By Brian Yarbrough, Cox Communications, Inc.; Chris Palmquist, Cox Communications, Inc.
Cox Communications, like many other operators, is pursuing a share of the $42 Billion in Broadband Equity Access and Development (BEAD) Program funding to support rural expansion efforts, which is in addition to what has already been awarded via Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and a variety of local state, county and city grant opportunities. While these government funds have certainly stimulated growth like we’ve never seen before, it has introduced a host of network challenges for operators to solve.
Furthermore, the size and density of each underserved community can vary greatly, from small 100 home clusters to towns with populations greater than 10,000 homes passed.
At Cox, our default solution for new build is Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), but there are many options to solve the distance and density challenges. Transport from the headend to Optical Line Terminal (OLT) has led us to consider optical amplification solutions traditionally reserved for long-haul backbone links.
The OLT deployment methodology also needs to be considered; obviously size/density is the primary driver, but distance also factors into the equation. For the distribution network downstream of the OLT, despite the low density of a rural community, we still want to optimize OLT port consumption. In this paper, we explore the various architectural challenges, the tools that we put in our toolbox and ultimately a distance and density-based decision-tree that assists our estimating teams with network planning.