Problem:

1. LAN performance above 100 Mbit/s

Passive optical network has surpassed 100 Mbit/s capacity and can reach up to
10 Gbps downstream and 2.5 Gbps upstream with the XG-PON.
2. Scalable WAN bandwidth
Bandwidth scaling is a feature on most network hardware products that allows
businesses to increase or decrease bandwidth allocations based on how much
traffic they have on their network. This feature allows them to proportionally
change the controls they have on each customer.
3. Integration of voice, video and data
Passive optical network offers triple-play services by modulating data, video and
telephony through its respective wavelengths.
4. Network management and logistics
Improved network management is now offered by different companies by giving
us the ability to monitor and adjust our network and bandwidth usage even from
our smartphone. This technology is not years off it is available today, and it
means that we have real-time access to information about our network, users,
traffic, capacity and functionality.
5. Uniform architecture in LANs, MANs, WANs
While there is no uniform architecture in LANs, MANs and WANs, protocol suite
are introduced to unite the different protocols governing each structure. The
most common network protocols are: Ethernet, Local Talk, Token Ring, FDDI and
ATM.
6. Bandwidth on demand (pay for use)
This is now prevalent in the public mobile access. Users can avail internet
services by buying data or specific quantity of bandwidth that can be used in a
given time.
7. Network complexity
In modern protocol design, protocols are "layered" according to the OSI 7 layer
model or a similar layered model. Layering is a design principle which divides the
protocol design into a number of smaller parts, each part accomplishing a
particular sub-task and interacting with the other parts of the protocol only in a
small number of well-defined ways. Layering allows the parts of a protocol to be
designed and tested without a combinatorial explosion of cases, keeping each
design relatively simple. Layering also permits familiar protocols to be adapted
to unusual circumstances.
8. Support for multicast operations
 Live streaming, Internet TV, Group Call/Chat and Video conferencing are now
possible. Network assisted multicast may be implemented at the Data Link Layer
using one-to-many addressing and switching such as Ethernet multicast
addressing, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) point-to-multipoint virtual circuits
(P2MP) or Infiniband multicast. Network assisted multicast may also be
implemented at the Internet layer using IP multicast.
9. Integration of multiple data applications
Data are now stored in the cloud. Cloud computing, often referred to as simply
the cloud, is the delivery of on-demand computing resourceseverything from
applications to data centersover the internet on a pay-for-use basis. This allows
for a convenient exchange of storage between different points with great
distances.
10.Support for synchronous applications
Access network technologies of today have very low latency that video call from
the other side of the world is now plausible. One can also access cloud-based
services thanks to the upscaled bandwidth and low latency characteristic of
improved network.

Can optical fiber be used in ADSL?

It is. Theres a fiber architecture that supports DSL connections at home: FTTC.
Each switch/or DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM), often found in a street cabinet,
is connected to the POP via a single fibre or a pair of fibres, carrying the
aggregated traffic of the neighbourhood via Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gigabit
Ethernet connection. The switches in the street cabinet are not fibre but can be
copper based using VDSL2 or VDSL2 Vectoring. This architecture is sometimes
called Active Ethernet as it requires active network elements in the field
References:
FTTH Handbook 7th Edition
http://baypointetechnology.com/scalable-and-dynamic-wan-will-revolutionize-
business-bandwidthusage/
http://www.etinc.com/169/Bandwidth-Scaling
https://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/learn-more/what-is-cloud-computing/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast
https://www.edrawsoft.com/Network-Protocol.php
https://www.edrawsoft.com/Network-Protocol.php