including downstream system requirements
in this scope creation, crews capture accurate and
consistent geospatial data as they complete work,
enabling a timely operations handover and end-toend efficiency.
To meet federal and state grant funding requirements,
operators must present and adhere to delivery milestones
and metrics or risk severe penalties for noncompliance.
Successful funding applicants will meet these milestones
while effectively tracking construction crew performance,
material utilization, quality, and geospatial progress.
Early identification of performance issues or at-risk
delivery milestones is going to be exceedingly important
to operators in the upcoming funding rounds. An
all-digital approach enables faster and better build
decisions with the ability to track progress in real-time
to ensure milestone and public reporting requirements
are simplified.
PROVEN SOLUTIONS TO NAVIGATING LABOR
AND SUPPLY CHAIN CONSTRAINTS
As the industry invests in training the next broadband
workforce, operators are feeling increasing pressure
WHAT WILL BE HOT IN 2023?
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t o b u i l d t i m e l i n e s w i t h o u t re s o u rce s b e i n g re a d i l y
available. Many broadband operators have recognized
the advantages of real-time, cloud-based technology
in reducing project management overheads while
optimizing available resources, something that’s more
critical than ever in this constrained environment.
In Arkansas, Craighead Electric Cooperative Corp.
(CECC) found a 75% reduction in project resourcing and
administrative overhead using such a digital approach.
With the availability of field data and an intuitively
designed platform, CECC was able to deploy its outside
plant 84% faster than it anticipated during network
planning in 2019. Capturing as-built records without
needing to manually reconcile data reduced the CECC
project management team from 4 to 1.
The highest budget item on a project is labor and
we know these constraints are crippling projects. By
utilizing real-time data capture in the field, duplicated
data processes are eliminated; change management and
status reporting are streamlined as well. Management
can track planned vs. actual progress and re-forecast
every day based on real-time data to enable better
workforce management, including identifying which
contractors are the most efficient to keep productive
teams moving.
Supply chain constraints are still going to challenge
the industry in the coming year, and what operators
h a v e l e a r n e d i s h o w c r i t i c a l w a s t e re d u c t i o n i s t o
manage delivery costs. Because of the reduced waste
a n d i m p rove d u t i l i z a t i o n r a t e s t h a t a t e c h n o l o g yenabled approach delivers, operators are turning to
t e c h t o o pt i m i ze m a t e r i a l s a n d e n s u re v i s i b i l i t y o f
where they are used and by whom. When considering
large projects with at least a three-year build forecast,
stakeholders previously were not able to track actual
vs. planned material usage accurately and, as a result,
most rollouts exceeded 10% material waste.
Digital construction technology enables a real-time
view of material production data to inform future supply
chain requirements. By including required material
WHAT WILL BE HOT IN 2023?
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units by location in construction tasks and matching
fiber reels to runs, project and finance teams can track
material utilization in real-time and measure waste by
crew or contractor. When work is completed correctly
the first time with the right materials, operators and
contractors typically realize a 2% material waste rate
and can nearly halve rework volumes.
TODAY’S LABOR CONSTRAINTS
WILL PERSIST AS THE DEMAND FOR
BROADBAND INFRASTRUCTURE SOARS
OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS, BUT
DIGITAL AND GEOSPATIAL TECHNOLOGY
HAS ALREADY EXPONENTIALLY
IMPROVED HOW OPERATORS MANAGE
NETWORK BUILDS WITH LESS.
GIS IS TABLE STAKES, GEOSPATIAL
EVERYTHING IS THE NEW BENCHMARK
Considering GIS native technology in every aspect of
network design, construction and operations is where
cumulative benefit lies. Broadband service providers
increasingly need to plan for and prioritize build areas
based on census block and location-based requirements
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AND ARCHITECTURES, AND GREENER SOLUTIONS
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PLANNING FOR THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS
We know there are going to be obstacles throughout
the cycle of a two- to three- or four-year network
b u i l d . S u p p l y c h a i n a n d wo r k fo rce i s s u e s co nt i n u e
to be of concern, especially given the ramp of digital
infrastructure globally. While suppliers, service providers,
and industry associations are seeking ways to meet
the increased demand for materials and people power,
there are no assurances that their growth curves
for increased supply will match it. Add in occasional
natural events that have both regional and potentially
worldwide consequences to supply, such as hurricanes,
floods, and wildfires, and it becomes clear that project
managers need to be prepared to consider an agile
delivery approach and build solutions.
