PON and Point-To-Point FTTH Based Infrastructure Planning in Lolland Municipality

PON and Point-To-Point FTTH based infrastructure planning in Lolland municipality
Networks and Distributed Systems Group 922
Aalborg University, 3. semester Winter 2012
II
School of Information and Communication Technology Networks and Distributed Systems Frederik Bajers Vej 7 Telefon +45 99 40 86 00 http://www.sict.aau.dk E-mail webinfo@es.aau.dk
Title: PON and Point-To-Point FTTH based infrastructure planning in Lolland municipality Project Period: P9, Winter semester 2012 Project group: 12gr922 Group members: Yonas Tefera Dimitar Mihaylov Konstantinos Papaefthimiou Abstract:
Supervisor: Jose Gutierrez Michael Jensen
This project is concerned with planning, designing and implementing a Fiber to the home (FTTH) based infrastructure for Lolland municipality. Fiber access networks have been studied and analyzed in order to get some inspiration of how to solve some of the potential problems that occurred in the current implementation of the infrastructure. Two main approaches that are widely used all over the world to bring ber to the end user were tested: Passive optical network (PON) and Point-To-Point (PtP). For each individual architecture two types of graph algorithms were applied: Minimal Steiner Tree (SMT) and A . These algorithms were applied in each architecture to calculate the total trenching and ber length. The differences between them are discussed and analyzed in the preanalysis part of this report and their implementation, evaluation and comparison is presented in the design part.
Number of copies: 6 Number of pages: 120 Appended documents: appendix + CD-ROM Finished: 20-12-12
The content of this report is freely available, but may only (with source indication) be published after agreement with the authors.
Preface
This report is made by a group of 3rd semester students of the Network and Distributed Systems masters programme at Aalborg University. This report consists of four parts: Preliminary Analysis, Design and Implementation, Conclusion and Assessment, and Appendix. The Preliminary phase will contain an analysis of the project and the existing technologies that has an inuence on the current survey. The goal of this part is to end up with a complete description of what should be developed during the rest of the project. The Design and Implementation part will contain the development and implementation of the system described in the Preliminary Analysis. The Conclusion and Assessment is used to conclude on the entire project, as well as discussing what was achieved, and what should be included as a future work. Throughout the report external references will be displayed as numbers, an example of this is: [1]. If the report is read digitally these references will be interactive, and they can be used to jump directly to the reference in the reference list found on page 113. The report also contains a glossary list where acronyms and abbreviations used in the report can be found. These glossaries will be interactive in the same manner as the references. As a part of the project is a CD. This CD contains Geographical information system (GIS) related data, the developed software and a digital copy of the report.
Yonas Tefera
Dimitar Mihaylov
Konstantinos Papaefthimiou
Table of contents
Introduction 1.1 Historical overview . . 1.2 Motivation . . . . . . . 1.3 Problem statement . . 1.4 Expected contributions
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11 11 12 13 14
I
2 3
Pre-Analysis
Technologies Network Planning 3.1 Network Planning Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Network Structure Performance Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Infrastructure Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Optical access network architectures 4.1 Passive Optical Network . . . . . 4.2 Point-to-Point Optical Network . . 4.3 Active Optical Network . . . . . . 4.4 Analysis on the three architectures Network Modelling 5.1 Gis data . . . . . . 5.2 Database handling . 5.3 Planning Tools . . 5.4 Algorithms . . . . 5.5 Planning Method .
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Lolland municipality 6.1 Information about Lolland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Statistical information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
II
7
Design and Implementation

Introduction
66
67 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
8 9
Data preparation Planning Algorithms 9.1 Point to Point architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.2 PON architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
70 74 80 91
III
Conclusion and Assessment
104
105
10 Conclusion
11 Assessment 107 11.1 Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 11.2 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
IV
Appendix
114
Acronyms
AGI Association for Geographic Information. 1, 42 AON Active Optical Network. 1, 7, 19, 23, 30, 31, 33, 34, 103 BCNIS Battleeld Command Network Integration and Simulation. 1 CAD Computer Aided Design. 1, 42, 43 CAPEX Capital Expenditure. 1, 7, 98100, 102 CN Communication Node. 1 CNP Center for Network Planning. 1, 44, 45 CO Central ofce. 1, 5, 23, 24, 2631, 33, 34, 37, 62, 67, 68, 7075, 77, 82, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91, 93, 96, 100103 CPE Customer Premises Equipment. 1 DBMS DataBase Management Systems. 1, 40, 43 DN Distribution Node. 1, 19 DSL Digital Subscriber Line. 1, 5 FTTH Fiber to the home. I, 1, 5, 19, 29, 37, 98, 99, 101 GIS Geographical information system. I, 1, 7, 37, 38, 40, 4245, 52, 60, 62, 65, 73, 75, 100 GRASS Geographic Resources Analysis Support System. 1, 44 HDTV High Denition Television. 1, 6 ICT Information and Communications Technology. 1 IMS Internet Map Server. 1, 43 ISI Information Scienses Institute. 1 3
Acronyms
ISP Internet service provider. 1, 6, 10, 19, 24, 37, 55, 73, 99 ISPs Internet service providers. 1 JTRS Joint Tactical Radio System. 1 LAN Local Area Network. 1 LED Light emitting diode. 1, 9 LP Linear Programming. 1 MN Main Node. 1, 19, 21, 22, 45, 50, 62 MPLS MultiProtocol label Switching. 1 MST Minimum Spanning Tree. 1, 4548, 73, 74, 101, 102 NC Network Consumer. 1 NP Network planning. 1 NRA NetRule Agent. 1 NS Network Simulator. 1 NT Network Termination point. 1, 23, 24, 39, 45, 46, 50, 6062, 65, 68, 70, 7276, 82, 8491, 100102 ODN Optical Distribution Network. 1, 46 OGC Open Geospatial Consortium. 1, 42, 43 OLT Optical line terminator. 1, 24, 26, 28 ONT Optical network terminal. 1, 24, 25 ONU Optical Network Unit. 1, 26, 27 OPEX Operational Expenditure. 1, 7, 102, 103 OSPF Open Shortest Path First. 1 P2MP Point-to-Multi-Point. 1, 19, 26, 27 PON Passive optical network. I, 1, 7, 19, 23, 24, 2735, 50, 60, 62, 82, 84, 85, 8891, 94, 96, 98100, 102, 103 PtP Point-To-Point. I, 1, 25, 26, 2832, 34, 60, 73, 84, 88, 89, 91, 96, 98100, 102, 103 QOS Quality of Service. 1, 26 R&D Research and Development. 1 SDTV Standard Denition Television. 1, 6 SIS Spatial information System. 1, 42, 43 4
Acronyms
SMT Minimal Steiner Tree. I, 1, 47, 48, 68, 7375, 77, 80, 84, 8891, 94, 99102 SP Segment Point. 1, 38, 39, 46, 61, 62, 65, 7077, 82, 88, 90, 91 SPoF Single point of failure. 1, 15, 19, 24, 102 SQoS Structural Quality of Service. 1 TSP Travelling Salesman Problem. 1 USC University of South California. 1 VARs Value Added Resellers. 1, 42 VAT4Net Visualization and Animation Tool for Network simulations. 1 VoIP Voice over IP. 1, 6 WDM Wavelength division-multiplexing. 1, 26, 27 WFS Web Feature Service. 1, 42, 43 WMS Web Map Service. 1, 42, 43
List of Figures
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 3.4 3.5 3.3 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9
Fiber optic cable [13] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pig tail [13] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation [14] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Single mode ber structure [15] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Energy network model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Global Architecture of SQoS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Single ring topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Symmetric double ring topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Modied OSI model for ber network planning [18] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Honeycomb topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Grid topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mesh topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Proposed single ring in Hals, Aalborg municipality Denmark [22] . . . . . . . . . . .
17 17 18 18 23 24 24 24 25 26 26 26 27 27 28 30 34 34 35 35 36
3.10 Proposed double ring in Hals, Aalborg municipality Denmark [23] . . . . . . . . . . . 3.11 Hierarchy of three basic network types: From the lower access network to a global backbone network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 6 PON architecture [24] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WDM PON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TDM PON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PON Optical Amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Different Architectures [27] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LIST OF FIGURES
4.7 4.8 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 7.1 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9
Active Architecture [24] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Energy consumption in Access network [29] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Municipality of Lolland drew in MapInfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Minimum spanning tree discovery in undirected graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Optimum ODN architecture in terms of Total ber length, Total construction length . . Steiner Minimal Tree discovery in undirected graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Directed non-negative weighted graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shortest-path discovery using Dijkstra algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . General wired planning method structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lolland municipality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table representation of Lolland population by age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Graphical representation of Lolland population by age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table representation of population projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Graphical represetntation of population projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Table representation of buildings by use and area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Graphical representation of buildings by use and area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Employment rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Color notation for each CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Data Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Part of an optical ber network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deleting SPs of degree 2 and all the segments interconnecting them . . . . . . . . . . Normalized network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Planing algorithms and documentation presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lollands NT density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Neighboring squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lolland area with the corresponding manually placed COs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Astar algorithm vs Euclidean Distance algorithm in allocating SPs to the nearest CO . Lolland area and the corresponding islands located into the marked red boxes . . . . . PtP Steiner Minimal Tree in region covered by CO 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PtP Steiner Minimal Tree in region covered by CO 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fiber trenching using Steiner Minimal Tree in Lolland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
37 39 46 53 54 55 56 56 58 61 62 62 63 63 64 64 65 69 71 73 73 73 74 75 76 78 79 79 82 83 83 7
LIST OF FIGURES
9.10 PtP Astar shortest path algorithm in region covered by CO 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.11 Zoom in northern-west neighbor of region covered by CO 12 returned by Steiner algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
84 85
9.12 Zoom in northern-west neighbor of region covered by CO 12 returned by Astar algorithm 85 9.13 PtP Astar Trenching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.14 PtP Astar Trenching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.15 Trench length in PtP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.16 Fiber length in PtP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.17 Total expense using Steiner in PtP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.18 Total expense using Steiner in PtP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.19 k-means clustering: [44] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.20 Splitters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.21 Splitters and NTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.22 Cluster Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.23 PON Minimal Steiner Tree in region served by CO 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.24 PON steiner Trenching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.25 PON Steiner Trenching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.26 Bordering clusters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.27 PON Minimal Astar Tree in region served by CO 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.28 PON Zoom in Minimal Steiner Tree in region served by CO 12, western of CO 12 . . 86 86 88 88 90 90 92 93 94 94 96 97 97 98 99 99
9.29 PON Zoom in Astar algorithm in region served by CO 12, western of CO 12 . . . . . 100 9.30 PON Astar Trenching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 9.31 PON Astar Trenching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 9.32 Trench length in PON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 9.33 Fiber length in PON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 9.34 Total expense using Steiner in PON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 9.35 Total expense using Steiner in PON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 10.1 PtP Vs.PON Cost Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 11.1 PtP Vs.PON Cost Comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 2 3 4 5 8 Lolland nt table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Lolland seg deg table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Lolland nt sp co splitter table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Lolland norm nal edit table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
