The optimization of broadband customer access networks in an urban area

Broadband network is a high-speed network such that its transmission medium is optical fiber based. The objectives of this project are to optimize the per-subscriber cost, or First Installation Cost (FIC) per subscriber, of a Broadband Customer Access Network (BCAN) in an urban area and to investigate the effects of different parameters on the optimum per-subscriber cost. The coverage of a BCAN is from the central office (CO) to the customer premises (CPs), but not the inter-CO transport network. In this research, a per-subscriber cost optimization model of a BCAN is described and hence the optimum per-subscriber cost is deduced from the remote node size. Numerical examples are used to demonstrate the relationship between the per-subscriber cost and the remote node size. Economic studies of the optimum per-subscriber cost of a BCAN are also presented for an urban area. The effects of the following parameters - application scenarios, cable installation strategies, subscriber radius and density - on the optimum per-subscriber cost are discussed. For the comparisons of the optimum per-subscriber cost for two deployment strategies, Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) networks are generally more expensive than Fiber-To-The-Curb (FTTC) networks in both business and urban residential application scenarios. It is because the cost of optical fibers and passive components of FTTH networks are still expensive and the foreseen bandwidth requirements of customers are still relatively low such that the bandwidth for FTTH is over-provisioned. Application scenarios determine the implementation strategy of a BCAN: integrated network strategy for business area, dual network strategy for urban residential area are preferred. Cable installation strategies significantly affect the per-subscriber cost of a BCAN. Per-subscriber cost is generally directly and inversely proportional to the subscriber radius and density respectively. Different network architectures are considered and the study shows that FTTC double star network is the cheapest BCAN configuration.