Digital technology utilization is incredibly important
and an enabler to accommodate issues such as
s u p p l y i n t e r r u p t i o n s , p e r m i t d e l ays , o r c h a n g e s i n
stakeholder priorities. Today’s delay in supply could
affect tomorrow’s need to add additional route miles
and homes connected because of new funding.
fo r m o s t fe d e r a l o r s t a t e f u n d i n g p ro g r a m s o r t h e
fastest path to revenue generation.
Leveraging geospatial intelligence in the planning
process enables a more transparent and predictable
construction scope and schedule; it enables identification
Digital and geospatial construction technology is
fast becoming the competitive edge and only way to
effectively win bid proposals, deliver projects on time
and budget, and hand over an operational network,
especially in today’s volatile market. Paper is not the
solution, but the problem to meet these challenges,
w h i l e d i g i t a l p rov i d e s t h e l o w-t o - n o - r i s k s o l u t i o n
operators need to accelerate broadband delivery and
connectivity where it’s needed most.
Sam Pratt is CEO of Render Networks.
of problematic areas where construction may be
delayed or bottlenecked due to resource constraints or
permitting. Once construction commences, GIS data is
used to display progress in real-time by documenting
completed work or network changes on a map-based
view.
WHAT WILL BE HOT IN 2023?
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PAGES 2-5PAPER DIES, DIGITALIZATION FLIES FOR NETWORK
DEPLOYMENT IN 2023
PAGES 7-92023: A YEAR OF PUBLIC INVESTMENTS, NEW INNOVATIONS
AND ARCHITECTURES, AND GREENER SOLUTIONS
PAGES 11-13MOVING THE GOALPOSTS FROM HOMES PASSED TO HOMES
CONNECTED
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Build faster with less
resources
As broadband infrastructure demand soars, supply
chain and labor shortages are impacting today's network
delivery. Render’s digital and geospatial construction
platform enables operators to deploy with greater
visibility and smarter material and resource utilization.
Discover more at rendernetworks.com/platform
2023: A YEAR FO PUCLIB NVE
I STE
M NS
T ,
E
N WA
VON I S
NOTI AND ARTIE
HC E
RTUC S,
AND GREENER SOS
N O U TI L
BY TIM DOIRON
2
0 2 2 i s t h e ye a r w h e n w e j u m p e d b a c k o n t o
airplanes and met face to face with our partners,
customers, teammates, and industry colleagues.
Having recently returned from a two-week trip to Japan
and South Korea, I am reminded of the global scope
of our networks and the human lives they touch. With
so much of our focus on technology, products, and
innovations, it’s still people who are at the center of
what we do. We connect people and applications to
the cloud and each other every single day – and it’s
never been more critical and rewarding.
As we look to 2023, we see governments and service
providers taking actions to increase supply diversity,
u t i l i ze n ew i n n ova t i o n s a n d a rc h i t e c t u re s t o co s teffectively scale their optical networks, and embrace
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greener and more power-efficient solutions to slow
or reduce their environmental footprint.
GOVERNMENTS OPEN THEIR WALLETS TO LOCALIZE
AND DIVERSIFY SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING
While much has been written about government funds
supporting the expansion of broadband internet for
unserved and underserved communities, governments
are also opening their wallets to localize and diversify
the sources of critical semiconductor components that
represent key building blocks of our optical networking
solutions. One of the most significant responses to
pandemic-induced supply shortages and increased
geopolitical friction is the passage of the $52 billion
CHIPS and Science Act in the U.S. Most of the funding
provides financial incentives for semiconductor companies
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like Intel, TSMC, Samsung, Micro, and others to invest
in American semiconductor manufacturing as well as
research and development within the United States.
Other governments seeking reduced risk and increased
autonomy have or will soon follow suit, including the
EU, Japan, South Korea, and China.