LIST OF FIGURES
6 7
Lolland sp id distinct table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Lolland CO table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
List of Tables
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 5.1 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7
APON and BPON bandwidth per subscriber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GPON bandwidth per subscriber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EPON bandwidth per subscriber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advantages and disadvantages of the different technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Energy power consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PtP, PON and AON architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PtP, PON and AON architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PtP, PON and AON architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of PON ODN architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Number of NTs and SPs connected to each CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison between the total Fiber and Digging length for Steiner and Astar algorithm for the PtP architecture, with respect to each CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cost Expense Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PtP Steiner Vs. Astar Cost Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Number of Splitters in each Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
32 32 33 38 39 40 41 42 54 78 87 89 89 93
Comparison between the total Fiber and Digging length for Steiner and Astar algorithm for the PON architecture, with respect to each CO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 PON Steiner Vs. Astar Cost Expenditure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
10
Chapter
Introduction
1.1 Historical overview
Fiber optics networking has been a subject for exploration over the past two centuries. The rst optical system showed to the world was introduced in 1790s by the French Chappe brothers and it was called the optical telegraph. The concept of work of this relatively simple system contained two towers. The operators of the two towers were able to communicated between each other by relaying light massages from one of the towers to the other one. This basic concept was improved in the following century. In the 1840s the physicists Daniel Collodon and Jacques Babinet showed that the light can follow the direction of water. They made an example of it by using the falling water from a fountain. Four years later the British physicist John Tyndall improved that idea. He additionally showed that light also follows the curves of the falling water, which meant that light can be bend. In the 1880s Alexander Graham Bell patented the optical telephone system called photophone. In the same year William Wheeler invented a system of inter connected pipes with a high reective coating. For a light source he used a lamp in his basement and then by using this system of pipes he distributed this light along his house. In the following 50 years different scientists proposed and patented different solution for guiding light trough a transparent rods, but the break trough came in 1954 when the maser (or microwave amplication by stimulated emission of radiation) was introduced as an alternative source of light and four years later in 1958 Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow introduced the laser. The rst optic network that was actually implemented was deployed by the Dorset(UK) police in 1975 and the rst telephone trafc over a ber network was achieved in 1979 in Long Beach, California. That was a break trough in this technologies which led most of the companies in USA to switched to the new ber optic standard. In 1986 David Payne from the University of Southampton in collaboration with Emmanuel Desurvire at Bell Laboratories invented the ber amplier, which minimize the cost of the entire network due to the fact that the optical repeaters were not longer needed. Theirs invention led to the deployment of the rst transatlantic cable in 1988. Three years later Desurvire and Payne showed the rst optic ber cable with a build in ampliers. This invention enhanced the total amount of trafc carried by a ber optic cable with a 100 times in comparison with the one with an electric ampliers. In the same year the photonic crystal ber was deployed. The main improvement in this new technology is that the power can be transmitted much more effectively, which leads to improvement in the total performance of the network. This deployment of this technology (with build in ampliers) happened in 1996 in the Pacic ocean by using underwater cables [2]. 11
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
1.2
Motivation
Todays furious network growth is continuing to force ISPs to reassess business plans, protability, and the deployment strategies upon which they will shape future offerings to end users. Competitive dimensions such as cost, quality of service (QoS), recongurability, and future capacity have all become dening aspects for customers. To address the ever increasing data trafc requirements and stay competitive in every aspects, service providers are expected to consider different optical access network solutions. The access network is the network between the Central ofce (CO), which represents the physical building holding all the equipment needed for establishing the connection between itself and the end users and is traditionally called last-mile network. The last mile is the most expensive part of the network because there are far more end users than backbone nodes. A simple examples of the access networks are: Twisted copper pairs connecting to each individual household Residential coaxial cable drops from community antenna TV (CATV) service providers Wi-Max is another type of access technology which uses radio waves for last-mile connectivity Traditionally, optical bers have been widely used in backbone networks because of their huge available bandwidth and very low loss. However, until the beginning of this century, ber has not been used as the technology of last-mile connection. The most widely deployed broadband solutions today are Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and Cable Modem networks. There are more than 600 million broadband subscribers globally at the end of the rst quarter of 2012 and 60% of them are using the DSL technology. [3] Although broadband copperbased access networks provide much higher data rate than 56 Kbps dial-up lines, they are unable to provide enough bandwidth for the tremendous growth of Internet trafc, emerging services such as Video-On-Demand, High Denition Television and interactive gaming, or two-way video conferencing. The maximum physical reach of DSL is about 6km at 2Mbps and 0.3km at 53Mbps.[4] The physical reach and channel capacity of DSL almost have reached the limitations of the available copper cabling. In the last decades, optical networks have experienced substantial growth with the deployment of optical ber in metro and core network segments. DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) based high capacity systems provide ever increasing bandwidth to meet the growing needs of both voice and data communication. However, optical ber access networks are far behind and just beginning to penetrate a market largely dominated by copper-based solutions. Local Area Networks (LANs) using emerging ber technology can provide a high-capacity, high-speed access network system that is inexpensive, simple, scalable, and capable of delivering bundled voice, data and video services to an end-user over a single ber plant. Fiber access systems are also referred to as ber-to-the-x (FTTx) system, where x can be home, building, curb, premises, etc., depending on how deep in the eld ber is deployed or how close it is to the user. In FTTH system, ber is connected all the way from the service provider to household users. FTTx which brings high-capacity optical ber networks closer to the end users, appears to be the best candidate for the next-generation access network. FTTx is considered an ideal solution for access networks because of the inherent advantages of optical ber in terms of low cost, huge capacity, small size and weight, and its immunity to electromagnetic interference and crosstalk. Today, the maximum 12
demonstrated information capacity of an optical ber exceeds to 100 Tb/s [5]. Because of the costs involved, such systems probably will be limited to core and backbone networks. Since optical bers are widely used in backbone networks, Wide Area Networks, and Metropolitan Area Networks, the implementation of the FTTx in access networks will complete the all optical- network revolution. The continuously emerging needs of businesses, governmental agencies, public and private institutions, even of every day people for high speed communication (more than 100Mbps) as well as usage of low-latency and bandwidth-hungry applications can be covered efciently only by ber connectivity. Several applications already offered in small scale in several countries as well as futurely needed ones include: High Denition Television (HDTV) - depends heavily on the compression technology (MPEG2 or MPEG-4 compression) as well as the number of HDTV sets simultaneously connected in one premise (in that case bandwidth requirements are multiplied by the number of connected HDTV sets). With MPEG-2 compression technology, an HDTV signal requires 15-20 Mbps while streaming HDTV over digital channels with MPEG-4 compression will range from 5-10 Mbps [6]. Voice over IP (VoIP) - one-way latency (mouth to ear) should be not more than 150 msec. A range of 21-320 kbps of guaranteed priority bandwidth is required per call (depending on the sampling rate, the VoIP code and Layer2 media overhead) [7]. High-denition telepresence - bandwidth requirements vary depending on the video and audio stream used, such as the screen resolution setting (multiplied by the number of screens used for the video conference). Cisco telepresence software version 1.2, fro example, has bandwidth requirements that vary from 4.5 Mbps - 15.3 Mbps (including the network overhead) [8]. Telemedicine - is dened as the delivery of health care to a patient from a doctor or physician with physical distance seperating the two parts, by usage of interactive video technology and asynchronous communication. The bandwidth requirements for such technology varies from 384 kbps (minimum threshold for an acceptable service) to 2 Mbps for HD video systems [9]. Although telemedicine is an evolving sector not broadly used yet, triple-play services are the latest form of broadband access, which attract most peoples interest nowadays. In all the technologically developed countries globally, Internet, telephony and HDTV (together with Standard Denition Television (SDTV)) are already offered as commercial solutions by several Internet service provider (ISP)s to customers. Fiber optic networks are the only ones which can currently support bandwidth requirements of about 16-48 Mbps for every single household and thats the reason of increasing investment of ISPs broadband access networks lately. Although penetration in those services are considered to be not so high currently with 10% of TV households worldwide in 2011, forecasts (covering 73 countries) estimate that more than 25% of the worlds households will subscribe to triple-play services by the end of 2016 [10]. Researches forecast that ber optics will serve as the highest bandwidth technology for at least another 40 years [11]. Due to all the advantages and applications, its becoming increasingly necessary to study the implementation of access networks in all optical scenarios.
1.3
Problem statement
The evolution of broadband access technologies is moving towards ber based connections not only in urban but also in rural areas. There are mainly three ways of bringing ber to the end user and these are: 13
PON Point-to-Point connection Active Optical Network (AON) Especially, PON and point-to-point will be a subject of further analysis in this project. The advantages and disadvantages of both will be discussed based on Bandwidth to the end user Security issues Costs (Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditure (OPEX)) CAPEX includes - Infrastructure (ber cables and installation cost) Equipment Installation OPEX includes - Failure reparation cost Power consumption cost Above all the geographical area where it is going to be implemented. The basic subject that will be put under investigation in this project will be to design several ber network infrastructures over the municipality of Lolland, located in region Zealand in Denmark, based on two commented technologies and different objective functions. Moreover, a physical topology will be chosen that ts best the specic area in relation to the distribution of residents premises and population density as well as various geographical information such as existing road map and networking infrastructure.
1.4
Expected contributions
Creating and comparing these different scenarios will provide an overview of how to plan a network with these characteristics not only as a market based but also as a social/environmental based solution. The main contributions that will be obtained are: To learn how optical access technologies works To understand what is a GIS database. Why and how it will contribute to this project To obtain sufcient knowledge by using graphical planning tools (MapInfo) Database and graph theory programing Learn different optimization techniques Denition and combination of different objective functions to design the network: Fiber minimization, trenches minimization, availability maximization, energy usage minimization and etc. Feasibility study with focus on the Lolland area
14
Part I
Pre-Analysis
15
Chapter
Technologies
What is ber optics Fiber optics or optical ber is a light, exible, transparent ber usually made of glass, quartz or plastic, which act as a wave carrier for the light signal [12]. For a special application the ber can be made of sapphire, uoride or calcogenide. Due to their exibility they can be produced in any possible length. In order to achieve good light transmission some requirements should be fullled:
Pure glass materials for the core should be used High transparency for the spectrum of interest Minimum optical dispersion is also required - meaning that when the light is reected it should keep its phase velocity (or the rate at which the phase of the wave propagates in space). Basically this parameter shows how light can be deformed while it is propagated trough the ber tube and it is the most important parameter that limits the bandwidth.
