Fiber sounds so pure and simple and foolproof, and long haul fiber mostly is. But with all these variations on how FTTH is done, I feel like the saying about you don't want to see how the sausage is made.
From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Adam Moffett Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 4:22 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done? Interesting. So they're taking a bundle of microducts, cutting away some jacket in the middle and coupling a single conduit to one in the bundle? Like one of these things? What do they do with the part they opened up before they rebury it? Wrap it up in tape? Rebury it as-is? <https://www.duraline.com/-/ods/Image/457/1443/Original/FuturePath%207-Way_5 .23.png?version=1717158123> _____ From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Mike Hammett <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 3:23 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done? It's becoming increasingly common to install a 24-way multiduct through the easement, fed from a neighborhood-scale handhole. The drop installer digs up the multiduct, couples a drop duct to one of the 24 microducts in the main conduit, then installs that conduit to the NID. Buries the whole thing. They then blow the fiber from that neighborhood handhole to the NID, splice it in, and call it a day. -- Mike Hammett ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Peterson" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 2:17:09 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done? This might now work in NY where I seem to remember Adam operates, but Fidium did an interesting half assed fiber deployment in my neighborhood where they installed secondary drop ducts in the right of way and just left them stubbed up underground. So say 1 ped which feeds the properties on either side + tw drop ducts in either direction each which stubs up between the next two houses so ~ 8-10 subs per ped. When they need to install, they just hook up a compressor to the sub duct and it blows the dirt up in the air exposing the drop duct. On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 12:07 PM Adam Moffett < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Well, you can't trespass with your service drop cable. If it crosses someone else's property it needs an easement. I think most commonly you place a handhole at the property line so you can hit two houses from one. One box per house might be necessary in some cases, and there might be cases where you can hit more than two from one box, but not every time. They might not have a splitter in that box. It might just provide a pulling point to get the service drop from there down the street to another box where the splitter is. It depends on the density and whether they'd rather load all the costs up front or push more of the costs into the installation phase. When we were small-fries we would push the cost to the installation so we're not spending money on customers we never sell. I'm at a bigger outfit now, and they'll make sure there's a splitter port near every customer, and each one gets documented as to which house it's for. They'll send info to the drop contractor telling them exactly which splitter location to send the drop cable to, and what path it should take. The light budget is set so you could add a 1x4 at the house.....a problem we run into is houses divided into multiple rentals are not always obvious up front, and you find out about them only when the installer is on site. As someone said, there are a zillion ways to do it, and someone does it every which way you can imagine. -Adam From: AF < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Ken Hohhof < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 12:13 PM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done? OK, that helps. I assume MST avoids every installer having the equipment and training to do fusion splices. But I'm still not understanding in an underground scenario, with a handhole at every passing, what do you splice the drop cable to, and where? Is there a pre installed fiber stub in every handhole for that customer, going back to a splitter at another handhole down the street? From: AF < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 10:40 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done? Splitters are waaay small. Smaller than a standard house key. What you are looking at is an MST terminal, looks like 8 ports. There can be a splitter inside of that yes. You can have the MST with 8 fibers splice to another 8 fibers or you can have what is in your picture have 1 fiber in, split 1x8, and then have 8 ports out for the installers to simply plug in to. If that MST is a 1x8, you can have a 1x4 before it, between the MST and OLT. That makes for OLT -> 1x4 splitter -> 1x8 splitter/MST. That is still a 1x32 split. On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM Ken Hohhof < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I thought PON used like 16:1 or 32:1 splitters, and in this photo, I assumed that's what the black boxes were. From: AF < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 10:16 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] how is underground FTTH done? Don't assume that about aerial. That's not how it works. Don't think about it in terms of taps. Generally speaking, installations are PON. What we do is design the fiber so we can hook up 100% of homes. We assign a color to every house. The first thing to think about is that you have to access the individual strand out of the cable, be it 12/24/48/144/etc. That is done with a SpliceCase or you splice on an MST for an ez mode plug. At Imagine we only splice - no connectors, no MST, no plugs, etc. Second thing is that when there's a cable up and down the road, you just need access to it through the case/MST from the house. This can be from the house to the handhole (concrete box in the ground) or you can run it from the house to the handhole through some 1.25" duct to the next handhole where there is one case. I can show you what it looks like if you don't get it yet. On Mon, Aug 18, 2025 at 11:11 AM Ken Hohhof < [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: The fiber train left without me, so maybe someone here can help me understand how the physical installation is typically done. I've seen aerial fiber and it's pretty straightforward, I see splitters up on poles maybe at each intersection, and to hook up a customer, they run a drop wire from the nearest splitter to the house. If take rate is better than expected or a new house is built, worst case I assume they just add a splitter. But I also see FTTH deployments going in where they are boring for duct in the ROW and putting a little handhole in front of every house. How does this work? Are they using taps instead of splitters? If not, when they get a customer install order, do they pull his drop cable through all the handholes to a splitter? That doesn't seem feasible. Are they dedicating a strand to each house and pulling the main cable out each time and splicing to that strand? And what if they estimate the take rate wrong, or a new house is built? There's probably a simple explanation and once someone enlightens me it will be a Duh! moment. -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- Carl Peterson PORT NETWORKS 401 E Pratt St, Ste 2553 Baltimore, MD 21202 (410) 637-3707 -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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