While silicon-based semiconductors and their fabrication
facilities (or fabs) generally receive the media limelight,
less well known is the role of optical semiconductors
in powering our networks and our connectivity. Today’s
coherent optical engines enable 800G per wavelength
and tens of terabits per second to be transmitted over a
single fiber pair in subsea, long-haul, and metro networks.
Co m p o u n d s e m i co n d u c t o r s l i ke t h o s e f a b r i c a t e d a t
Infinera’s indium phosphide (InP) fab in California are
critical for the creation of the high-density photonic
integrated circuits (PICs) that are the optical front end
of high-performance coherent optical engines. InP PICs
integrate tuneable lasers, optical amplifiers, high-speed
modulators and detectors, and other functions into a
single thumbnail-sized chip.
IN 2023, LOOK FOR GOVERNMENTS
TO NOT ONLY INVEST IN LOCAL
FABRICATION OF SINGLE-ELEMENT
SILICON SEMICONDUCTORS BUT ALSO
COMPOUND SEMICONDUCTORS LIKE
INP THAT ARE CRITICAL TO THE FUTURE
EVOLUTION OF OPTICAL ENGINES AND
OUR TRANSMISSION NETWORKS.
GROWING IMPORTANCE OF SUBSEA CONNECTIONS
AND ADVANCES IN SDM CABLES
Strong capacity growth and an increased emphasis
on intercontinental fiber route diversity have led to a
proliferation of subsea cable deployments. At present,
TeleGeography estimates that there are more than
460 active subsea cables, with another 75 planned to
come online between now and 2026. Space-division
multiplexing (SDM), a technique that focuses on total
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cable capacity at the expense of slightly reduced
individual fiber capacity, utilizes several techniques
to economize repeater power consumption while
delivering more total electrical power into the cable.
Utilizing conventional technologies, SDM will get us to
a 32-fiber cable, and when combined with today’s 800G
embedded coherent optical engines or their successors
will approach 1-Pbps transmission capacity over
transatlantic distances. With additional unconventional
technologies, we expect even the 32-pairs-per-cable
barrier to be broken sometime in the future.
So where are we with SDM cable deployments today,
and what do we expect in 2023? The Dunant Atlantic
subsea cable between Virginia Beach in the U.S. and
the French Atlantic coast was the first 12-fiber SDM
cable when it went ready for service in early 2021.
Since then, additional 12-fiber SDM cables have
been announced and deployed. But in 2023, look for
16-fiber cables to be the new SDM standard bearer
for transatlantic distances. Becoming operational will
be the Amitié transatlantic cable, one of the first SDM
designs with 16 fiber pairs, and the incredibly ambitious
2Africa system, also with 16 fiber pairs connecting 33
countries and spanning 45,000 km. While the SEAME-WE 6 cable system was announced in early 2022
with plans for 24 fiber pairs, we expect this system
and other 24-fiber cables to come online beyond the
2023 timeframe.
INDUSTRY COLLABORATION AND MARKET
TRENDS BROADEN OPEN OPTICAL ADOPTION
With the separation of optical line systems from
coherent transponders and pluggables, multi-vendor
open optical networking will continue to accelerate
and broaden deployment in 2023. Why? The answer
is multifaceted. With data center connectivity and 5G
networks nearly doubling capacity demands every two
years and driving modest incremental revenue for service
providers, it is imperative that service providers adopt
new generations of optical transmission technology
f a s t e r. O p e n o p t i c a l n e t w o r k i n g e n a b l e s s e r v i c e
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providers to have more choice, faster innovation, and
improved economics.
In addition, pandemic-induced supply chain challenges
are pushing service providers toward increased opticalengine diversity to reduce their risk and shorten
delivery times. Industry maturity and collaboration
with organizations like the Telecom Infra Project’s (TIP)
Open Optical & Packet Transport (OOPT) project group
are also easing adoption by driving consistency across
vendor solutions with standard interfaces and data
models. As an example, the TIP OOPT Mandatory Use
Cases for SDN Transport subgroup recently initiated its
badge evaluation process to demonstrate compliance
and interoperability and has made its initial awards.