How does it work Optical ber is usually made of Silicia [13]. The main parts of a ber can be seen on gure 2.1 on the facing page. The transmission in ber optics is based on a light emitting device such as laser diode or Light emitting diode (LED). The idea is that the diode will emit a light and this light should ll up the ber tube. From technological point of view this is very hard to achieve because if we use a standard light bulb the light cannot be concentrated into the small ber tube, which will lead to a light dispersal. That is why a lot of companies use the so called pig tail, which is detached to the diode. The purpose of it is to assemble the light from the source in order to optimize the light coupling gure and reduce the dispersal is shown on gure 2.2 on the next page. 16
CHAPTER 2. TECHNOLOGIES
Figure 2.1: Fiber optic cable [13]
Figure 2.2: Pig tail [13]
When the transmission is initialized the light signal will start traveling through the already established glass tunnel. When the light reaches the cladding it will interact with it and at some point it will reach the core material boundary and it will reect back to the core. The core will use the light to transmit and the cladding insures that the light will be kept in the inner cylinder (or the core). The core and the cladding are very sensitive and fragile so they should be protected by more layers of coating, which can be produced by different materials depending on the application and the environment where the ber will be used. The thinnest part of the ber is obviously the core. It reaches sizes around several m. In comparison with the core the cladding is few times bigger. The size of both is used as a classication of different type of bers. As it was already mentioned, ber has a big exibility so it can be designed in a way that the light can band around curves which will allow it to travel over longer distance without the need to be amplied. The exibility depends on the incident angle which will affect the energy. The light signal is constructed of binary code that emits on and off from which the content information of a given signal can be obtained. Why ber optic is better then copper The cables today are very sophisticated compared to the cables few years ago but they still work in the same way. For example, in the copper wire the electricity is applied on one end of the cable and it travels to the other end by carrying information. If the signal travels to some far point, the signal strength will start degrading due to the impedance in the cable. Nowadays, emerging communication technologies based on the Internet Protocol suite, such as IPTV, require much higher transmission rates in comparison with the analog television as well as bigger channel capacity in both ends. For example, if the ISP provides HDTV streaming the capacity of the allocated channel should increase due to the fact that the transmission rate of the HDTV is much higher than the standard analog television. By using copper networks such demands cannot be fully satised. For example, the transmission signal in a cable TV works as follows: We take the carrier which has certain frequency and most likely sinusoidal wave form, modulate the amplitude and the signal can be transmitted through the copper wire. In this case we can process carriers with a frequency of a few hundred MHz. But as the amount of information increases the bandwidth of the modulated carrier expands and higher frequency spectrum will be needed (in terms of Mhz). These higher frequencies will lead to higher bandwidth requirements. In order to modulate a carrier frequency that is able to transmit the requested high amount of information, we have to increase the capacity demands if they are already allocated, meaning that the network already exists and we want to upgrade it. 17
From gure 2.3 we can see that the light frequency is in the spectrum of tens of TeraHertz which means that the ber optics will satisfy the need of high transmission rates. Another important parameter that is directly related to the frequency is the wavelength. From gure 2.3 we can see that with the increase of the frequency the wavelength will decrease.
Figure 2.3: Spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation [14]
Different optical bers and cables The basic optical ber cable can be seen on gure 2.4. The optical ber is protected with a buffer enclosed in a buffer tube which allows exibility and bending. Around this tube a Kevlar yarn could be used to reduce the stress and the pressure of the ber. The outer layer or the so called outlet jacket is used to protect the cable from any moisture. The basic difference among all bers is the size of the core (or the so called caring area).
Figure 2.4: Single mode ber structure [15] Single-mode ber - The cable carries only one wavelength and it has smaller core compared to the multi-mode ber. Also, it has higher bandwidth and less losses. The standard singlemode ber has a size of usually 8-10 m. Because of its higher bandwidth, the single-mode ber is typically used when we want to transmit in a long distance, while the multi-mode ber is typically used for distances less than 2 km. 18
Multi-mode ber - When using multi-mode ber we are capable of carrying multiple wavelengths independent of the ones that are carried by the other multi-mode bers in the same bundle. These large size bundles pose greater bandwidth. They allow hundreds of rays to travel simultaneously. What are the advantages of the ber optics By knowing already that light frequency is very high or wavelength very small we can transmit a big amount of data. In order to qualify the quality of the connection we should investigate how well the information travels from one point to another. The main advantages based on the light that can be used as a carrier are [16]: Huge bandwidth for data transmission - Fiber optic operates at speeds in range of Gbps to Tbps (depending on the network layer, for example if we are on the access layer or on the backbone layer) in comparison with the copper wire which can reach speeds up to 53Mbps. Low attenuation when the light travels through the optical cable - The attenuation indicates how much power of the pulse has been lost (dB/km). This loss in the ber optics cable can vary between 0.2 to 3.0 dB/km, depending on how the ber was constructed (if we have many bending or splicing places), if it is a single or multi mode ber and also on the wavelength. The light can reach further distances with lower attenuation compared to the copper wire, which has losses approximately 13dB/km and it does not need ampliers or repeaters or if it does they will be less spread in comparison with the copper network. In the copper network the approximate distance at which an amplier is placed is around 100 meters. In ber optic network this distance may vary between 300 meters and 40 kilometers depending on the cable type that is used, the network and the wavelength. For example, the RG6 coaxial cable has 14dB attenuation at transmission frequency of 500 MHz over a distance of 100 meters. A multi-mode ber operating at 1300 nm has 0.15 dB attenuation over the same distance, which means that the RG6 coaxial cable uses 95 times more energy than the optical ber [17]. Capacity - Fiber optics have a greater capacity in comparison with the copper wire and also the size of the cables used to achieve this high capacity is thousand times thiner than the size of the copper ones. Less signal degradation - Due the fact that light degrades much slower then the electricity, more subscribers can be reached and served. One of the biggest problems of the copper wire is that that the wires are made of metal, which leads to an electromagnetic interference between them. By using bers this problem will be isolated due to the material of production (in this case glass). Galvanic isolation - When we have a copper wire we have an electrical contact between the emitter and the receiver and that might create a capacitance along the length of the cable. Since glass is used this problem does not exist any more. As the ber is made of glass it wont be affected by any chemical, which means it can be buried directly in most kinds of soil. The chance of getting a spark somewhere on the line when using copper wire is high enough in contrast with ber optic where it is absent. Fiber optic cable is much more secured than the copper one due to the fact that is very hard to be tapped and there is absolutely no electrical radiation from it. Losses While the light is propagating through the ber it will experience some losses: 19
There is always loss due to reection when the light enters and exits surface of the ber. Another one is when light is traveling through the ber. The core of the cable is made of ultra-pure low-loss glass. So when the light has to travel few thousand meters, the purity of the glass should be very high in order not to get losses or to minimize them as much as possible. Another loss may emerge when we bend the ber. This may lead the light to exit the core area. The smaller the bend radios is, the higher losses we will experience.
20
Chapter
Network Planning
Following the background information on how an optical ber looks like, from which material it is made of, which parts it consists of and what is the physics that underlines its functionality, this chapter will present major factors that affect the planning decision, some basic performance parameters that must be taken into account at the initial phase of implementation, an overview on different topologies that have been used in the recent past as well as in present ber network cases and the basic structure hierarchy in an integrated ber optic infrastructure. But what network planning means? Network planning can be dened as: Network Planning is a composition of certain activities which are carried out to achieve a certain goal. The activities are performed in such way that the goal is achieved in a cost-effective and efcient way. This is achieved by optimization of the planning process. Network Planning involves the efcient deployment and management of communication facilities over time. The time perspective is essential in network planning as it heavily affects the planning decisions[18].
3.1
Network Planning Factors
There could be many factors that inuence network planning. These factors can be divided into minor and major ones. Only the major network planning factors are discussed in the current section. Application Services - The end goal of infrastructure is to cater application demands of users. In the rst step, the most important one, a network should be able to satisfy the contemporary demands of application services. However, this is not the only goal of network planning. With time, new applications are introduced - this is observed as a continuous process. A planned network not only should be able to provide the current services but also, in some extend, fulll the future demands of applications. Economy - Building a communication infrastructure is usually quite expensive. Investment done for network is mostly for longer term. Economy plays a crucial role in network planning; it limits resources which are involved to build a network infrastructure. Economic consideration not only is important at operators side but also on users or customers. It is very important that the economical conditions of customers are taken into account. The decline 21
CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING
of user economy will lead to lower demand of offered applications. The future economical state of the customers play a big role for the decision of network infrastructure planning. Technology - Todays and future evolution of network technologies impacts on network planning decisions. Mostly, new technologies provide more capacity, increased reliability but in most cases increasing deployment and maintenance cost. It is crucial to choose the right technology. Along time, the old technologies are gradually replaced with the new technologies. Examples of the gradual displacement of older technologies include the use of digital technology in place of analog technology and the use of ber optic links in place of copper or electrical links. Some older technologies can live alongside with new technologies. A clever planning can introduce the re-usability of older technologies.
3.2
Network Structure Performance Parameters
Connectivity - Connectivity is considered as the most important parameter while planning a network infrastructure. In the physical structure, roads, power-lines, railway tracks all provide a mean of connectivity. Generally, the connectivity of a physical structure is established within the structural demand and the traces for connections. [19] Redundancy - Redundancy in structure means to provide an alternative connection or path from one node to another. In that way, the target is set to diminish Single point of failure (SPoF)s in the network. Redundancy also enhances reliability in the network.[19] Reliability - Reliability ensures network such that in a potential case of failure, network is still operational without losing the dened performance. Reliability in every network form is very much dependent on the physical connectivity and redundancy in it. If the physical connectivity is lost, and no alternative routes exist, then all logical connections are lost and can not be restored unless physical connection is re-established or xed. [19] Availability - Availability is the probability of the system being found in the operating state at some time t in the future given that the system started in the operating state at time t=0. Failures and down states occur but maintenance or repair actions always return the system to an operating state [20]. Deployment Cost - Cost plays a major role in the planning of physical structure of network, especially when this is a ber optical network. It is obviously desired to have maximum connectivity and redundancy which makes the network more reliable, but in order to obtain that it will lead us in an apparent expensive solution. The physical structure of network is often the most expensive element in network infrastructure. On the other hand, it has a very long life span. However, the planning task is to obtain an optimal structure with the limited economy. Energy efciency - Is one of the most important parameters nowadays. The demand capacity of a network increases faster then the energy efciency in the CMOS technology [21], which leads to the fact that the power consumption should be reduced. The three main reasons to do so are: economical (increase in the energy prices), energy availability (it is not innite) and environmental (reducing bad emissions). The energy consumption can be obtained in four different ways: On the component level - all optical components are replacing digital and electro-optical devices. On the transmission level - low attenuation and low dispersion bers instead of copper wires. On the network layer, where the optical access networks are deployed in order to reduce the energy consumption 22
On the application layer - it can be obtained trough the Cloud computing, which can be done through an energy-aware scheduling. For example, if we change something on the host computer and not waste resources to upgrade it right away but schedule it for later on with the rest of the changes, in case if there some more.
