Fiber Optic Access

Fiber to the premises (FTTP) is a form of fiber-optic communication delivery in which an optical fiber is run directly onto the customers’ premises. This contrasts with other fiber-optic communication delivery strategies such as fiber to the node (FTTN), fiber to the curb (FTTC), or hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC), all of which depend upon more traditional methods such as copper wires or coaxial cable for “last mile” delivery.

Fiber to the premises can be further categorized according to where the optical fiber ends:

• FTTH (fiber to the home) is a form of fiber optic communication delivery in which the optical signal reaches the end user’s living or office space.
• FTTB (fiber to the building, also called fiber to the basement) is a form of fiber optic communication delivery in which the optical signal reaches the premises but stops short of the end user’s living or office space.

A typical example of FTTH is where the fiber connects to a single-residence house. A typical example of FTTB is where the fiber connects to an office building (or apartment building) which is itself equipped with category 5 cable. (The category 5 cable would then carry the signal the rest of the way to the end user’s office or living space.) However, if the office building instead carried the signal to the end user’s office space by means of its own fiber optic network, then this would be FTTH. This is true even though no “home” is involved.

Some definitions of fiber to the premises fail to include both FTTH and FTTB.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Fiber to the Premises”.