Broadband

Fraunhofer Institute Home Area Networks –

for Telecommunications
Meeting the Needs of
Heinrich-Hertz-Institut
Today and Tomorrow
Berlin

K.-D. Langer

Heinrich-Hertz-Institut
Fraunhofer
EinsteinuferInstitute
37 Phone:for Telecommunications
Fax:
10587 Berlin Berlin,
eMail: Germany
Germany Internet:
http://www.hhi.fraunhofer.de Phone +49 30 31002 457 e-mail langer@hhi.fraunhofer.de

Fraunhofer Institut
Nachrichtentechnik
Heinrich-Hertz-Institut
 Outline

• Present situation and requirements

• Candidates for transmission media
– PLC, DSL, Coax, STP
– Fibre (glass & plastic)
– Wireless (radio & infrared)
• The challenge of networking
• Conclusions
K.-D. Langer

Slide 2
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Predictions on bit rates & significance per home

Bandwidth (in Mbps) needed

Source: Currentanalysis, 2008
to receive 1 TV stream over

heavy duty
the next 25 years (H.264)
Standard-Def. TV 2

medium
HDTV 7 … 10

low
Super (ITU J.601) 50
Ultra (ITU J.601) 200
3D HDTV ≥ 280

Æ 50 Mbps … 10 Gbps will appear in next 2 decades

Æ Broadband access will be as important as
supply of water, gas and electricity
K.-D. Langer

Slide 3
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 In-house network topology

• Reach >100 m
(structured
50 m 50 / 100 m
cabling, star

Network
Home
Floor Gateway / Home
topology) Distributor
Gateway

Backbone

50 / 500 m
Cabling

Network
Home
• Tailoring of in- Home
Gateway
house network to
FTTB & related

Office
Building
technical Outside
Gateway /
Distributor
Gateway

standards plant
cabling

Task: Extending FTTB to scenarios such as

fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) & fibre-to-the-desk (FTTD)
K.-D. Langer

Slide 4
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Demands on home area networks
• Home area network = segment with least sharing
Æ highest relative cost / customer Æ cost efficiency
• Lifetime 30 years Æ future-proof
Æ open to upgrading (scalability up to 10 Gbps)
• Robustness & easy handling
Æ do it yourself (DIY) installation
Æ tolerance to cable bending (low bending radius)
• System aspects
Æ reliability (transmission medium + hardware)
Æ low power consumption
• Networking Æ plug & play multimedia platform
Candidates: PLC, UTP, STP, coax, optical fibres, wireless
K.-D. Langer

Slide 5
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Outline

• Present situation and requirements

• Candidates for transmission media
– PLC, DSL, Coax, STP
– Fibre (glass & plastic)
– Wireless (radio & infrared)
• The challenge of networking
• Conclusions
K.-D. Langer

Slide 6
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Powerline communications (PLC)

• Example of a home
completely equipped with
200 Mbps PLC adapters:
– achievable bit rates
today: 27 … 63 Mbps
– R&D target 1 Gbps
(gross)
• Issues are e.g. EMI, privacy
plug & play

Æ PLC is an interim solution Source: C’t No. 7, 2007

K.-D. Langer

Slide 7
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 High-speed DSL solutions

Line Rate [Mbps]

Reach [km]

• VDSL2: 100 Mbps (symm.) feasible if DSLAM inside the

building or close to it
Close to the physical limits, limited robustness
Æ interim solution
K.-D. Langer

Slide 8
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Current shielded cables (coax + twisted pair)

• Coax = part of in-house cabling (CATV),

basically high BW Æ DOCSIS 3.0 provides 400 Mbps

Type of cable Bandwidth

Application
(CAT) (MHz)
5 (5e) 100 GbE
6 250 Multimedia / ATM / GbE
6a 500 Multimedia / GbE
7 600 Multimedia / 10GE

Cabling & assembly is difficult,

however, today there is hardly a way around
K.-D. Langer

Slide 9
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Outline

• Present situation and requirements

• Candidates for transmission media
– PLC, DSL, Coax, STP
– Fibre (glass & plastic)
– Wireless (radio & infrared)
• The challenge of networking
• Conclusions
K.-D. Langer

Slide 10
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Glass optical fibres: SMF

Core/ Cladding-∅ Bandwidth Reach (m)

Type
(µm) (MHz⋅km) @10 Gbps
Standard SMF
(G.652.D)
9/ 125 “∞“ 1) 10.0001)
Low bending loss
SMF (G.657.A/B) 1) depends on optical source

Transmission performance is no issue,

however deployment, assembly etc. are
Æ still costly
K.-D. Langer

Slide 11
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Glass optical fibres: MMF

Core/ Cladding-∅ Bandwidth Reach (m)