INNOVATIONS IN COHERENT PLUGGABLES
ENABLE NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Led by 400ZR deployments with internet content providers
(ICPs) for sub-120-km data center interconnect, 400G
coherent pluggable optics in both QSFP-DD and CFP2
packages have risen from less than 10,000 shipments
i n Q 2 2 0 2 1 t o m o re t h a n 5 0 , 0 0 0 u n i t s i n Q 2 2 0 2 2
(source: Cignal Ai). In 2023, look for three incremental
innovations to enable more networking opportunities
for coherent pluggables and expand their use with both
ICPs and communication service providers.
F i r s t , h i g h - p e r fo r m a n ce p l u g g a b l e s w i t h 0 - d B m
transmit power and low out-of-band noise in QSFP-DD
packaging will enable coherent pluggable transceivers
to cover a richer set of use cases, including deployment
in metro networks with multiple cascaded ROADMs.
This increased transceiver performance will also push
some pluggables beyond the 600-km metro threshold
and into a portion of the long-haul network. Second,
advances in intelligent pluggables management, as being
defined in the 28-member Open XR Forum and with
inputs to other organizations like the OIF, will simplify
operational support for advanced functionality like
remote diagnostics, auto-discovery, spectrum analysis,
and streaming telemetry – bringing transponder-like
functionality to all types of non-optical hosts, including
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switches and routers. Finally, a new class of coherent
pluggables will enable commercial deployment of
p o i n t-t o - m u l t i p o i n t a r c h i t e c t u r e s , w h e r e a s i n g l e
high-speed (e.g., 400G) hub optic can communicate
with multiple lower-speed (e.g., 25G to 100G in 25G
i n c re m e nt s) o pt i c s w i t h o u t re q u i r i n g i nt e r m e d i a t e
electrical aggregation – thus reducing the amount of
equipment, space, and power utilized and the total cost
of network ownership by up to 70% over multiple years.
GREENER AND POWER-EFFICIENT SOLUTIONS
INCREASINGLY DRIVE DECISION MAKING
With increased focus on power consumption and carbon
emissions and their costs and impacts to the planet,
2023 will be a year when power efficiency makes up a
key part of the vendor and solution selection process.
Multiple service providers have announced ambitious
environmental goals. Among them is the European service
provider Deutsche Telekom, which is targeting to be
climate neutral in terms of its own emissions by 2025
and carbon neutral throughout its value chain by 2040.
To a c h i e v e t h e s e f u t u r e t a r g e t s , D T a n d o t h e r
environmentally conscious service providers will need
to select products and network architectures today
that will begin to close the gap. Technology innovations
l i ke 4 0 0 G / 1 0 0 G p l u g g a b l e X R o p t i c s t h a t s u p p o r t
both high-performance point-to-point and point-tomultipoint network architectures can provide leapfrog
or step-function improvements in power and footprint
by reducing the number of transceivers by almost 50%
and eliminating the need for intermediate electrical
aggregation. Together, we can support capacity growth,
reimagine the network, and reduce our environmental
impact along the way.
So, that’s it for this year’s Big 5 predictions. Whether
at a trade show, webinar, or meeting, I look forward
to seeing you face to face in 2023.
I wish you all a safe, healthy, and joyful 2023.
Tim Doiron is vice president, solution marketing at Infinera.
PAGES 2-5PAPER DIES, DIGITALIZATION FLIES FOR NETWORK
DEPLOYMENT IN 2023
PAGES 7-92023: A YEAR OF PUBLIC INVESTMENTS, NEW INNOVATIONS
AND ARCHITECTURES, AND GREENER SOLUTIONS
PAGES 11-13MOVING THE GOALPOSTS FROM HOMES PASSED TO HOMES
CONNECTED
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9
MOVING THE GOALPOSTS FROM HOMES
PASSED TO HOMES CONECTED
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A
mong the measurements of success investors
currently use to gauge the value of broadband
service providers is the number of homes
passed by their networks. The statistic indicates the
potential number of customers within a service area,
which is valuable, but does little to indicate the number
of households that are essentially “revenue ready.”
Homes connected is the emerging benchmark for service
provider success, providing a precise number as to
the number of households that can quickly generate
revenue with little to no capital expense involved – in
some cases, by simply pressing the Enter button after
signing up for service on a web portal.
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Service providers are going to have to change the
way they do installations to become more efficient
to move the goalposts from homes passed to homes
connected. The work begins by examining the process
of making physical connections from the core network
to the neighborhood, household, and inside the house.