Figure 3.1: Energy network model Figure 3.1 shows the approximate power consumption rates on the different layers of the network topology by means of different equipment utilisation. The values that are stated depends on what type of electronic devices are used and the total power consumption depends on how many of them we have in the network with respect to the size of the network itself. Structural Quality of Service (SQoS) SQoS is dened in order to support reliability modelling in communication infrastructures with a graph theoretical approach to support reliability management in complex communication infrastructures [18]. Thus, SQoS-based network planning - as opposed to traditional planning methods - aims at planning physical network infrastructures with good, well dened and well describable global structural properties. SQoS is achieved by properly interconnecting the network logically and physically. The Global architecture of SQoS can be presented graphically as shown in gure 3.2 on the following page [18]
23
Figure 3.2: Global Architecture of SQoS
3.3
Infrastructure Planning
This section presents the structural planning of networks in terms of topological architectures in the trace level or in other words, in the physical layer. In the ber optics network planning, as in any communication system, a modied form of the OSI model exists. Figure 3.3 on the next page presents the ve basic levels on which an integrated design of a ber network relies on. The most popular network topology, in the access layer, is the cyclic topologies. Among them, the most commonly used are: Single ring (or Degree-2 ring) Double ring (or Degree-3 ring)
Figure 3.4: Single ring topology 24
Figure 3.5: Symmetric double ring topology
Figure 3.3: Modied OSI model for ber network planning [18]
The double ring topology is further categorized in: Symmetrical double ring N2R CR Chordal ring Apart from the cyclic topologies, planar topologies have been implemented in many cases as they have been more suitable to the geographical area applied, to the predened parameters and the nal target. In this category belong: Honeycomb Grid Triangular Mesh Figures 3.6 on the following page, 3.7 on the next page and 3.8 on the following page present the basic form of a honeycomb, a grid and mesh topology respectively. Star topology is also very common and vastly used in networks. 25
Figure 3.6: Honeycomb topology
Figure 3.7: Grid topology
Figure 3.8: Mesh topology
There are many factors that affect the optimal choice of one of the above topologies when a ber network is designed. First of all, everything starts and ends on the amount of money available for a big investment in a ber optical network. Single ring is the least expensive topology among all the rest. However, it ensures the minimum amount of redundancy compared to every other topology mentioned before. If for any reason one link connecting two nodes, for instance two big cities, on the network is cut down, that will create a SPoF and a certain down period for all the users of the network that will last until connectivity is re-established. The remedy to this scenario can be the design of a double ring interconnecting these cities. On the other hand, this choice would increase dramatically the implementation cost of the network. A chordal ring of type CR(12,3), for instance, could add redundancy on the single ring scenario and at the same time decrease the total network cost of the double ring. Consequently, what must be clearly stated from the start is what types of buildings are planned to be connected to the network. Is it buildings that host governmental agencies or ministries of a country, is it stock market rms that rely highly on real-time uninterrupted data ow, is it army bases that require security and probably a stable private network or is it just individuals that wish to buy a high-speed triple-play service? In all these cases, a potential failure in the structure of the network will have more or less critical consequences on its end-users. Another important factor is what type of nodes have to be connected to the network. In case we have to choose the optimal topology for connecting several Main Node (MN)s, our rst concern would be to assure redundancy in the network. MNs form the upper level in a ber network hierarchy, as it is presented in more details later on in this chapter. Take as an example the case of interconnecting all the big cities of a country with ber. We cannot run the risk of applying a single ring topology, as in case of a SPoF occurrence the whole connectivity will be interrupted. In such a scenario, high standards of availability cannot be primarily achieved. On the other hand, a honeycomb or an N2R topology would probably be a good planning solution, as the number of the MNs is quite big and their distribution is not uniform throughout the country. For a smaller area, for example planning a FTTH network within a city, a double ring would be efcient and even a single ring topology would be acceptable. Figures 3.9 on the next page and 3.10 on the facing page are proposed topologies for the small city of Hals in region Nordjylland, Denmark. For a small city like Hals, even a single ring would prove to be adequate to cover the needs of the inhabitants, although a connection link failure would still be a risk. This single ring was actually implemented by [22] through a mini-project as part of the course Network Performance Analysis during the 8th semester. The digital representation of the region of Hals can be seen on gure 3.9 on the next page. The red dots represents the MNs, the big blue dots represents the Distribution Node (DN)s and the rest are house residents or business buildings. The placement of these nodes (MNs and DNs) should be made according to the region, the population density, etc.. However, when it comes to the access network design, which forms the lower level in an integrated network planning process, the star topology is used vastly in practice, either as a PON, AON, point-to-point or Point-to-Multi-Point (P2MP) topology, as it is explained more thoroughly in chapter 4 on page 30. Moreover, the whole planning methodology followed is inuenced up to a point whether a network infrastructure already exists (brown elds) or the whole planning process is coordinated from scratch (green elds). For instance, if an ISP decides to extend its own network of wireless antennas by creating 26
Figure 3.9: Proposed single ring in Hals, Aalborg municipality Denmark [22]
Figure 3.10: Proposed double ring in Hals, Aalborg municipality Denmark [23]
27
new nodes connected with ber, then the distribution of the existing wireless nodes will inuence the topology picked as the minimum expenditure would be the high requirement for the new network. An integrated ber optic infrastructure is divided in four basic layers: Wide area network Metropolitan area network Backbone network Access network
Figure 3.11: Hierarchy of three basic network types: From the lower access network to a global backbone network Primary demand for the network to be functional is that all types of network in this layering scheme must be linked between each other. In order to achieve such a bond in practice, all network layers have to be built sequentially and follow strictly all the parameters set during the design phase. As can be seen in gure 3.11, every lower layer requires the existence of the immediate upper one so that it can be consecutively built on top of it in order to expand the existing infrastructure until it reaches the end user. It is not reasonable, for example, to start from building the access network without the existence 28
of MNs already connected with each other through a specied topology. In conclusion to this section we can say that, the optimal choice of a network topology is a rather complex and it is a time consuming process. Especially in cases of programming the construction of a ber network with a lifespan of 30-40 years, the structural design of the network must be done in a very detailed manner, by comparing all the trade-offs of the different topologies and taking into account many parameters that vary among different geographical scenarios. The network modeling phase, which necessitates dening crucial details such as how many MNs must be used, what is their optimal location in the area, how should they be distributed and based on what variables, is an essential phase for the optimal analysis of every geographical test case during the infrastructure planning process.
29
Chapter
Optical access network architectures

As it was already mentioned, this project will focus on designing several infrastructures based on PON and Point-to-Point technologies. A trade-off exists between these 2 topologies on the access part of the network regarding cost, service reliability, network scalability, security, nature of the connected end users and equipment installed. In this chapter we will focus on the main characteristics and advantages as well as disadvantages when comparing them among alternative planning scenarios, such as AON.
4.1
Passive Optical Network
PON topology describes a single ber separated into multiple strands by using passive optical splitters [24]. Figure 4.1 shows the maximum coverage distance between the CO and the end user should be in range between 10 and 20 kilometers, which also depends on the number of splits (for distance extension an optical amplier could be used, see subsection 4.1.7 on page 34). When the number of Network Termination point (NT)s connected to a splitter increases, the distance over which we can send data decreases due to attenuation, dispersion, etc. The coverage area of PON can be increased by using Optical Ampliers, which is discussed later. The main components in the PON architecture are:
Figure 4.1: PON architecture [24] 30
CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES
CO - It is a physical building located in an area and contains the inside plant equipment needed to establish a ber optical network. Optical line terminator (OLT) - The OLT is placed inside the CO. Its two main functions are: To convert the electrical signals used by the ISP equipment to send information over the network, into a light used by the ber optic infrastructure and in this case the PON. To synchronize the multiplexing between the devices on the other side of the ber optic cable which are called Optical network terminal (ONT)s. Splitter - A passive component, which connects the CO with the NTs. The functionality of this device is to split equally the bandwidth between the NTs connected to it. ONT - This is a device that connects carriers network with the subscribers premises wiring. Both of these devices, OLT and ONT, require a power source. PON gets its name from the fact that no active electronics like power supply or any other power equipment is used within the access network. Instead, passive optical splitters are used to divide the bandwidth between the end users.
4.1.1
Passive star PON
The idea in this method is that the splitters are not placed as close as possible to the end user but they are enclosed in a cabinet. For example, if we have a block of 60 houses, a cabinet will be placed somewhere on the pavement or even placed under the ground surface according to some policies. This specic design helps when we want to increase the efciency and avoid the problem of going from one switch to another if a problem occurs, because the splitters now are centralized. The biggest problem of the PON is that the physical upstream and downstream path, between the CO and the splitter, is only one. In this case we will have a SPoF. Consequently, if something happens on this link the whole network after this point will be affected even though the splitters are centralized. Because these splitters suffer from lack of intelligence due to their passive nature, they cannot initiate a fail over procedure in case of a link failure. The amount of provided bandwidth of the PON network depends on the needs of the users. This means that the ISPs have to evaluate what kind of services they intend to offer to the end user. There are many different PON architecture which offer these different levels of downstreams and upstreams: APON - ATM PONe BPON - Broadband PON GPON - Gigabit PON EPON - Ethernet PON
4.1.2
APON
APON or asynchronous transfer mode passive optical network (ATM PON) is one out of many different standards of the PON networks. The basic concept of work is that it uses asynchronous time division multiplexing (two or more data streams can be transferred simultaneously as a sub channel in one communication channel) and the desired data (video, voice, etc.) that is scheduled for transfer is encoded into a small xed size cells. This differs from the Ethernet standard where the data is split into various 31
size packets or frames. The reason why we choose cells instead of frames is that if voice data has to be transferred over a link with bursty behavior (meaning that along with these small size cells, there are some large size packets of data) under standard queuing conditions, the cells will experience maximum delay. This is why all the data should have equal cell size. The APON benets the end subscriber or the company that is actually using it, because of the fact that the maintenance of a ber optical network is less expensive in comparison with the copper one. Meaning that the companies that are actually using it will benet from it, because it will reduce the price of the network, which also means that the prots of this company will increase depending on the size of the network that has to be built or maintained. The ATM standard uses only one strand of ber, which means that up to 64 users will benet from it and the price will be dramatically decreased in comparison to the PtP architecture. Another advantage of the APON architecture is that the ONTs share the same ber and optical splitter, leading to the fact that the bandwidth can also be shared. This could be achieved by using different dynamic allocation protocols. By using these protocols the number of served end-users can be increased. For example, APON and BPON deliver 622Mbps in the downstream link, so if we have 4 users the download speed will be split between them equally and each subscriber will obtain 155 Mbps. If there are 16 subscribers, the speed will decrease to 38 Mbps and if they are 32 the speed will reach 19 Mbps. In upstream direction these two different standards provide us with a 155Mbps. That means 39Mbps, 10Mbps and 5Mbps respectively as it can be seen on table 4.1.
Download Upload speed speed 4-factor 155Mbps 39Mbps 16-factor 38Mbps 10Mbps 32-factor 19Mbps 5Mbps Table 4.1: APON and BPON bandwidth per subscriber
Splitter factor
4.1.3
GPON
The GPON standard provides us with a bandwidth up to 2.5Gbps in the downstream direction and 1.25Gbps in the upstream direction. With the nowadays splitter factor standard of 32 of 64, the endsubscribers will be able to reach speeds up to 78 Mbps for a factor of 32 and 39 Mbps for a factor of 64. The upstream speed for a 32 factor is 39 Mbps and for a factor of 64 is 19 Mbps as it can be seen in table 4.2
Splitter factor
Download Upload speed speed 32-factor 78Mbps 39Mbps 64-factor 39Mbps 19Mbps Table 4.2: GPON bandwidth per subscriber
32
4.1.4
EPON
The EPON standard is based on the Ethernet standard as opposed to the aforementioned, which are based on the ATM standard. This means that this technology provides us with a simple manageable connectivity. The main properties of using Ethernet are: World-wide accepted protocol Can provide the end-user with a triple play service It supports Quality of Service (QOS) Cheap equipment cost There are three different topologies when it comes to the EPON. The EPON standard provides us with a speed of 1Gbps in both directions - downstream and upstream. For example, (see table 4.3), if we have 32 subscribers each of them will be able to use 31Mbps which is 6 times better in the upstream direction and with 12 Mbps better in the downstream direction in comparison with the previous standard.
