eODN: The Road to Intelligence

Broadband network development opens a window for operators to gain ground on their competition. Fiber has its long reach and large capacity and thus will replace copper in future telecom networks. In recent years, many countries have chosen to build their national broadband networks with FTTH, and this has led to an explosion in fiber applications. However, an FTTH optical distribution network (ODN) is different from a traditional outside plant (OSP) network in terms of network planning, construction, and maintenance. FTTH ODNs demand careful management of a massive number of fibers.

 

Challenges in ODNs

• Lack of a unified support platform

Currently, ODN market analysis, planning and design, and construction and maintenance are compartmentalized. ODN network planning and design involves many software releases, and this leads to loss of key information during data transfer. The people constructing the network cannot promptly determine regional demands for bandwidth, so the network cannot be adequately constructed to meet real demand. Also, changes to the ODN cannot be sent to the GIS database. This means a large amount of data needs to be imported and exported in the background and must be manually recorded on site. This process is inefficient and open to error.

 

• Lack of efficient mass-fiber management

In ODNs, a paper label is affixed to each fiber to identify its port and manage passive equipment. With a rapidly increasing number of fibers, it is difficult to locate a specific port or fiber route. Information about the ODN is manually recorded and modified. Statistically, failure to update a database in time reduces the accuracy of fiber resources in many places to below 70%. This greatly affects the availability of resource information. Managing passive ODN equipment with paper labels is unnecessarily difficult, and a more efficient approach is needed.

 

• Lack of real-time network diagnosis

Optical performance testing is an important part of ODN installation and maintenance. An optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) is widely used in ODN testing. However, during testing, an optical connector must be connected to and pulled out of the OTDR, and no service can be run during the test. The OTDR is still a test instrument rather than an efficient solution. It cannot output the results of a test as a test report. Results must first be analyzed by trained and experienced personnel.

 

Requirements of Future ODN Construction

Operators seek to build a flexible, accurate, efficient fiber network. They strike a balance between using existing resources and creating new build-outs according to service demands and market forecasts. The full lifecycle concept can be introduced into different stages of ODN deployment.

 

• Planning

Resource usage, subscriber distribution, and market competition should be closely monitored to determine where investments should be made. Powerful, specialized network planning software is needed to provide ODN planning solutions for different scenarios.

 

• Design

Operators deploy the network and configure equipment, according to planning data. Intelligent design tools greatly increase work efficiency and make the network design more consistent.

 

• Construction

The design results can be exported to a unified platform that allows construction information to be queried, uploaded, and electronically accessed using a handheld terminal. Paperless operation is convenient and environmentally friendly.

 

• Maintenance

Operators seek to electronically manage their ODN in order to visually locate equipment and ports. A real-time optical link test system that promptly locates and diagnoses faults is needed to fulfill service level agreements. During installation, engineers need to know equipment distribution and detailed geographic information. 

 

• Network upgrade and expansion

Operators need to know detailed information about the operational status of their equipment and the usage of network resources. Such information can help them optimize network design and increase return on investment.

 

eODN: The Road to Intelligence

ZTE has created a full lifecycle eODN solution that addresses problems in ODNs and helps with the evolution to a fiber network. An intelligent electronic identification and real-time monitoring solution, based on geographic information system (GIS), can help an operator rapidly and efficiently plan, construct, and maintain an FTTx network. Such a solution covers every stage of ODN construction and provides smart end-to-end ODN operation and maintenance. The solution involves three main modules: eDesign, eManager and eMonitor (Fig. 1).

eDesign is the network planning and design module based on GIS.  This module creates an ODN deployment proposal that adheres to city planning regulations. Based on geographical grids, eDesign correlates user demands and required resources within a region so that services can be accurately matched with resources. This is important for broadband planning and deployment, resource allocation, and business development. In the planning and design stage, eDesign provides automatic drawing, modularized product configuration, and effective statistics. Many networks can be created in a short time.

eManager is the  module for managing and maintaining a massive number of optical fibers. Each fiber core is considered a nerve of an ODN, and expert knowledge about the operational status of each nerve is necessary. ZTE has introduced smart electronic labels (e-Tags) to replace paper labels on optical fibers. eODN uses e-Tags to store important routing, occupancy, and maintenance history about a connection on an ODN node. e-Tags can be embedded in an ODF, OCC  or ODB. Information from all fibers and ports can be acquired and sent to a data server. The smart electronic labels are like a chip planted in each fiber. They make equipment more intelligent and the fiber network more perceptible and accurate.

eMonitor is the real-time performance monitoring module for an FTTx network. Good maintenance helps extend network life. eMonitor uses integrated OTDR and OSW hardware as well as a special platform to analyze performance and locate faults. eMonitor can diagnose problems in fiber networks without interrupting services. This allows operators to monitor network performance at any time without having to notify customers. eMonitor also has an analysis platform that stores the results of network health tests in a library. Network performance is automatically monitored, and an alarm is sounded when there is an abnormality. When a fault is located, eMonitor displays the result on a GIS map and triggers a fault-handling mechanism. ODN construction is the most costly and time-consuming part of constructing an FTTH network. It is very difficult to expand or upgrade an ODN once it has been deployed. Therefore, it is important to build a stable, flexible, long-term fiber network from the outset. ZTE has the industry expertise and innovative know-how to support operators in ODN deployment.