Solving the MDU Gigabit Coverage Challenge

Recent work by the Broadband Forum (BBF) has focused on revisiting the best fiber extension technologies to leverage existing in-building wiring for these MDUs (telephone pairs or coaxial cabling), extending Gigabit services from nearby fiber without any construction complexity or disruption.

The BBF Technical Report TR-419 defines the notion of Fiber to the extension point (FTTep), describing different ways of providing fiber-based access to customers by employing existing copper infrastructure to facilitate deployments in a more economically attractive way. This can be achieved by extending the fiber network with the in- building wiring infrastructure to provide Gigabit access into the home. FTTep addresses how user traffic flows from fiber to coax or copper and then to a Gigabit Ethernet interface to connect to a residential gateway or Wi-Fi router.

Increasingly, the preferred technology for FTTep is G.hn, an access technology for operators looking to simplify their access network with an “Ethernet-like” technology over the existing wiring. A G.hn Access Multiplexer (GAM) is an Ethernet switch where each G.hn subscriber port supports up to 1.7 Gbps of dynamically allocated bandwidth for near- symmetrical gigabit services to each residential gateway (RG).

The last element to achieving a transparent fiber extension was for a GAM device to appear to an Optical Line Terminal (OLT) as an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) with multiple Gigabit Ethernet subscriber ports to the OLT (see diagram).

Native support for the ONT Management Control Interface (OMCI) by a GAM device allows the OLT and the operator OSS/BSS systems to define and activate services and subscribers as if they were delivered entirely over a fiber feed to a typical ONT. The GAM uses the management information received via OMCI to enforce the services and subscriber definitions as it uses G.hn to extend fiber over the copper or coaxial infrastructure and ultimately to the RG. OMCI is also used to retrieve operational data from each subscriber to monitor the services with the same level of visibility and control as with fiber.

Fully leveraging an xPON infrastructure with G.hn FTTep is key to solving the MDU challenge and to unlocking the large MDU market. This is particularly attractive to telco operators and cable MSOs that are pushing a fiber-first strategy. The additional MDU-based subscribers come with a minimal investment and maximize the return on the already deployed fiber in a market.

The fiber-divide is solved and MDU tenants become strong supporters and your NPS goes way up along with revenues while the churn percentage is much lower. These operators can then build upon their newly found dominant position in the MDU market with better services and coverage. This expanded subscriber base generates extra revenues to support managed Wi-Fi across the MDU and a host of complementary services (home security, parental control, etc.) to secure their market position and achieve higher ARPU from these subscribers.