Splitter factor 4-factor 16-factor 32-factor 64-factor Table 4.3:
Download Upload speed speed 250Mbps 250Mbps 62.5Mbps 62.5Mbps 31Mbps 31Mbps 15.5Mbps 15.5Mbps EPON bandwidth per subscriber
4.1.5
WDM PON
Figure 4.2 on the next page represents the P2MP topology. There is a PtP connection between the central ofce and the passive remote switch achieved by the already mentioned one strand of ber. The difference here is that we have separate wavelength channels from the CO and the Optical Network Unit (ONU)s. Each of the ONUs corespondents to a specic wavelength. The OLT is placed inside the CO and it employs Wavelength division-multiplexing (WDM). By using this method, a full bandwidth for upstream and downstream can be achieved. Another advantage of this type of topology is kind of build in and that is the security. The main disadvantages are the high deployment cost due to the specic transceivers that should be used and it is a waste of resources if one user shuts down due to failure or self intend [25].
4.1.6
TDM PON
Another architecture that is widely used is the TDM PON. As we can see from gure 4.3 on the following page, the OLT is connected with the splitter or the combiner. The splitter gathers the different wavelengths and sends it to each ONU. Then each ONU lters and transfers the assigned wavelength to the correspondent users wavelength. At the end the subscriber will receive only its own data. This 33
Figure 4.2: WDM PON is a cost effective optical access solution. This architecture benets from the fact that the deployment and maintenance costs are low. In downstream direction the data can be broadcast, which will minimize the cost. In the upstream direction we have a MP2P architecture, from N ONUs to the CO. Another main point that should be mentioned is that the ONUs do not contain any data, which will be a waste of resources and time consuming. The biggest disadvantage of this architecture is the limited bandwidth to each end-user. Sufcient bandwidth algorithms should be used in order to achieve high efciency [25].
Figure 4.3: TDM PON WDM and TDM techniques are used in P2MP architecture, due to their exibility and capability of combining many PONs. As it was already stated, each ONU contains a xed wavelength lter. All these different standards and technologies rise the question of how much is the actual bandwidth that is needed. Nowadays, companies provide different services. For example, a user can subscribe for a digital TV with up to 200 different channels, different voice services and at least 10Mbps high speed Internet connection, for a small monthly fee. To deliver all these services atleast a 20Mbps connection is required per user. An assumption has been made, that there are 2 TV sets in average by 4Mbps for video streaming plus the 10Mbps bandwidth for Internet connection. Due to the expected increasing bandwidth demand, PON will face problems in the near future when more and more services will be provided from the companies (such as video conferences, HDTV, etc.). The advantage of using these architectures is that we do not have to share speed with the rest of the subscribes due to the dedicated bandwidth to each of them.
4.1.7
Optical Ampliers
In order to increase the transmission distance between the CO and the end-users an optical amplier can be used as it can be seen on gure 4.4 on the next page. A typical PON deployment today would involve a maximum reach of 20 km with a split factor up to 64. In long-haul networks, optical ampliers are 34
widely used to extend the reach of systems to hundreds or even thousands of kilometers (for example the undersea cables). The cost of optical ampliers are now low enough that one could consider using them in a PON, especially since in the PON architecture, the cost of the optical amplier can be shared among all the customers on the network. From an operator perspective, there are several potential benets arising from increasing the reach of PONs. Firstly, some customers are located at long distances from the CO beyond the reach of the exciting network. Optical ampliers are simple, low-power devices which could make them attractive to deploy at an intermediate location, so that the equipment in the CO can be directly connected to these customers. Secondly, where customers are sparsely distributed over a geographical area, optical ampliers can be used to ensure good utilization of the shared portions of the PON (i.e., the OLT and feeder ber). Thirdly, depending on end-to-end network design, extending the reach of a PON can allow node consolidation, thus reducing the number of PON head end locations the operator needs to manage [26].
Figure 4.4: PON Optical Amplier
4.2
Point-to-Point Optical Network
PtP is a ber architecture in which a direct and dedicated link between two end-point devices exist (the CO and the end user). This architecture is highly scalable, upgradeable and service transparent (meaning that it can provide service regardless of the other users in the network) due to its exibility. The PtP architecture provides more bandwidth per end subscriber in comparison with the other shared networks and also dedicated broadband speed up to 1Gbps per subscriber.
Figure 4.5: Different Architectures [27]
In this PtP architecture a direct bi-directional link between the CO and each end subscriber exist. In order to create and deploy such network N number of bers (this number depends on how many subscribers we will have in the network) and 2xN number of transceivers are needed to provide certain service to an N number of end-users as it can be seen on gure 4.5. Each new subscriber can be added 35
without affecting the rest connected to the network. This type of connection is also known as pay as you grow. One of the drawbacks in this technology is that the increasing number of users will result into a higher number of bers into the CO, which will lead to an increase in the equipment needed to support the needs of each subscriber in the CO. The PtP architecture is way more suitable in comparison with the already mentioned PON architecture in the sense that each individual user can be migrated to more powerful service without affecting the rest of the users already connected to the CO and this statement is equally true for a home residence or business users, which makes this architecture very exible for future proof solutions as it also provides virtually unlimited bandwidth per subscriber. Based on the statistical data from [28], the civil work costs the most in the FTTH deployment of the network and this is common for the PtP and PON architecture. For the PtP architecture the civil work costs around 68% of the total cost amount of the network, ber cost is 6%, cabinet cost is 2%, installation cost is 3%, Ethernet cost is 12% and the rest 12% are dedicated for some other technical services needed to establish the connection between the CO and the end-user as it can be seen on gure 4.6. The PtP architecture also supports the so called future-poof hybrid deployment, which is a mixture between the FTTH and FTTC with a copper (UTP) connection to each subscriber.
Figure 4.6
4.3
Active Optical Network
The active network got its name from the fact that there are some active elements in the access network. As it can be seen from the Active Architecture gure 4.7 on the facing page, the active network looks quite similar and basically follows the same functionality pattern like the PON with a few main differences: First, instead of using non-controlled passive optical switches we can use power devices (Ethernet switch) like it is showed in gure 4.7 on the next page. 36
Figure 4.7: Active Architecture [24]
Second, instead of separating the bandwidth between the users in the network by using these Ethernet switches we can provide full bi-directional bandwidth spectrum to everyone.
Third, the distance factor. In the Active network architecture, the maximum distance is increased to 80 kilometers and does not depend on the total number of subscribers that will be connected to the network. As it can be seen on gure 4.7, the Ethernet switch may be located 70km away from the CO and the distance between the switch and the end-users can reach a distance up to 10 km. The limitation factor in this case with regards to the number of subscribers on the switch (with respect to the capacity of the switch) and not on the infrastructure, like in the PON architecture.
The most common speed that the AON can provide is 100Mbps in downstream and upstream direction for a home residence and up to 1Gbps for the business sector.
4.4
Analysis on the three architectures
Picking one of the previous architectures to implement is quite tricky issue. Advantages of one architecture are usually disadvantages in others. In that way, there is a trade-off between PON, AON and PtP architectures. A network designer must clarify the primary objective of the ber network he is implementing, mainly in terms of cost and energy efciency. The following table 4.4 on the next page shows the main advantages and disadvantages of the discussed three architectures. The scale that it was used is from 1 to 3, where 1 is low and 3 is high. 37
Qualication Active Point-to-Point PON characteristics Network Network Security 1 2 3 Cost 1 2 3 Redundancy 1 2 3 Scalability 1 1 3 Detect and x time 1 2 3 Energy efciency 1 2 3 Table 4.4: Advantages and disadvantages of the different technologies
As it can be seen from the table 4.4, PtP will provide us with the best security, redundancy, scalability, detect and x time and energy efciency among the rest, but the cost of this architecture is higher than the PON and the active network. PON architecture appears to be the cheapest one as the equipment needed to install for providing services to the end-users is passive compared to the AON which is active and consequently, more expensive. Also, the total ber length deployed in the trenches in the PON and AON networks is smaller than the PtP network, especially in the case where the optical splitters are optimally located in a block of households with regards to minimum connection distance and their capacity is fully utilized. For example, if an 1x32 optical splitter is used, then all of its ports should be occupied with ber links towards the premises. Another important issue is scalability. Imagine the case in which for a certain block of houses, a PON or AON architecture is deployed to provide service to the end-users. If an 1x32 optical splitter is used and all splits are connected to 32 households in this block, then a construction of a new building very close to the cabinet that requires to connect to the network will raise difculties in doing so, as the capacity of the installed splitter is fully used. In that case, a strand of ber should be pulled all the way up to the streaming splitter or somehow redesign the network in order to be able to service a higher number of end-users in the new building. Additional digging may also be required. An easy solution to this would be to replace the existing 1x32 splitter with a bigger capacity one, for example 1x64 splitter. That will lead to a certain down period and bandwidth reduction for the already 32 connected end-users. Scalability also refers to the easiness of upgrading the services delivered to one or more individual endusers, while keeping the previous service for the rest. In the PtP architecture this can be seamlessly done by replacing only the ber links that connect the CO with the respective end-users, while in the other two architectures will require re digging of the trench and replacement of the link that connects the CO to the optical splitter to increase the bandwidth. Its obvious that PtP is the most redundant architecture compared to the other two. If for some reason a failure occurs to the ber that connects the CO to the optical splitter, then a down period will last for the end-users connected to this splitter until connectivity is restored. On the other hand, if this failure occurs to one or more of the bers connecting directly the CO with one or two households, it will affect only these end-users. Security is better achieved in PtP and AON architectures due to the active nature of the equipment used to connect the end-users. Especially in the PtP case, due to the fact that each end-user is served by a dedicated line it is easier to detect a security breach. This active nature affects up to a point the time it takes to detect and restore a failure. Especially, in case the problem is related to software conguration issues, the restoration process can be completed from distance without the physical presence of a tech38
nician in the place where an optical splitter is located for example.
Figure 4.8: Energy consumption in Access network [29]
From an energy point of view, the best solution would be the PtP after 300Mbps (see table 4.5). Figure 4.8 shows the energy consumption in a access network with respect to the average access rates, which are measured in Mbps and the energy per bit. As the average access rate increases, the amount of energy per bit decreases. The graphical and table representation shows that the PON architecture is better with respect to power consumption in comparison with the PtP up to approximately 300Mbps. After this point, the decreasing scope of PON is lowering much slower in comparison with the PtP architecture, meaning that at speed rates over approximately 300Mbps the best energy consumption architecture is the PtP. Nowadays, this means that PON is preferable over PtP, because the average bandwidth needs do not exceed 100Mbps. However, future needs will change due to technology development and new application demands will also increase in terms of bandwidth.
