Fiber to the telecom enclosure (FTTE), also sometimes called fiber to the zone (FTTZ), is a standards-compliant structured cabling

Structured cabling

Structured cabling is building or campus telecommunications cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements called subsystems.Structured cabling falls into six subsystems:...

 system architecture that extends the optical fiber

Optical fiber

An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...

 backbone network

Backbone network

A backbone network or network backbone is a part of computer network infrastructure that interconnects various pieces of network, providing a path for the exchange of information between different LANs or subnetworks. A backbone can tie together diverse networks in the same building, in different...

 from the equipment room

Equipment room

An equipment room is a room or space within a building for the storage or installation of mechanical or electrical/electronic devices.An equipment room can house telecommunication installations that serves the occupants of the building or multiple buildings in a campus environment...

, through the telecom room

Telecommunication

Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...

, and directly to a telecommunications enclosure

19-inch rack

A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed...

 (TE) installed in a common space to serve a number of users in a work area. Its implementation is based on the TIA

Telecommunications Industry Association

The Telecommunications Industry Association is accredited by the American National Standards Institute to develop voluntary, consensus-based industry standards for a wide variety of ICT products, and currently represents nearly 400 companies...

-569-B “Pathways and Spaces” technical standard, which defines the Telecommunications Enclosure (TE), and TIA/EIA-568-B.1 Addendum 5, which defines the cabling when a TE is used. The FTTE architecture allows for many media choices from the TE to the work area; it may be balanced twisted pair copper, multi-mode optical fiber

Multi-mode optical fiber

Multi-mode optical fiber is a type of optical fiber mostly used for communication over short distances, such as within a building or on a campus...

, or even wireless if an access point is installed in or near the TE.

Depending on the user’s needs, FTTE can be deployed in low-density or high-density configurations. A low-density system might use one or two inexpensive 8-port Ethernet

Ethernet

Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

 mini-switch

Switch

In electronics, a switch is an electrical component that can break an electrical circuit, interrupting the current or diverting it from one conductor to another....

es as an example (these switches have eight 10/100 Mbit/s Ethernet

Fast Ethernet

In computer networking, Fast Ethernet is a collective term for a number of Ethernet standards that carry traffic at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s, against the original Ethernet speed of 10 Mbit/s. Of the fast Ethernet standards 100BASE-TX is by far the most common and is supported by the...

 copper ports and one 1 Gbit/s Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet

Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second , as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. It came into use beginning in 1999, gradually supplanting Fast Ethernet in wired local networks where it performed...

 fiber uplink). A high-density FTTE design might use commonly available 24- or 48-port switches (these switches are configured with one 1 Gbit/s uplink port per twelve 100BASE-TX

Fast Ethernet

In computer networking, Fast Ethernet is a collective term for a number of Ethernet standards that carry traffic at the nominal rate of 100 Mbit/s, against the original Ethernet speed of 10 Mbit/s. Of the fast Ethernet standards 100BASE-TX is by far the most common and is supported by the...

 user ports). This relatively high work area-to-backbone port ratio provides better performance than is typically provided to enterprise users. Both low and high-density FTTE architectures provide excellent performance in terms of bandwidth delivered to the work area.

• Advantages
  • Low Cost
  • Non-blocking or low-blocking performance better supports convergence
    Convergence (telecommunications)
    Telecommunications convergence, network convergence or simply convergence are broad terms used to describe emerging telecommunications technologies, and network architecture used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network...
    
    
  • Extremely flexible to deploy; supports Moves, Adds & Changes
  • Enables consolidation of electronics into a centralized Telecommunications Room
  • Allows the use of a variety of media from the TE to the user
• Disadvantages
  • TE location is near the user and must be secured

See also

• TIA Fiber Optic Standardization Subcommittees
• Fiber-optic communication
  Fiber-optic communication
  Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information...
  
  
• Fiber in the loop
  Fiber in the loop
  Fiber In The Loop is a system implementing or upgrading portions of the POTS local loop with fiber optic technology from the central office of a telephone carrier to a remote Serving area interface located in a neighborhood or to an Optical Network Unit located at the customer premises...
  
  
• Fiber to the x
• Hybrid fibre-coaxial
  Hybrid fibre-coaxial
  Hybrid fiber-coaxial is a telecommunications industry term for a broadband network which combines optical fibre and coaxial cable. It was commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s.-Description:...
  
  
• Fiber Optics LAN Section of the Telecommunications Industry Association
• Fiber Optics Association
• BICSI
  BICSI
  Since the official break-up of AT&T in 1984 in the United States, BICSI has assumed the role that AT&T's free service, BICS, fulfilled in helping with the development and design for information technology systems such as the ANSI/EIA/TIA 568B structured cabling system standard.Headquartered in...
  
  

Network architecture

Network architecture

Network architecture is the design of a communications network. It is a framework for the specification of a network's physical components and their functional organization and configuration, its operational principles and procedures, as well as data formats used in its operation.In...