Wireless drop in a fiber-to-the-home network
One embodiment is directed to a wireless drop terminal (WDT) for use in a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network. The wireless drop terminal comprises a fiber interface to optically couple the wireless drop terminal to an optical line terminal (OLT) of the FTTH network via at least one optical fiber and a wireless interface communicatively coupled to the fiber interface. The wireless interface is configured to wirelessly communicate with a wireless optical network terminal (W-ONT) over a fixed directional wireless drop. Other embodiments are disclosed.
1. A wireless drop terminal for use in a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, the wireless drop terminal comprising:
a fiber interface to optically couple the wireless drop terminal to an optical line terminal of the FTTH network via at least one optical fiber; and
a wireless interface communicatively coupled to the fiber interface, wherein the wireless interface is configured to wirelessly communicate RF signals over a fixed directional wireless drop with a wireless optical network terminal (W-ONT) through a first directional antenna connected to the wireless drop terminal and a second directional antenna connected to the W-ONT, wherein the W-ONT is located at a customer premises, wherein the wireless drop terminal and the first directional antenna are located outside of the customer premises;
wherein the W-ONT comprises an optical network terminal (ONT) chipset, wherein the W-ONT converts downstream wireless frames received from the fixed directional wireless drop into an electrical signal comprising downstream optical frames and inputs the downstream optical frames to the ONT chipset.
2. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein a first antenna is connected to the wireless drop terminal;
wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to wirelessly communicate with the W-ONT over the fixed directional wireless drop using the first antenna; and
wherein the first antenna comprises a first directional antenna.
3. The wireless drop terminal of claim 2 , wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to wirelessly communicate with the W-ONT over the fixed directional wireless drop using the first antenna and a second antenna connected to the W-ONT; and
wherein the second antenna comprises a second directional antenna.
4. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein a first plurality of antennas are connected to the wireless drop terminal, wherein the fixed directional wireless drop is implemented using the first plurality of antennas.
5. The wireless drop terminal of claim 4 , wherein the first plurality of antennas is used to implement the fixed directional wireless drop using beam forming.
6. The wireless drop terminal of claim 4 , wherein a second plurality of antennas are connected to the W-ONT, wherein the fixed directional wireless drop is implemented using the first plurality of antennas and the second plurality of antennas using a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) wireless link.
7. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the fixed directional wireless drop comprises one of a fixed point-to-point wireless drop and a fixed point-to-multipoint wireless drop.
8. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , further comprising at least one of a femtocell chipset to wirelessly communicate with the W-ONT, a wireless local area network chipset to wirelessly communicate with the W-ONT; and a wireless metropolitan area network chipset to wirelessly communicate with the W-ONT.
9. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the FTTH network comprises a passive optical network, wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to communicate over the passive optical network.
10. The wireless drop terminal of claim 9 , wherein the wireless drop terminal is optically coupled, via at least one splitter, to an optical line terminal (OLT) included in the FTTH network to couple the FTTH network to a core network.
11. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to be powered by power provided over a hybrid fiber cable that is connected to the wireless drop terminal.
12. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to be powered by at least one of power provided from a connection to a mains alternating current (AC) power grid, power provided from a battery, power provided from a separate power cable connected to a fiber distribution hub, power provided from a lamp or utility pole on which the wireless-drop terminal is installed, and power provided using solar power.
13. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to wirelessly communicate with the W-ONT using at least one of: a 3G communication protocol, a 4G communication protocol, a High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) cellular protocol, an Evolved HSPA (HSPA+) cellular protocol, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular protocol, a LTE Advanced (LTEadvanced) cellular protocol, a WIMAX or other Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 wireless protocol, a WIFI or other IEEE 802.11 wireless protocol, Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology, beam forming, WirelessHD wireless technology, Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI) wireless technology, ultra wideband (UWB) wireless technology, visible light communication wireless technology, and proprietary point-to-point wireless technology.
14. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to wirelessly communicate with the W-ONT using a WIFI or other IEEE 802.11 wireless protocol using licensed radio frequency spectrum.
15. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to encapsulate downstream optical frames of data received at the wireless data terminal, wherein the downstream optical frames are encapsulated in downstream wireless frames that are wirelessly transmitted to the W-ONT;
wherein the W-ONT is configured to extract the downstream optical frames from the downstream wireless frames wirelessly received from the wireless drop terminal;
wherein the W-ONT comprises an optical network terminal chipset configured to extract downstream service data from the extracted downstream optical frames for use by a service interface included in the W-ONT in providing a service to a customer of the FTTH network;
wherein the W-ONT is configured to generate upstream optical frames formatted for communication on a fiber part of the FTTH network, wherein the upstream optical frames include upstream service data received from the service interface;
wherein the W-ONT is configured to encapsulate the upstream optical frames in upstream wireless frames, wherein the upstream wireless frames are wirelessly communicated by the W-ONT to the wireless drop terminal;
wherein the wireless drop terminal is configured to extract the upstream optical frames from the upstream wireless frames wirelessly received from the W-ONT.
