Optical Network Architectures

Greetings from the 8th International Conference on Computer Science and Education (ICCSE 2013) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where Professor Wen-De Zhong is speaking on "Optical Network Architectures". This is a hot topic in Australia, with the national political discussion of the merit of the ALP's National Broadband Network fiber to the home and the rival hybrid fibre to the node from the Liberal Party. The professor pointed out that FTTH was increasing at 25% annually in Asia Pacific, which leads the world in implementation of the technology. He discussed BPON, EPON, and GPON. Hybrid optical/copper systems were not discussed.

Coalition’s Proposed Alternative to the NBN

The Australian opposition have released "Fast. Affordable. Sooner. The Coalition’s Plan for a better NBN". This proposes halting the roll-out of the NBN Fibre to the Home in Australia and using Fibre to the Node instead. We have had TFFN in Canberra for just over a decade, with the Transact system. If you have power poles handy, and the citizens don't mind more overhead wires, it is a cost effective system. Also it works okay in new buildings. My apartment building has a fibre optic node in the basement and twisted pair copper to each unit. But if you are going to the trouble of putting new cables underground, then they might as well be fiber-optic, as most of the cost is in digging the trenches.

If the government, whoever they are, want to save money, they could prioritize fibre roll-out in greenfield sites and areas with no, or poor broadband. The areas with copper phone and Pay TV cable could be left for last, where it is working okay. This would be a slight change to the current government's NBN FTTH to achieve cost savings proposed by the opposition.