Type
(µm) (MHz⋅km) @10 Gbps
OM2 500 80
OM2+ 950 150
MMF 50/ 125
OM3 2000 300
OM3+ 4700 550

600 m MMF transmission @ 40 Gbps

2006

MMF widely used in LANs, assembly more competitive,

sufficient margins in transmission performance
K.-D. Langer

Slide 12
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Step index POF transmission state of the art
10000
• Wide range of Bit Rate [Mbps]
p2p applications
Laser-based
covered @ few
100 m reach 1000

• First products for LED-based

indoor cabling
available 100 Achievements of various labs

• Ø 1 mm Æ fit for
do-it-yourself
Reach [m]
10
1 10 100 1000

Still margins left in trans-

mission performance (e.g.
K.-D. Langer

Slide 13DieMount 2008

Source:
by advanced modulation)
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Home area transmission media: bending performance

40

2
330

0
H4 0
7.D

a Sil
35

hi G
G.65

Ultr

ub is
30
Bend radius* [mm]

Mits
25

00
37 2
20

HC S
7.B

00 0
15
G.65

ve

1
PG
Cur

P4
10

tt

40 0
r

o
Clea

Sc h

N
SM C
5

0
SMF MMF Multicore SI-POF CAT6

Request for indoor cabling < 5 mm rarely met

K.-D. Langer

Slide 14
Feb-09 *) according to manufacturers
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Goals of tailored fibre design

• Ultra-low bending radius

Æ highly flexible cords
and cables
• Optimized transmission
properties
• High core diameter
Æ relaxed fitting tolerances

Source: NTT/ Mitsubishi, ECOC 2004

Æ Attractive for in-house use, prospects not yet clear

K.-D. Langer

Slide 15
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Example: fibre optical wiring à la NTT

Exclusively available with NTT equipment 2008

K.-D. Langer

Slide 16
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Outline

• Present situation and requirements

• Candidates for transmission media
– PLC, DSL, Coax, STP
– Fibre (glass & plastic)
– Wireless (radio & infrared)
• The challenge of networking
• Conclusions
K.-D. Langer

Slide 17
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Standards for radio LAN applications
Bit Rate [Mbps]

• > 100 Mbps @ Ultra wideband (UWB)

few 10 metres
WLAN
reach feasible

• Shared medium,
increasingly
crowded cells,
EMI, …
Bluetooth

Reach [m]
Capacity too tight for broadband home networking
K.-D. Langer

Slide 18
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Indoor optical wireless (OW) communications

• OW communications using
IR and/ or visible light
• No EMI/ EMC, no e-smog
• Non-directed
transmission @ >100 Mbps
• Directed transmission
@1 Gbps for hot-spots

Æ Radio and OW for last meter to access point

however, no alternative to a wired
high-speed backbone
K.-D. Langer

Slide 19
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Outline

• Present situation and requirements

• Candidates for transmission media
– PLC, DSL, Coax, STP
– Fibre (glass & plastic)
– Wireless (radio & infrared)
• The challenge of networking
• Conclusions
K.-D. Langer

Slide 20
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Vision of the OMEGA R&D project

• Target: Gbps home

area network w/o new
wires by
– jointly using present
transmission media
– extending them by
means of radio &
FTTH
optical wireless

Major challenge: interworking of systems Æ convergence

layer between media access (MAC) and network layer
 Legacy vs. new cabling in multi-dwelling units

Legacy cabling Transitional New cabling

phase

Fibre
Home PLC
Network segment

Shielded (glass & plastic)

twisted pair
(STP)
Horizontal
UTP,
Fibre (glass)
Coaxial STP,
Riser
Fibre (glass)

Transitional phase potentially a longer period of time

K.-D. Langer

Slide 22
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Conclusions (1)

Once fibre has entered the building …

• Legacy cabling
– 100 Mbps to the home more or less feasible (xDSL, coax)
– however, linking/ networking inside homes needs
fibre (POF, glass), PLC may assist

• New cabling
– for riser & horizontal, glass optical fibre is most promising,
inside homes too, incl. POF

• Transitional phase
– STP, coax, radio are helpful, ductwork is essential
K.-D. Langer

Slide 23
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Conclusions (2)

• Glass
– the only solution for 10 Gbps
– bending performance ok (more or less)
– low-cost connectors needed
• POF
– DIY properties, well applicable in homes up to 1 Gbps
• Wireless
– no alternative to wired backbone
– however, excellent for linking high-speed mobile terminals
to the backbone
K.-D. Langer

Slide 24
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI
 Thank you
for your attention !

K.-D. Langer (langer@hhi.fraunhofer.de)

K.-D. Langer

Slide 25
Feb-09
© Fraunhofer HHI