Depending on the age of the neighborhood and the
type of fiber deployment, outside work is required
to get a fiber connection between the network and
the premises, followed by inside work connecting the
outside cable inside of the home to connect the optical
networking unit.
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The “last foot” work, connecting homes into a fiber
network, is typically very labor and craft intensive,
requiring cables to be stripped and cut in an unprotected
environment, adjusting cable slack storage by hand,
s p l i c i n g o n e o r m o re f i b e r s o n - s i t e , a n d i n s t a l l i n g
connectors to the ends of fiber. All are time-consuming
processes that offer many ways to introduce defects and
issues that could require makeup work and additional
truck rolls to fix problems before a customer can get
up and running. A fast install completed poorly is
more costly to a service provider than a more timeconsuming but good install, since it will require one
or more truck rolls to fix, while the customer waits
for service and the billing department waits to start
collecting revenue.
In today’s environment with a shortage of manpower,
especially in skilled fiber technicians, service providers
need to carefully examine their processes, products,
and procedures for connecting customers with a keen
eye to minimize touch labor at every step of connecting
a new household into the network. Simplification is
key t o re d u c i n g va l u a b l e o n s i t e t i m e a n d a vo i d i n g
introducing defects into the process. The goal is to
connect homes as rapidly as possible with working
connections from day one.
STEPS TOWARD SIMPLIFICATION
T i m e s a ve d i n a n e f f i c i e n t a n d q u a l i t y i n s t a l l a t i o n
process enables service providers to maximize value
out of their available field installation workforce and
leads to more installations – more homes connected
– per day. The best way to save time is to invest in
craft-friendly technologies that are plug-and-play in
nature to minimize splicing and other types of touch
labor during installation so field teams can be as
effective as possible when they are on-site.
Using a craft-friendly broadband deployment
technology when connecting fiber to the home has
been shown to save anywhere between 35% to 38%
in direct time savings when compared to the baseline
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method of inside and outside work performed. The
key is in leveraging technology in connection products
rather than having to do extra work manually, step by
step, in the field.
Simplification starts by using a house cable supplied
on a flexible deploy reel that contains up to 100 feet of
flexible optical cable and by using pre-connectorized
cable products for both the drop cable from the outside
plant (OSP) network and the house cable that enters
the home. Using a prepped deploy reel for the house
cable minimizes pre-engineering because there’s no
need to specify an exact length of cable needed. The
reel enables optical cable to be pulled directly to the
entry point of the house. Once the entry cable with
its pushable connector reaches the location inside,
the connector assembly is completed with supplied
connector housings and the connector is mated to an
adapter. Since the slack on the reel is already stored,
no further slack management is required.
THIS PROCESS ELIMINATES THE
REQUIREMENT TO SET UP A CONNECTOR
INSTALLATION STATION SINCE THE
CABLES ARE PRE-CONNECTORIZED –
NO FUSS, NO MUSS, NO SPLICING OR
PUTTING ON CONNECTORS IN THE
FIELD.
T h e p re l o a d e d c a b l e re e l e l i m i n a t e s t h e n e e d t o
set up a cable payout station to cut house cable to
custom length, inserting the cable into the home, and
splicing both ends.
SURVEY SHOWS THE BENEFITS
A large service provider recently commissioned a
study to quantify the time saved using the method and
technology described above when conducting residential
installations, using a baseline of 12 steps for outside
and inside work. When compared to a previous baseline
study, the craft-friendly broadband deployment method
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saved between 35% to 38% across outside and inside
work during a total of 159 installations.
The baseline study pointed to several potential failure
points using field-installed connectors and fiber cables
cut and installed on site. Field-installed connectors had
less successful connections, delivered higher optical
loss, took more time to install, and required more truck
rolls for fixing problems overall. With cables cut in the
field and installed onsite, problems can be introduced
by cable stripping, fiber cutting and fiber cleaving in an
unprotected environment, creating a cable pay-out rig
onsite, and relying on a technician to coil slack storage
by hand and then fit the slack into the TAP box.
