Fibre to the office

Fiber to the office (FTTO) is an alternative cabling concept for LAN network office environments. It combines passive elements (fibre optic cabling, patch panels, splice boxes, connectors and standard copper 8P8C patch cords) and active mini-switches (called FTTO switches) to provide end devices with Gigabit Ethernet. FTTO involves centralised optical fibre cabling techniques to create a combined backbone/horizontal channel; this channel is provided from the work areas to the centralised cross-connect or interconnect by allowing the use of pull-through cables or splices in the telecommunications room.

FTTO Technology emerged in Germany at the start of the 1980s when fibre based connectivity was extensively explored. FTTO appeared as a response to the growing network complexity.

The solution was to meet the following requirements:

FTTO is a hybrid network involving fibre optic cabling (pre-terminated or extractable cables) and copper twisted pair patch cords with 8P8C connectors. In an FTTO environment, fibre is laid up vertically from the central distribution switch right to the office floor, where it runs horizontally to active FTTO switches at the users' workplaces. The final distance of 3–5 m to the end user desk is bridged using standard 8P8C twisted pair patch cords. There are only two network levels: the core and the access with no aggregation or distribution level in between compared to traditional structured cabling networks.

The FTTO switch provides a connection between optical uplinks and electrical downlinks. Typically, the switch has up to five twisted pair ports supporting Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af, 15.4W per Port) and Power over Ethernet Plus (IEEE 802.3at, 30W per Port). Modern FTTO Switches offer speeds of 1 Gbit/s per user port (Gigabit Ethernet). Link aggregation may also be supported. Thus, PCs, laptops, IP Phones, wireless access points, cameras, access control units, building automation devices (including lights control, electricity meters, cooling and HVAC units), and other devices with network interfaces may be connected to the backbone network with Gigabit speeds.

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