The ever-growing popularity of high-bandwidth applications, like video streaming and online gaming, among others, means that the traditional approach to network deployment is no longer relevant. Service providers need to drive improvements in wireless network architecture, so they are better positioned to support their customers.
New mobile network technologies such as 5G are designed to support the growing demand for high-bandwidth applications. The fifth generation of wireless technology offers significant improvement over the previous standards. A combination of the ultra-high-speed and extremely low latency of less than one millisecond enables several pathbreaking use cases, such as Industry 4.0, connected cars, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and remote surgery, among others. However, more bandwidth requires more antennas which is not without its own set of challenges.
Legacy towers are not designed to accommodate a large volume of bulky coax cables, which typically carry both signal and power to the antenna. Adding more antennas increases the installation time and expenditure for the service providers. In addition, more power is required to transmit radio frequency signals up the tower since the coax cable weakens the signals at high frequencies.
What is Fiber-to-the-Antenna (FTTA)?
In simple terms, Fiber-to-the-Antenna (FTTA) is a broadband network architecture that uses optical fiber to connect the Remote Radio Head (RRH) to the base station instead of coax cables. While the legacy network architecture uses coax cables to transmit high-frequency signals from the base stations to the remote mast antenna, FTTA uses optical fiber to link RRH to the base stations. This new approach offers several advantages to the mobile network operators.
Why is FTTA important?
One significant advantage of the FTTA approach is that fiber optic cable is not as heavy as a coax cable, making it easier to install and manage. Furthermore, one single fiber optic cable can replace several coax cables, thus ensuring better cost economics. Also worth noting is the better signal integrity and improved energy efficiency of FTTA infrastructure.
FTTA also eliminates the need for tower amplifiers because RRH is replaced at the top of the antenna. This helps in using natural air to cool RRH which removes the need for expensive air conditioning systems. This ensures more sustainable operations with lower energy consumption as well as reduced spending on energy.
On the other hand, G.657.A1, with ten turns and a 15mm bend radius, can have a maximum macrobending loss of 0.25 dB at 1550nm and 1.0dB at 1625nm. This fiber is most appropriate for access networks. G.657 A1 fiber with one turn at a 10mm bend radius cannot have macrobending loss of more than 0.75 dB at 1550nm and 1.5 dB at 1625nm. FTTA allows mobile network operators to record significant savings on costs and time needed to deploy sites while ensuring greater operational efficiencies. With heavy and bulky coax cables out of the picture, FTTA can help bring down tower loading, thus reducing tower leasing expenses. It also ensures a scalable and future-proof cabling infrastructure.
The FTTA methodology is especially relevant for countries/regions where the connectivity is dominated by wireless and not wired communications networks. Globally, average mobile data usage per smartphone is likely to grow from 21 GB in 2023 to 56 GB in 2029. The exponential growth of the data traffic demands a new approach to network architecture and FTTA is likely to play a crucial role for the service providers to add simplicity to their network infrastructure leading to better management and more cost-effective operations.
While both single-mode and multimode optical fibers can be used for FTTA deployments, the decision largely depends on the fiber requirements of the Baseband Unit (BBU) or Remote Radio Units (RRU). HFCL offers a range of single-mode and multimode fiber optic cables to help service providers use the FTTA approach to bring down expenses while enhancing operational efficiency.
Looking Ahead
As the cost of deploying and managing networks increases, service providers seek a more cost-effective and sustainable way of managing networks. Over the last few years, FTTA has emerged as a significant advancement in broadband architecture, enabling service providers to support the growing bandwidth demand while ensuring more cost-effective network operations.