Access network PON Point to point AON
Access rates Decision 300Mbps Energy-efcient at lower rates 300Mbps Energy-efcient at higher rates 100Mbps - 1 Gbps Generally consumes more energy Table 4.5: Energy power consumption
39
Point to Point Bandwidth allocation The bandwidth in the PtP in comparison with the PON is not limited due to the fact that there is a direct connection between the CO and the end-user.
AON
PON
Conclusion
The bandwidth is only limited by the capacity of the switch which lies between the CO and end users.
The commonly used maximum download/upload speed in todays PON architecture is 2.5Gbps/1.25Gbps. The allocated bandwidth to each subscriber depends on the splitting factor, which nowadays is 1:32 or 1:64, but still the speed is limited to the already mentioned values.
The exibility of the PtP architecture is greater than the PON and slightly higher than AON. The bandwidth that can be allocated by it is adjustable (the same for AON) and it is not limited (2.5Gbps) like in PON.
Maximum bandwidth per end-user The maximum bandwidth that can be allocated between the CO and the end-user can vary between 100Mbps up to 1Gbps depending on the type of the end-user, if it is a business building or a home residence and also on the type of the applications that will be used by the subscriber. Bandwidth increase The bandwidth increase is a very simple procedure since the access nodes are modular. If the end-user wants to upgrade its service contract with the company in order to obtain higher speeds it will be just necessary to upgrade the ber optic cable.
The amount allocated to subscribers is governed by the interface type of the switch or trafc behavior of access node and is therefore adjustable based on end-user needs.
The maximum bandwidth is limited with regards to which standard is used (see tables 4.3 on page 33, 4.1 on page 32, 4.2 on page 32) for more details
Clearly the advantage is in the PtP architecture. The ability to allocate certain amount of bandwidth individually to each subscriber proves that PtP architecture is much more exible and end-user friendly.
The access nodes are modular but might need to change both ber cables from the CO to switch and from switch to end user, if a consumer asks for more bandwidth.
To achieve a bandwidth increase in PON is really difcult and depends on the already established topology and technology. Few cables can be bundled together in order to exceed the future demands but still the maximum speed on the OLT port cannot reach more than 2.5Gbps as an upper limit.
The PtP dominates in this technical specication in comparison with the AON and PON P2MP architectures, since it is very easily adjustable and it does not have to change the already established architecture.
Table 4.6: PtP, PON and AON architectures
40
Malfunctions and maintenance Since there is a direct link between the CO and the end-user, the malfunction can be very easily detected and maintained without affecting others. Since the ONTs are connected to an active switch, remote localization of the malfunction in the ONT is possible to detect and maintain. Within a PON tree, all the subscribers are on the same optical point. If a faulty ONT causes faulty synchronization, a remote localization of the malfunction in the ONT involved is not possible. In the worst case scenario, because of a technical fault or deliberate manipulation, a single ONT can cause an entire PON tree with up to 64 subscribers to fail for a lengthy period of time. In AON if the problem is in the subscriber side it will affect only the specic ONT, while might affect the whole tree if it is from the CO side. A faulty subscriber path in the PtP system on the other hand can easily be identied and rectied without affecting others.
Security issue Each customer has dedicated ber optical cable. In general, wire tapping is possible but very hard to achieve. However only one of the end-users could be affected. In the AON architecture the signals of all subscribers are carried by a single strand of ber, which means that in this architecture the risk of losing data due to theft is possible. However, since the whole system is active, it is much more secured than PON but not as much as Point-to-Point. In the PON architecture the signals of all subscribers are carried by a single strand of ber, which means that in this architecture the risk of losing data due to theft is high. As it was already mentioned, data allocation can be separated into a time division (see gure 4.3 on page 34) or wavelength division (see gure 4.2 on page 34) multiplexing/demultiplexing by using some encryption software and the setup for this conguration is located on the end-user premises. In overall PtP is more secured than the other two architecture and will be less affected in case of potential attack.
Level of suitability large-scale/ business customers Advantages such as exibility, security and performance come very much to the fore. A router or switch can be used as an optical network termination to separate services.
The AON architecture provides better exibility, security and performance in comparison with the PON.
The customers in a PON tree are all treated the same. Customized requirements are only possible above protocol layer 3.
PtP systems have a clear advantage in terms of technical issues. Greater exibility, suitability for business customer services and sustainability are the key arguments.
Table 4.7: PtP, PON and AON architectures 41
Reliability Reliability in the PtP architecture is good and it can be redundant by connecting it in a ring. Costs of the CPE* Because of IEEE standard, they are easily accessible and relatively cheap.
Since it is a tree architecture, achieving redundancy is difcult. Similar to Point-to-Point architecture, cheap standardized equipments are used.
Achieving redundancy in PON is difcult, because it is a tree architecture.
In terms of reliability the PtP superiors over the AON and PON architectures.
There is no compatibility between different manufacturers, which results in price variations.
By using standard interfaces, PtP and AON CPEs will probably have an edge on costs in future because of strong competition.
Costs of the network technology (active components) It is expensive, because each subscriber will occupy a dedicated laser port on the network node.
Expensive , because each subscriber will occupy dedicated port on the switch.
It is cheap because each port on the OLT will be shared by several customers as passive splitters are used.
Because optical paths can be used by several subscribers, PON is a better solution with regards to the price per subscriber.
Space required for systems technology Numerous active interfaces have to be accommodated at the central site. As a result, the CO takes a huge space. Energy consumption The energy consumed by this architecture is high, because of the high number of laser interfaces used.
Apart from the huge space required by the CO additional space is required by the switches. High consumption due to the active switch used.
Little space required at the CO, but the passive splitters have to be placed in the access network. Low energy consumption because the system uses passive optical splitters.
Overall the PON architecture requires less space.
Because of the passive splitter and greater subscriber density on the OLT, PON is better option to use when compared to the other architectures.
Follow-up costs for upgrades Because the active components have enhanced scalability and customers can be separated, customized upgrades can be carried out in the PtP and the CPE can for example be changed.
Customized An entire PON tree upgrades are is always affected by possible as far as the an upgrade. All capacity of the ONTs have to be switch is not exceed. exchanged at the If the switch same time. As a capacity is fully result, individual utilized expensive upgrades are overall system practically upgrade is required. precluded. Table 4.8: PtP, PON and AON architectures
Because of enhanced customizable exibility, Ethernet PtP has an advantage in terms of upgrade capabilities over both AON and PON.
42
In order to decide which architecture is the best one, a survey of the region where we want to deploy this network has to be made. By obtaining the current statistical information of the region a practical and efcient solution could be taken.
43
Chapter
Network Modelling
Network modelling comprehends one of the most important and complex phases of a ber network planning project. It corresponds to the modelling of the whole network, and is most of the time based on available digital mapping of the specic area. A step by step network modelling task includes: Classication of an area into urban or rural Analysis on quantitative characteristics such as population rise in the upcoming years, average age of residents, main occupation of the inhabitants in the labor market, existing infrastructure, record of buying interest with regards to services sold by ISPs in the area, etc. Selection of the best t topology that covers the needs of the specic area Selection of the nature of the equipment that is going to be utilized (active - passive) in multiple hardware-parts of the network Layering the network, as it was described in chapter 3 on page 21 Selection of the number of communication nodes that are going to be set and respective classication of these nodes into: COs Access nodes - in case the target network is a FTTH network Selection of the nodes location on the GIS platform used Selection of algorithms that enable us calculate the total amount of ber used, the total length of digging trenches as well as the total cost based on these metrics Usage of relevant tools that enable us combine all the necessary information into a modeling platform appropriate for the nal stage of design and simulation Gradual optimization of every intermediate state of the nal network until it meets our initial demands Economic survey on the total cost of the nal form of the proposed optimized network 44
CHAPTER 5. NETWORK MODELLING
It can be easily deduced from the above listing that network modeling is heavily connected to the structure planning and infrastructure planning of an optical ber network, as it was presented previously on chapter 3.2 on page 22. In fact, it combines all the aspects of these procedures into an integrated analysis and implementation of a network planning research until it takes its nal form and turns into a physically existing infrastructure. Important tools, including GIS data, databases, software platforms and commonly used algorithms will be presented in the current chapter. A proposed planning method that combines several of these tools and algorithms into an integrated solution will close this chapter.
5.1
Gis data
Available GIS data is essential for an easier, faster and more accurate planning of a ber network in any geographical area by digitizing the whole planning procedure. This geographical information is obtained and handled through computer based GIS. For wired network planning purposes, 2D GIS data is adequate for the graphical representation of important elements that describe an area, such as roads, railway trails or agriculture elds. However, we should not neglect cases of ber networks deployed in roads with dense building structures, where the availability of 3D GIS data would prove to be valuable in the optimization process. Also, if wireless infrastructure exists in an area that affects the network planning process, 3D GIS data is preferred. Usually, municipalities retain GIS mapping information of their region. In that way, it is rather easy and in most cases quite cheap to seek such information. Also, private companies exist that maintain GIS data important for the planning process, however they are usually offered at high price. The most interesting information someone could extract from this data is the road network. Especially when it comes to research the modeling of a network in a big city with dense building infrastructure, roads are the main path for the bers to pass by and interconnect all the desired communication nodes. In rural areas, GIS data is still important although the whole process becomes less complex as the digging traces for the ber to pass can be picked more loosely and closer to the designer needs for better optimization of the nal result. This fact arises from the reduced cost of digging traces in rural areas compared to urban ones, as optimization can be succeeded more efciently through agriculture elds, for example, rather than through industrial areas.
5.1.1
The Digital Road Map
A digital road map can be viewed as an approximation to the trace level for a potential optical ber ICT infrastructure development. [30]. A digital road map is represented through tables which contain most of the road map information in digital form. This information is nothing more than actual geographical coordinates of single points, associated with specic attributes. These single points are called Segment Point (SP)s. Every two SPs interconnected with each other, form a line that is called segment. Additional useful information associated with a segment table is: A unique segment id 45
A unique road id, in the sense that many continuous segments connected with each other depict a road formation as it stands in reality for the given geographical area If a road id is not available, then all street names formed by the respective continuous segments are provided Street names can be easily used in many different districts in the same municipality. So a unique street code is also important for every post district to differentiate between them The length of the segment which corresponds to the actual distance that it covers in meters Unique ids for both SPs that form the segment Two (x,y) pairs that represent real coordinates of these SPs From the segment table we can easily construct an SP table that will help us progress in the programming phase of the project. The SP table contains less attributes than the segment table, even though they adjust to the same principles: A unique SP id instead of two SP ids as in every table entry SPs are stored rather than links between two continuous SPs One (x,y) pair of coordinates that describe the actual location of the SP on the map The degree of every SP which corresponds to the number of segments connected to this node Number of NTs connected to every SP, where NTs refer to the end-users Although NTs are not purely considered a part of the digital road map, the NT table together with the segment table are the ones usually provided by a municipality and based on data stored in these tables a network designer can represent on the map all the information needed to handle the programing part of a ber network project. The NT table includes: One (x,y) pair of coordinates that describe the actual location of the NT on the map A unique NT id The house number together with the street address every NT belongs to The post district every NT belongs to
Figure 5.1: Municipality of Lolland drew in MapInfo 46
Figure 5.1 on the facing page presents the digital road network of Lolland municipality, which is the subject of the current project research. Segments that form the whole road network in the area are easily visible on the map, which was created in mapinfo. Further information on this software are given on section 5.3. All the aforementioned tables which describe a specic area are important tools in the ber planning process. Their availability is considered essential as it helps us manipulate faster huge amount of given data and at the same time exploit their graphical overview on the chosen GIS platform. Due to the fact that in most cases these tables store really big quantity of data, a big amount of which are not needed and must be normalized before moving on with applying different algorithms, it is desired to store this data in a database.