U t i l i z i n g c r a f t-f r i e n d l y h a rd wa re , i n c l u d i n g p re connectorized cable products for both the drop cable
and the house cable supplied on a deployment reel,
m i n i m i ze d p re - e n g i n e e r i n g fo r s p e c i f y i n g a n exa c t
length of cable needed and eliminated the need to
install connectors in the field or improvise cable slack
management for both inside and outside work. This
process eliminated the need to set up a connector
installation and cable payout stations onsite.
Improvements made through using pre-installed
connectors included 100% guaranteed performance
over field-installed because connectors could be tested
both before shipping to the customer and at a depot
site for additional assurance before going out into the
field. Incorporation of a pre-loaded deployment reel
dramatically simplified installation by paying out the
exact amount of cable required and provided superior
cable management with remaining slack stored safely
on the reel rather than forcing a field tech into making
slack cable fit into an enclosure.
T h e s t u d y f o u n d t h a t c r a f t- f r i e n d l y t e c h n o l o g y
saved an average of 39 minutes on outside fiber work
and 19 minutes on inside work. The operator running
this study found that the cumulative time savings of
outside and inside work enabled field technicians to add
one and sometimes two additional homes-connected
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installation appointments per day for each technician
– a considerable productivity increase that ultimately
led to being able to generate revenue faster by turning
up more customers per day.
THE TIME IS NOW
Fiber broadband networks are going through an
unprecedented boom, driven by federal funding from
t h e $ 4 2 . 4 5 b i l l i o n B r o a d b a n d E q u i t y, A c c e s s , a n d
Deployment (BEAD) Program and aided by other federal
and state programs along with private investment.
Service providers are going to look for ways to accelerate
homes connected, using more efficient technology and
methods to reduce and take the best advantage of
skilled field teams. Given the urgency to connect homes
to generate revenue, faster ways to connect homes
is more of a certainty than a prediction for 2023.
Kevin Morgan is chief marketing officer of Clearfield, Inc.
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ABOUT THE SPONSOR: RENDER NETWORKS
With a successful history of streamlining large-scale network construction, Render’s end-to-end geospatial
network construction platform eliminates manual processes for network operators and construction teams by
digitizing every detail of the construction project. Each individual task is automated and sequenced, timelines
and resources are optimized, and progress is reported to all stakeholders in real-time. The result is an
unparalleled level of confidence that every minute, dollar, and resource is maximized with improved visibility
and control across infrastructure rollouts.
RESOURCES:
• https://www.rendernetworks.com/resources/strata-networks
• https://www.rendernetworks.com/resources/fiber-providers-feeling-heat-of-inflation
• https://www.rendernetworks.com/resources/irby-cecc
• https://5136250.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5136250/Sales%20Enablement%20Assets/
Capability%20Brochure/Render%20Capability%20Guide_October%202022.pdf
• https://5136250.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5136250/eBook_5%20ways%20to%20deploy%20
rural%20broadband%20networks%20smarter.pdf
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ABOUT THE SPONSOR: INFINERA
Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) is a global supplier of innovative open optical networking solutions and advanced
optical semiconductors that enable telecommunications service providers, cloud operators, governments, and
enterprises to scale network bandwidth, accelerate service innovation, and automate network operations.
Infinera solutions deliver industry-leading economics and performance in long-haul, submarine, data center
interconnect, and metro transport applications, powered by the world’s most advanced embedded and
pluggable optical engines. Our agile, open, compact, and modular networking platforms enable network
operators to rapidly and easily take advantage of best-in-class technology. Over 40 years of experience and
1,900+ patents power our carrier-class products and services worldwide. We serve over 1,000 customers,
including nine of the top 10 Tier 1 operators and five of the top six internet content providers. To learn more
about Infinera, visit www.infinera.com, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe for updates.
RESOURCES:
• ICE6 for Submarine Networks:
https://www.infinera.com/solutions/submarine/
• ICE6 Optical Engines:
https://www.infinera.com/innovation/ice6-800g-wavelengths/
• Overview of XR Optics:
https://www.infinera.com/innovation/xr-optics/
• Blog: Game-changing Innovation for a Greener Planet:
https://www.infinera.com/blog/game-changing-innovation-for-a-greener-planet/tag/optical/
• Advanced Coherent Optical Engines and Subsystems:
https://www.infinera.com/innovation/optical-semiconductor-fabrication
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