Brian Lane

Chapter 15 – Production Operations

This chapter provides information for operating the production network in steady-state production with a focus on the lifecycle of the network and the role of the Operations team in maintaining and optimizing the network. Several models for building the network are detailed, and key processes used to operate the network are enumerated and discussed.

Chapter 9 – Outside Plant

This chapter presents concepts you will need to keep in mind as you design and build your outside plant. It covers important physical architectural considerations applicable to any type of passive optical network (PON), and suggests the most economical ways to build plant under different conditions. It also talks about a reasonably accurate way to calculate how much reach you can safely achieve with different PONs.

Chapter 12 – IPTV Architecture

This chapter presents concepts you will need to keep in mind as you design and build your IPTV facility. It covers unicast and multicast, as well as over-the-top (OTT) video. We discuss capacity planning issues for IPTV, which will surely be your biggest bandwidth usage.

Chapter 13 – VoIP Architecture

This chapter presents concepts you will need to keep in mind as you deploy voice service on your network. The emphasis is on the SIP (session initiation protocol), as it is the dominant protocol at the time of writing. We describe how it works, and present some cases in which you may encounter difficulties, suggesting how to avoid them.

Chapter 4 – GPON

This chapter does deviate somewhat from our commitment to not get too deeply into how the systems work. But there is a certain amount of information you need concerning how the systems work in order to know how to configure them. Some element management systems (EMSs) will hide a lot of the details, but if you are proficient enough in the system, you may well find it advantageous to bypass the EMS and configure the system at a lower level. An expert usually does choose to bypass the EMS and work directly on the system at a lower level because it is faster and can give you more details of system operation. But this requires a lot of expertise on the part of the engineer. This chapter discusses GPON, the ITU PON system, showing some of the more relevant inner workings of the standard.

Chapter 16 – Performance Management

This chapter defines performance management using standards based definitions and practical considerations in the context of the FTTx access network. A methodology for developing a performance management system to benefit the network operator long term, in the operation of the network, is provided. Applications for the usage of performance management data are presented along with strategies for collecting, managing, and using the data.

Chapter 3 – EPON

This chapter and the next do deviate somewhat from our commitment to not get too deeply into how the systems work. But there is a certain amount of information you need concerning how the systems work in order to know how to configure them. Some element management systems (EMSs) will hide a lot of the details, but if you are proficient enough in the system, you may well find it advantageous to bypass the EMS and configure the system at a lower level. An expert usually does choose to bypass the EMS and work directly on the system at a lower level because it is faster and can give you more details of system operation. But this requires a lot of expertise on the part of the engineer. This chapter discusses EPON, the IEEE PON system, showing some of the more relevant inner workings of the standard.

Data Services Architecture

This is a key chapter in the book, presenting recommendations for how to configure the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) plant under a large number of real-world conditions and services. Video in both broadcast and Internet protocol TV (IPTV) are covered, as are voice and a number of different data services.

Identifying Network Threats and Security Vulnerabilities

This chapter provides a high-level view of challenges an operator must be aware of in the deployment of an access network. Guidelines are provided to various agencies and sources of information which maintain real-time updates on security threats. Topics such as denial of service attacks and management protection are highlighted.

Other Network Standards

This chapter presents several standards that may be incorporated into certain passive optical networks (PONs), depending on what you plan to do with the PON. This is often based on the services you will offer, your present business(es) and your competitive landscape.