5.2
Database handling
Databases are important for handling huge amount of spatial data in tables. This data, as it was mentioned in the previous section, enables the network designers to view the mapping of the road network and the end-users buildings distribution and exact location at the region where an optical ber network is under construction. It is important that the tables stored in the database are well structured. In that way, the task of normalizing this data as well as seeking desired data through a high quantity of tables entries becomes much more efcient in terms of time consumption. Consistent data preservation in databases facilitates the network modeling process in its total. MySQL database is a good example of an open source database management system, widely used for the purposes described previously. An alternative option instead of MySQL would be PostgreSQL database which possess many similarities with MySQL. Combining one of these databases with a favorable programming language such as python or php is rather easy and very efcient way of manipulating the stored data to apply different algorithms.
5.3
Planning Tools
Several planning tools exist that can be utilized for wired network planning purposes. We divide these tools into two big categories: Integrated commercial GIS solutions Programming languages, some of which are open source and some others require license to work with as well as libraries that prove to be very helpful tools in the network planning process
5.3.1
Software
In this section an indicative sample of GIS tools are presented. Five GIS application solutions will be presented based on the width of the companies offering them in the market as well as whether they are commercial or open-source software. Specically in the GIS category, more than 50 Desktop GIS, geospatial tools, Web map servers, spatial DataBase Management Systems (DBMS) and spatial data transformation tools exist which makes it unfeasible and essentially no sense to analyze each of them separately. 47
5.3.1.1
GIS tools
MapInfo professional - MapInfo is a powerful mapping and geographic analysis application providing geospatial data solution. Some of the the most characteristic features of the application are: Creating highly detailed maps, demonstrating the realtionship between geography and data and enhancing presentation of points of interest in a more visual way. Revealing patterns and trends in data Managing location based assets such as human resources and property Locating where exactly infrastructure deployment is mostly needed Mapping resources and detailed logistics planning MapInfo Professional is a user-friendly application, which doesnt require expertise in the general IT domain for someone to handle it. It supports a big range of data format, easily accessible through various popular applications such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Oracle, Microsoft SQL server as well as supporting many formats for image viewing. Moreover, it provides the user with multiple built-in map display options with respect to territories, boundaries, road networks, ber lines and different kind of data points. The user can aggregate values using statistical or any math functions to associate a symbol or color to a point or a region of interest based on a calculated value [31]. The current release is MapInfo professional v.11.5. MapInfo Corporation acquired a revenue of $165.5 million in 2006 [32]. ArcGIS - ArcGIS is a complete system for designing and managing solutions through the application of geographic knowledge. It was created by ESRI, one of the leader companies operating in the geospatial market. ArcGIS platform comprises four tools known as ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS for Mobile, ArcGIS for server and ArcGIS online. Among all four software versions of ArcGIS, the Desktop version is the most interesting with respect to wired network planning. The key features of ArcGIS for Desktop platform are [33] Spatial analysis - density and distance calculation, advanced statistical analysis, overlay and proximity analysis, creation of sophisticated Geo processing models, representation and advanced surface analysis Data management - easily integration of all types of data for visualization and analysis as more than 70 data formats are supported Mapping and Visualization - high-quality maps generation without the hassles associated with complex design software, by using a large library of symbols, simple wizards and predened map templates, extensive suite of map elements and graphics, advanced drawing tools , animation features and a comprehensive set of professional cartographic tools Advanced editing - fast and easy data manipulation and usage of powerful editing tools for editing work-ow automation through coordinate geometry tools Geocoding - spatial display of geocoded address locations, pattern recognition Map projections - integration of datasets from disparate sources into a common framework, creation of professional and accurate quality maps Advanced imagery - usage of raster data as a base map for different data layers analysis or as part of the analysis Data sharing - interaction with ArcGIS Online through ArcMap interface by means of convenient importing of base maps, data or features search, information sharing with individuals or groups from a centralized location 48
Customization - easy customization of user interface by adding and removing buttons and menu items, docking toolbars within ArcGIS for Desktop, developing custom GIS desktop applications with ArcGIS engine The current release of ArcGIS for Desktop is version 10.1. Total revenue for ESRI company in 2011 was $794 million, recording an annual growth of 2.3% compared to 2010 [34]. Intergraph GeoMedia - Intergraph is the leading global provider of engineering and geospatial software that enables customers to visualize complex data. Businesses and governments in more than 60 countries rely on Intergraphs industry-specic software to organize vast amounts of data and infuse the world with intelligence to make processes and infrastructures better, safer, and smarter [35]. Among the different products offered by the company, GeoMedia poses the greatest interest. GeoMedia is a powerful GIS management package that enables the user to realize the maximum value of his/her geospatial resources, integrating them to present clear, actionable information. It provides simultaneous access to geospatial data in almost any form, uniting them in a single map view for efcient processing, capture and maintenance, analysis, presentation, and sharing. Some of its features are: Simple, straightforward data access - saving of valuable time by connecting directly to the already in use by the customer spatially-enabled databases, supporting all common geospatial le formats, most Computer Aided Design (CAD) formats, plain text le types and even Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) web services. User-centric design - easy-to-use and well-organized graphical user interface, specically designed to minimize mouse movement and button clicks so as to streamline users workow, increasing productivity and reducing cost. Tailor Geomedia to your requirements - applications functionality is adjusted to any individual customer or company through provision of different tool-suites to cover an individuals workow requirements and support specialized capabilities. Interesting extensions to GeoMedia software include the GeoMedia Webmap for easy creation, publication and analysis of Web-enabled maps and GeoMedia smart client for dynamically launching of GeoMedia through a most lightweight client interface. Very interesting add-on products to GeoMedia are GeoMedia 3D and GeoMedia Grid. GeoMedia 3D enables 3D map presentation for GeoMedia while GeoMedia Grid combines vector GIS with raster (grid) analysis tools, enabling the user to access, manipulate and analyze data in both vector and raster formats within GeoMedia. GeoMedia Grid would prove to be essentially useful for wireless network design purposes. All the above GIS companies are high share market companies. ESRI was in position 96 in the global top 100 software companies for year 2011 while Intergraph occupied the 69th position in the same list. Below, two companies of lower but notable market share will be presented. Cadcorp Desktop GIS - Cadcorp is a UK-based developer and supplier of world leading GIS and web mapping software. As a long-standing technical member of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), Cadcorp has been at the forefront of the application of open technologies and standardsbased solutions. Cadcorp has a network of distributors and Value Added Resellers (VARs) around the world. Cadcorp Spatial information System (SIS) is an integrated family of standalone, web, developer and mobile GIS products. These can be deployed as a suite or individually. Cadcorp is an Oracle Corporation partner, a Microsoft SQL Server Spatial partner, an Ordance Survey Licenced Developer partner and a corporate member of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) in the UK. Consistency and interoperability across the product range is ensured as all products are developed from common source code [36]. The Cadcorp SIS tool-suite for Desktop GIS includes: 49
SIS Map Reader - provides users of Cadcorp SIS with a powerful free GIS software solution to easily view, query and print map data published by Map Manager, Editor or Modeller. SIS Map Viewer - a low-cost solution for quickly and easily viewing, theming and printing over 160 GIS, CAD, graphic and database formats. SIS Map Manager - Cadcorps spatial data management solution; used for preparing, conguring and managing both spatial data and meta-data for the Web, desktop, and spatial database. SIS Map Editor - professional GIS software for the experienced user. Map Editor offers advanced GIS functionality such as CAD-style geometric construction and editing, tracing and topology management. SIS Map Modeler - Advanced GIS product for spatial analysis and modeling. It provides advanced users with a comprehensive set of creation, editing and modeling capabilities. These include 3D modeling, grid analysis, terrain modeling and image draping. The Cadcorp SIS tool-suite for web GIS and mapping includes: Map Browser - free OGC WMS and WFS viewer GeognoSIS - geospatial web services engine and web map server Web Map Layers - intelligent web mapping for the internet Web Map Express - low cost web map viewer Web Map Viewer & Editor - intranet GIS and web mapping GeognoSIS Express - low cost map server
Key features of these SIS GIS and web mapping products include: An ability to read and/or write over 160 data formats out-of-the-box without the effort of data translation and without additional cost The facility to access leading spatial databases (PostGIS, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle) directly without the need for expensive middle-ware A high level of interoperability ensured by compliance with OGC standards and specications A Services Oriented Architecture supporting industry standard development environments Managed growth ensured by proven and extensible scalability Manifold System - Manifold system is a powerful, full-featured and modern GIS package, developed by Manifold.net that runs on Microsoft windows. It is offered as a fully-integrated application at one low price. Manifod system provides three major classes of GIS functionality in a single package: as a desktop application, as an objects library for programmers and as an Internet Map Server for web applications. Personal edition delivers an enormous amount of functionality, much more than can be purchased for tens of thousands of dollars with some legacy GIS products. The next step up is the Professional edition, which adds Internet Map Server (IMS). The next step up from that is the Enterprise edition, which adds sophisticated spatial DBMS capability and features of special interest to organizations. Manifold provides so much built-in functionality that there are only three optional extensions: Business Tools, Geocoding Tools and Surface Tools. Indicative prices for the above editions vary from $245 - $325 for the Personal edition, $295 $375 for the Professional edition, $395 - $475 for the Enterprise edition and $795 - $845 for the Database Administration edition, which includes all features of Enterprise edition accompanied by additional database administration tools [37]. Manifold System appears to be a good solution for the price of the products it offers in the market, especially preferrable from small-size rms and individuals. 50
GRASS GIS - Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) is a free GIS software used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization. GRASS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies. GRASS is an ofcial project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. The core components of GRASS and the management of the integration efforts into GRASS releases were accomplished by the U.S. Army - Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (USA-CERL) in Champaign, Illinois. USA-CERL completed its last release of GRASS as version 4.1 in 1992, and provided ve updates and patches to this release through 1995. USA-CERL also wrote the core components of the GRASS 5.0 oating point version. Later on, GRASS development was taken over in academia in 1997 after a period of uncertainty. Since then the international GRASS Development Team manages the source code. GRASS supports raster, topological vector, point data and 3D raster voxel analysis, image processing, SQL-support, visualization and geostatistics. It contains over 350 programs and tools for maps and image rendering, raster, vector and data points manipulation, multi spectral image data processing, creation, management and storage of spatial data. GRASS current release is 6.4.2 [38]. MapInfo has been used as the GIS tool for the current project. The choice was not actually based on evaluation of the advantages of this software towards the presented ones but mostly on the fact that a free license was available from the Center for Network Planning (CNP) and it is the one used by engineers within this section for ber optic planning project purposes.