16. The wireless drop terminal of claim 1 , wherein the FTTH network comprises a radio-over-fiber (RoF) architecture and the wireless drop terminal is configured to communicate over the RoF architecture.
17. A wireless optical network terminal (W-ONT) for use in a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, the W-ONT comprising:
a wireless interface; and
at least one service interface to implement a service provided to a customer of the FTTH network;
wherein the wireless interface is configured to wirelessly communicate RF signals with a wireless drop terminal included in the FTTH network over a fixed directional wireless drop through a first directional antenna connected to the wireless drop terminal and a second directional antenna connected to the W-ONT, wherein the W-ONT is located at a customer premises and the wireless drop terminal and the first directional antenna are located outside of the customer premises;
wherein the W-ONT comprises an optical network terminal (ONT) chipset, wherein the W-ONT converts downstream wireless frames received from the fixed directional wireless drop into an electrical signal comprising downstream optical frames and inputs the downstream optical frames to the ONT chipset.
18. The W-ONT of claim 17 , wherein the wireless interface is implemented using at least one of a cellular mobile unit chipset, a wireless local area network chipset, and a wireless metropolitan area network chipset.
19. The W-ONT of claim 17 , wherein the service interface comprises at least one of an ETHERNET service interface, a POTS telephony service interface, a wireless local area network service interface, and a video service interface.
20. The W-ONT of claim 19 , wherein the ETHERNET service interface comprises a Gigabit ETHERNET service interface.
21. The W-ONT of claim 17 , wherein the service interface is implemented using at least a portion of a conventional optical network terminal chipset.
22. A fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network comprising:
an optical line terminal (OLT) to couple the FTTH network to a core network;
a wireless drop terminal that is optically coupled to the OLT via at least one optical fiber and electrically coupled to a first directional antenna; and
a wireless optical network terminal (W-ONT) coupled to a second directional antenna, the W-ONT located at a customer premises to provide a service to customer premises equipment, wherein the wireless drop terminal and the first directional antenna are outside the customer premises; and
wherein the wireless drop terminal and the W-ONT are configured to wirelessly communicate the RF signals with one another over a fixed directional wireless drop using the first and second directional antennas;
wherein the W-ONT comprises an optical network terminal (ONT) chipset, wherein the W-ONT converts downstream wireless frames received from the fixed directional wireless drop into an electrical signal comprising downstream optical frames and inputs the downstream optical frames to the ONT chipset.
23. The FTTH network of claim 22 , wherein the FTTH network comprises at least one of a Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (GPON), a Ten-Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Network (XGPON), and an ETHERNET Passive Optical Network (EPON).
24. The FTTH network of claim 22 , wherein the FTTH network comprises a radio-over-fiber (RoF) architecture.
25. A method of communicating using a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, the method comprising:
transmitting downstream optical frames from an optical line terminal in the FTTH network to a wireless drop terminal in the FTTH network using a fiber part of the FTTH network;
receiving the downstream optical frames at the wireless drop terminal from the fiber part of the FTTH network;
inserting service data from the downstream optical frames into downstream wireless frames;
wirelessly transmitting the downstream wireless frames as an RF signal from the wireless drop terminal to a wireless optical network terminal through a first directional antenna over a fixed directional wireless drop;
receiving the downstream wireless frames in the RF signal at the wireless optical network terminal at a customer premises through a second directional antenna, wherein the wireless drop terminal is located outside of the customer premises;
generating an electrical signal comprising downstream optical frames at the wireless optical network terminal from the downstream wireless frames and inputting the downstream optical frames into an optical network terminal (ONT) chipset; and
providing at least one service implemented by the wireless optical network terminal using the received downstream wireless frames.
26. The method of claim 25 , further comprising:
inserting upstream service data into upstream wireless frames;
wirelessly transmitting the upstream wireless frames from the wireless optical network terminal to the wireless drop terminal over the fixed directional wireless drop;
receiving the upstream wireless frames at the wireless drop terminal;
transmitting upstream optical frames from the wireless drop terminal to the optical line terminal using the fiber part of the FTTH network, wherein the upstream optical frames include the upstream service data inserted into the upstream wireless frames;
receiving the upstream optical frames at the optical line terminal; and
communicating the upstream service data extracted from the upstream optical frames to a core network.