INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling
Why FTTO networks are driving
sustainability and transformation
of digital enterprises
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With Digital Transformation increasingly becoming
mainstream, Arafat Yousef, Managing Director – Middle
East and Africa, Nexans Cabling Solutions, draws
attention to how FTTO network architectures are better
suited for scale, agility and for varied use cases.
W
ith the arrival of 5G, Smart
Cities and connected cars,
large scale, intelligent networks
promise to dominate country, regional and
global landscapes over the next 10 years.
Wireless and wired networks are growing
tremendously with intelligent and semi-
intelligent sensors distributed at the Edge,
relaying trends and insights, downstream to
decision makers. Sustainability, innovation,
efficiency and citizenship promise to be
in-country hallmarks for the UAE with the
appointment of the Minister of Climate
Change and Environment, Advanced
Sciences, Artificial Intelligence and
Happiness and Wellbeing. Along with smart
production, distribution, consumption,
conservation of energy will increasingly
become an integral part of the UAE’s or any
nation’s most valued system.
A study published by the European
Commission points out that the global ICT
industry generates up to 2% of all global
CO 2 emissions. Networking components
and cabling, computing and data centres,
connected devices and sensors, all consume
energy and are responsible for generating
heat and emitting CO 2 into the environment.
As the digital economy grows exponentially,
so will consumption of energy and
production of heat and CO 2 .
Similar to all aspects of the ICT industry,
Digital Transformation has triggered a wave
of efficiency standards into networking
and connectivity infrastructure. In the past,
while twisted pair copper cabling may have
been sufficient to meet all the requirements
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of enterprises, going forward additional
efficiency metrics and architectures will be
required. Increasingly, the advantages of
the role of Fibre To The Office (FTTO) are
getting highlighted, as being beneficial over
traditional LAN. FTTO is a hybrid network
consisting of fibre optic and twisted pair
copper patch cords with connectors. In an
FTTO network environment, fibre is laid from
the central distribution switch right into the
office floor, where it ends in active FTTO
switches within the workplace. The last leg
of 3 to 5M is connected through standard
twisted pair patch cords. The advantages
and disadvantages of FTTO over traditional
LAN is quite stark. Fibre optic cabling used in
FTTO, as a medium is a dielectric and does
not allow the flow of current. Hence, it does
not generate heating and electromagnetic
wave inductions. It also does not require
thick insulation covers, which reduces the
bulk and has almost no practical limits to a
single length of cabling.
Twisted pair cabling has a core length of
copper metal and no matter how pure,
the cable does generate heat, as well as
electromagnetic wave inductions, whenever
there are fluctuations in the current strength.
Because of these limitations, there is a
maximum length that the copper cable
can be used for. The energy consumption
pattern of copper cabling and its total
cost of ownership are significantly higher
than FTTO. In a traditional copper-based
Ethernet network with 1,000 ports, the
annual electricity consumption is estimated
to be 82,322kWh. However, if the same
network is built using an FTTO architecture,
Arafat Yousef, Managing Director – Middle
East and Africa, Nexans Cabling Solutions
the electricity consumption would be
30,380kWh per year. In general, with an
FTTO architecture, energy bills can be 70%
lower, total cost of ownership is reduced
by 40% and installation time is reduced
by 60%. Some of the other advantages of
FTTO networks can be listed as below:
• Fibre is the most futureproof cabling
technology currently available
• Less energy is required to drive data in
FTTO networks versus copper networks
• Less energy and fibre optic material
create less electromagnetic interference
• Due to smaller diameter there are a
greater number of FTTO cables in the
same space
• FTTO networks require less equipment,
consume less energy and require less cooling
• Based on the fibre optic materials, FTTO
networks are less prone to fire and damage
While FTTO networks provide huge gains
over twisted pair copper connections,
they are best suited for certain types of
environments. FTTO networks work best
when the scale is large, with a huge number
of ports and over long distances. n
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