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The POF-ALL project (“Paving the Optical Future with
Affordable Lightning-fast Links”) shall develop a technology to allow
delivery of 100+ Mbit/s symmetrically to residential users at costs far
lower than existing alternatives, thanks to the use of Plastic Optical
Fiber (POF). The solution will be targeted at the edge network which,
due to its capillarity, is the most expensive part of the access
network; and it will be tailored to large residential buildings, which
are most common in European cities.
New telecom operators are struggling to deploy glass fiber in
the edge networks, despite major installation challenges. POF-ALL shall prove
that POF can radically ease installation difficulties and reduce costs while
providing ample bandwidth, making it the ideal alternative for edge networks.The technical goal is to build systems based on large core
POF, operating at 100+ Mbit/s symmetrically over distances of 200+ meters. The
use of large core POF greatly eases installation with respect to standard glass
optical fiber (GOF), but poses physical transmission impairments (due to the
higher attenuation and dispersion of POF with respect to GOF) that the project
will deal with by optimizing components, devices, transmission and protocol
used.
POF-ALL will also gauge market’s potential and assess customers’
requirement to ensure that the outcome will be an economically viable
and cost-effective solution which matches real user’s requirements. An
appraisal of the project’s economic impact at EU level will be carried
out, including an evaluation of the advantages of a low-cost solution
for edge access networks and its impact in accelerating the deployment
of an infrastructure capable of making EU’s broadband-for-all policy as
fast and cost effective as possible.
A constant work of information and dissemination will be carried out on
the objectives of this project in order to attract interest, to share
results within the EU and to increase knowledge and accelerate adoption
of POF-ALL’s technical achievements.
POF advantages for edge networks are:
- ‘do-it-yourself’ installation, by simply cutting
the fiber and crimping the connector: there’s no need for special
tools or skilled technicians. This is the key advantage of POF with
respect to GOF; it is related to the much larger size of POF’s core,
which also makes POF connections highly tolerant to residual dust on
connectors’ endfaces. On the contrary, GOF connectors require
careful preparation, cleaning and polishing with dedicated, hard to
use and expensive tools.
- minimum space consumption and low weight;
- immunity to external electromagnetic interferen-ces, which allows
installation near power lines or data copper cables. Most national
safety stan-dards prohibit to lay data copper cables in power lines
ducts, allowing the use of optical fiber only.
- zero EMI
generation, an issue that is gaining increasing attention in
relation to health risks linked with other solutions, such as
wireless;
- high environmen-tal resilience, allow-ing the use
of POF cables in adverse environments, such as wet areas and even in
water pipelines, sewers and drainage pipes;
- a transparent
broadband infra-structure, suited to the integration of various
signals such as in “triple play” services;
- the access technology
can be easily changed, without changing the building infrastructure
(e.g. radio to fiber access); analogue transmission is possible,
allowing, when required, compatibility with CATV signals.
- Europe would take advantage of a low-cost technology,
ideal for telecomm operators to carry true broadband to businesses
and households;
- Europe would be independent from extra-EU
technologies for access networks implementation, as it is today with
ADSL technologies;
- European companies will have the chance to
export the knowledge of the POF-ALL consortium, promoting further
investments and improving the competitiveness and technological role
of Europe.
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