David P. Reed

An optimal investment strategy model for fiber to the home

Planning for the deployment of fiber to the home is made particularly difficult by rapidly changing network component costs and a multitude of system architecture alternatives. A modeling approach using dynamic programming to select an optimal investment strategy for rehabilitating existing copper plant with fiber to the home is described. The optimal time to invest is determined by a simple tradeoff: early deployment allows the carrier to receive additional revenues from video services more quickly; later deployment can be accomplished with less costly technology. Given the assumptions of the model about component cost trends and demand forecasts, and in the absence of competition, the model predicts that discounted profits to a local exchange carrier (LEC) are maximized by deferring investment in fiber to the home until well into the 21st century. The results are particularly sensitive to a few system parameters: the assumed rate of subscriber growth in broadband services, the cost of optical components, and the cost of network maintenance. Some policy implications of the study are examined. >

An engineering and policy analysis of fiber introduction into the residential subscriber loop

An engineering model which provides a framework for evaluating alternative network architectures for providing fiber to the home is presented. The analysis employs this model to construct estimates of the average cost per subscriber of several network alternatives which have been proposed in the literature. The results identify two possible network architectures, the active double star and the passive double star, as particularly attractive alternatives. Sensitivity analyses provide detail on the critical contributors to overall costs. Several policy issues raised by the analysis, including the proper allocation of risk from fiber-to-the-home investments, are considered. >

VoD QAM resource allocation algorithms

This paper proposes a new Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) resource allocation algorithm for Video on Demand (VoD) when there is a mixture of standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) video streams. We have developed a simulation model to compare this algorithm with two popular algorithms: the least-loaded algorithm and the most-loaded algorithm. We show that our algorithm, which we call the non-mixing algorithm, performs signi-ficantly better than the two existing algorithms by accommodating more streams thereby lowering the blocking probabilities under a range of assum-ptions of peak concurrent usage rate and percentage of HD streams. Using computer simulation we found that the non-mixing algorithm leads to an average of 4.39% higher allowed peak usage rate than the least-loaded and most-loaded algorithms.

Telephone company entry into cable television: An evaluation

Even if all legal entry barriers were eliminited, telephone companies would face dim prospects for competing with cable television operators in the transport of video services, at least during this decade. This situation arises because the economic characteristics of fibre-based integrated broadband networks of interest to telephone companies are not promising. Unless the demand for switched video is strong, households will continue to be served separately by cable television networks and by switched narrowband networks during the 1990s.

A Cost Analysis Of A Fiber Upgrade For A Coaxial Cable Network To Support On-Demand Video

An engineering cost model has been constructed to examine the economics of using fiber optics to upgrade existing coaxial cable networks in order to provide on-demand video service. Two fiber backbone alternatives have been considered: a mixed digital/analog subcarrier multiplexing system and a fully digital pulse code modulation, time division multiplexed system. The results suggest that to provide an on-demand video service, the cable company will have to depart from their traditional approach of employing a high degree of common plant and move in the direction of providing a dedicated channel for each subscriber. The extent to which common plant can be shared among multiple subscribers decreases in proportion to the increase in ODV usage, with correspondingly higher costs per subscriber. Model calculations suggest that serious economic barriers exist to realizing an ODV service through simple fiber backbone upgrades to existing cable networks.

Trends in Cable Network Economics: Implications for the Open Internet

Over the past 50 years the network economics of cable networks have had a profound impact upon the diversity of information available to modern society in the form of video and broadband content. Cost-effective one-way transport increased the diversity of television channels to several hundred from a handful; cost-effective two-way transport established societal reliance upon always-on access to Internet content at broadband speeds. Incremental technological innovation over time has been the key driver establishing favorable network economics to push this evolution of expanding services and information carried on cable networks. This paper develops a framework to describe how the network economics of cable services has evolved from the use of analog television and digital television to new IP transport technologies such as Cable Service Interface Specification version 3.1 (DOCSIS 3.1) and network management technologies of software defined networking (SDN) and network virtual function (NFV), and the implications for public policy. This analysis shows that as video becomes the dominant application carried by the Internet, the Open Internet framework will need to address the network access issues specific to IP video including the wholesale migration of video to IP transport, definition of services using quality of service (QoS) and reasonable approaches for managing public Internet congestion. The analysis also shows how the economics of new channel deployment over cable will become easier in the IP environment, but more complex with regard to the network operations and traffic management associated with quality.

Technologies and Policies to Connect the Next Five Billion

In this paper, we present a broadband deployment framework describing how “the next 5 billion” may be connected to the Internet in the future. This framework identifies the most promising Internet technologies and the areas where they should be deployed. To summarize, we see wireless platforms being used in rural markets and other areas that will benefit greatly from a high degree of shared infrastructure, particularly with an electrical powering solution. Over time, fiber-based networks will gradually fill across the network, migrating from the core to the edge. In our research, we also describe and promote a certain set of policies (many of which may not require laws) that will facilitate the prompt and efficient deployment of broadband infrastructure. These policies include (1) promoting shared infrastructure, (2) liberalizing spectrum policy, (3) facilitating access and interconnection through Internet exchange points (IXPs), (4) creating an ecosystem that stimulates demand for broadband (and associated innovation, entrepreneurship, and technical experimentation), and (5) sharing information and discussing best practices among parties with common interests within geographical regions.

Telephone company entry into cable television: A reply

Continuing technological advance reinforces the conclusion in our earlier study that construction of integrated broadband networks (IBNs) consisting of fibre-to-the-home systems will not be the most promising way for local telephone companies to compete with incumbent cable television providers during this decade. Whether fibre-to-the-kerb systems prove to be viable for competitive entry is also questionable. In our view, the success of telephone companies as cable competitors during the 1990s is as likely to depend on other fibre network architectures or on whether video compression techniques can be perfected for video services over existing local telephone networks. Our analysis highlights the dangers of public policies that seek to promote a particular technology, as proponents of fibre-based systems have urged, to strengthen the US telecommunications infrastructure.

AN ENGINEERING COST AND POLICY ANALYSIS OF INTRODUCING FIBER INTO THE RESIDENTIAL SUBSCRIBER LOOP

Publisher Summary This chapter presents an analysis of the principal engineering and economic issues that have emerged as telephone companies consider rewiring the nations residences with fiber optics. Assuming significant future reductions in component costs, running fiber optic to the home is likely to remain more expensive than copper, where current loop plant costs are roughly

Method and system of allocating data for subsequent retrieval

920 per subscriber. To realize the introduction of a fiber Integrated Broadband Networks (IBN), it must be justified on the basis of additional revenue producing services, such as the delivery of entertainment video. Fiber optic network capable of providing both voice and video services to the home can be constructed for