Muni fiber: L1 or L2?

Thu Feb 7 18:39:58 UTC 2013

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Masataka Ohta" <mohta at necom830.hpcl.titech.ac.jp>

> Scott Helms wrote:
> > Now, in general for greenfield builds I'd agree except for
> > PON, which is in many cases cheaper than an Ethernet build.
> 
> As PON require considerably longer drop cable from a splitters
> to 4 or 8 subscribers, it can not be cheaper than Ethernet,
> unless subscriber density is very high.

Oh, ghod; we're not gonna go here, again, are we?

Yes, a PON physical build can be somewhat cheaper, because it multiplexes 
your trunk cabling from 1pr per circuit to as many as 16-32pr per circuit
on the trunk, allowing you to spec smaller cables.

It does, however, limit you to being able to run PON capable L1 protocols
over it, which may have *system*-cost implications over the life of the 
plant.  But yes, the initial install *may* be a bit cheaper (depending
on the tradeoff cost of the splitters vs the larger count fiber and
the reduced size of patching facilities, and the relative cost of the
access multiplexers, and...

Hey, wait!  How did I end up on Scott's side?  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                  Baylink                       jra at baylink.com
Designer                     The Things I Think                       RFC 2100
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