5.3.2
Programming languages
Apart from the developed software toolboxes, popular programming languages can offer solutions in the technical modeling of a wired or wireless network project. It lies in the network designers exibility, preference and already acquired knowledge which of the below programming solutions suits best his/her needs. Matlab - Matlab is one of the most well-known 4th generation programming languages, which tends to be a valuable tool for most engineers nowadays. Although it is not so much suitable for running various algorithms related to graph analysis, as it needs the user to program from scratch in extended lines of code even basic graph search algorithms such as Kruskal or Dijkstra, it can be utilized efciently in the GIS data normalization process, which is presented later on in section 5.5 on page 57. Nevertheless, a conversant and higly experienced Matlab programmer can handle the whole modeling of a ber optics network based only on this programming language, putting however much effort on his way to the nal result. Even when a graphical representation of the given GIS data on Matlab plots is needed, extended code has to be built to produce the required gure. Consequently, in most cases the programmer will combine Matlab with another programming language or software platform to achieve the nal goal. Beyond all these, Matlab is a quite expensive commercial product, offered in terms of trading licenses by Mathworks. Python - Python, on the other hand, is an open-source general purpose interpreted programming language, which possesses the advantage of owning a quite large and comprehensive library. Networkx python library was built specically for networking and graph analysis. The user of this library will save valuable time while programming the ber network structure on the physical layer, as a huge variety of graph algorithms is offered through one-line code functions. The accurate setting of parameters that have to be given as input and output variables inside every function statement, is the programmers sole duty. Moreover, matplotlib library for python, which is a collection of command style functions that provide a matlab-like plotting framework, enables 51
the user to create the whole mapping of the research area based on the given GIS data and, further on, plot on this map any topology he desires, mark specic nodes and present graphically the nal shape of the wired network model he designed. Figure 3.9 on page 27 is an example of a proposed ber network representation built in matplotlib.pyplot.
PHP - PHP is an open-source general purpose server-side scripting language which particularly looks like python with respect to database connectivity. It doesnt retain a graph library as python does, however it is still a good alternative option for the programing part of the network modeling process. In the CNP at Aalborg University, Department of Electronics, python and php are mostly used in network planning projects.
5.4
Algorithms
Calculation of the total amount of bers used (network dimensioning) as well as total distance of digging are complex and time-consuming tasks that require the application of appropriate graph algorithms for automizing the modeling process. Some are already existing and commonly used algorithms and some others are invented by network designers over the optimization process so as to t well to the needs of the respective network scenario.
5.4.1
Minimum Spanning Tree
Shortest path algorithms can carry out robustly the challenges set at the current research part. Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) is one of the most popular algorithms used to minimize the distance from each MN to every corresponding NT in the specic area coverage. More specically, MST is exploited to calculate the total amount of laying ducts which results in the calculation of the total digging cost. The idea that lies behind MST algorithm is to create a subgraph in the form of a tree, starting from the root of the initial weighted graph and interconnecting all the least-weighted edges, avoiding the creation of a loop. What we achieve in the end is a spanning tree with the least weight among all the possible spanning trees in the graph. In fact, MST run lies either on Kruskal or Prim algorithms. Figure 5.2 on the facing page presents an example of MST creation step-by-step, based on Kruskals algorithm principle.
52
Figure 5.2: Minimum spanning tree discovery in undirected graph In the above graph, the red color edges highlight the step-by-step adding of an edge into the MST while the green ones highlight the creation of a loop if these edges are added into the nal graph. The black nodes refer to terminals and the white ones refer to non-terminal nodes. In other words, the black nodes denote the SPs connected to at least one NT in a ber access network while the white ones denote SPs not connected to any NT but due to the fact that cannot be normalized, as it is explained more analytically in section 5.5 on page 57, they remain part of the digital road map. The total length of the edges returned by MST algorithm is 27, as one can easily calculate by adding the weights of the remaining edges seen in the last step of the algorithms run in gure 5.2.
5.4.2
Steiner Tree
When the network designer plans to deploy a network infrastructure in a new area, the basic Optical Distribution Network (ODN) architecture including the locations of optical splitters and the routes of optical ber cable that connect every splitter to the CO must be determined based on the forecasted demand prior to starting the services.The network designer must also consider that the installation construction cost of optical ber cables is higher than the cost of the cable itself per unit length. In view of these restrictions, the network designer has to design a basic ODN plant whose total cable deployment construction length is as short as possible. Once the locations of all optical splitters are determined, the optical ber cable network that connects every splitter to the CO should be designed. An optimal network in terms of total optical ber length can be designed by using a shortest path search algorithm, such as Dijkstra shortest-path algorithm, as shown in gures 5.5 on page 56 and 5.6 on page 56 or MST algorithm, as shown in gure 5.2. However, the construction cost for installing optical ber cable per unit length is several times higher than the cable cost while it is almost independent on the total number of deployed cables. Therefore, in order to design a network that takes the construction costs into account, the ODN planning algorithm should contrive an optical ber cable network that connects every splitter to the CO with the sum of the cable 53
deployment construction length as short as possible, as schematically illustrated in gure 5.3 and in table 5.1.
Figure 5.3: Optimum ODN architecture in terms of Total ber length, Total construction length
ODN1 ODN2
Total Fiber Length Total Construction Length 2 L1 2 L1 (2 L2 ) + (2 L3 ) L2 + (2 L3 ) Table 5.1: Comparison of PON ODN architectures
This type of problem can be treated as a SMT problem in graph theory. Let G = (V, E, w) be an undirected graph with non-negative edge values. Given a set L V of terminals, an SMT is the tree T G of minimum total edge weight such that T includes all vertices in L [39]. The pseudo code of the algorithm is presented below: 1. Construct the metric closure GL on the terminal set L. 2. Find an MST TL on GL . 3. T . 4. for each edge e = (u, v ) E (TL ) do Find a shortest path P from u to v on G if P contains less than 2 vertices in T then Add P to T ; else Let pi and pj be the rst and the last vertices already in T ; Add subpaths from u to pi and from pj to v to T. 5. Output T. Essentially, what the algorithm does is to replace every vertice in subgraph TL returned by the MST with the corresponding shortest path at step 4. But if two vertices already exist in the tree, adding the path will result to a cycle creation. In this case, only the subpaths from the terminals to the vertices already in the tree are inserted. Figure 5.4 on the facing page presents the algorithm, following the previously mentioned steps. 54
Figure 5.4: Steiner Minimal Tree discovery in undirected graph
The graph used in gure 5.4 is exactly the same as the one used to apply MST algorithm in the previous section. The meaning of the black and white nodes in the graph remain the same as before. The only important difference that occurs is that the total length of the edges when applying SMT algorithm has been reduced from 27 to 17, as can be easily calculated by adding all the edges of the nal graph in gure 5.4. Of course, the edge weights used in the graph were randomly picked, but a difference of 10 units is regarded quite big when comparing the output of the two algorithms. Generally, the SMT algorithm returns minimized spanning trees of less total length than MST does. Consequently, SMT proves to be an optimal graph algorithm for minimizing the total trenching length.
5.4.3
Shortest path algorithms
Well known shortest path algorithms for calculating the total amount of bers used to build the network are Dijkstra (see gures 5.5 on the next page and 5.6 on the following page) and Astar. These algorithms perform better than MST or Steiner tree, with respect to the length of bers placed in the trenches, but worse in calculating the total digging length. Dijkstra as well as A algorithm solve a single-source shortest-path problem for a graph with non-negative edge path costs. The result is the discovery of the 55
shortest path tree in the graph. The algorithm works as follows: The starting node or root is picked randomly based on which is the most suitable in any different case. Every smallest weight edge that connects every node with the root is marked and the edges weights are assigned to these nodes, which at the beginning of the run are all set to innity. Iteratively, all the nodes are assigned the least weight by summing all the different combinations of paths from the root to them. In the end, the least weight values or distances from all possible paths starting from the root will be assigned to every node of the graph.
Figure 5.5: Directed non-negative weighted graph
Figure 5.6: Shortest-path discovery using Dijkstra algorithm
Dijkstra algorithm is a particular case of A algorithm. A is a greedy graph traversal and path nding algorithm which lies on the principle of breadth rst search algorithms. It uses a distance-cost heuristic function f (x) which is the sum of the following functions: the path-cost function g (x), which is the cost of the root node to every intermediate node x during the graph traversal process an admissible heuristic estimate function h(x) of the distance (cost) from every intermediate node x to the target node In practice, A algorithm uses two algorithms to balance each other: Favoring paths closest to the root node, which is equivalent to Dijkstra shortest path algorithm Favoring paths closest to the target node, which is equivalent to Best Fit Search algorithm This is what makes up the elements of the function f (x) = g (x) + h(x). Therefore, if h = 0 then f (x) = g (x), which is Dijkstraa shortest path algorithm. If, on the other hand, h grows arbitrarily large then g essentially gets ignored due to scale and the function results in f (x) = g (x), which is actually the Best Fit Search algorithm. So, by having a heuristic component in the function f that is admissible and at the same scale as the path cost, it offers A algorithm the power to balance out both functions g and h and achieve a fast shortest path algorithm. Concerning the differences between the two algorithms, A is much faster than Dijkstra and is applicable in both directed and undirected graph analysis.
56
The already presented shortest path algorithms for graph analysis are just a reference point and not the only ones existing. They were analyzed a bit further as they are most commonly applied, than BellmanFord, Floyd-Warshall and Johnsons algorithms. Moreover A algorithm was used in the technical part of this project.
5.4.4
Restrictions
On top of all potentially selected planning algorithms that ts best a particular area and population distribution on it, various restrictions exist that prove how much a theoretical analysis and presentation of them differs from a real case implementation. Such restrictions inuence heavily the design part of the ber optics network on the physical layer and are summarized as follows:
Existing infrastructure, either wired or wireless, consisting of nodes needed to be connected to the new network.
Population density in different regions in the same city or country as the chance of following a uniform distribution is very small. This will affect the type of equipment chosen to cover optimally the biggest part of the area. For example, in case a PON topology on the access layer is chosen what type of optical splitters are going to be utilized(1x16, 1x32 or even 1x64 in some cases) and where?
The geographic extent in km2 that a region occupies. This is a very important design factor as specic limits preexist and must be met:
Distance between an MN and an NT should normally not exceed 20 km Distance between a NT and an optical splitter should be practically not much higher than 2 km
5.5
Planning Method
In the last section, an automated network planning method is presented. Most of the aspects analyzed in this chapter are merged into this stepwise procedure for structuring the network modeling process in a more efcient way. Dividing the whole network planning into smaller steps and different implementation stages can prove to be an efcient scheduler and a concrete guide for a network engineer throughout the network modeling process. 57
Figure 5.7: General wired planning method structure
58
Figure 5.7 on the preceding page presents a structure of a wired network planning method that can be more or less strictly followed in real case network planning projects. It consists of three basic phases: Data preparation - Data preparation is the initial phase of the planning method. It includes gathering of GIS data for traces and node locations placed on the specic geographical area, storing all these data in a database so as to enable easier manipulation of them and reducing data dimensionality by normalizing them. Planning algorithms - The second phase includes the selection of preferable planning tools and platforms, application of different graph algorithms, performance measurement of the designed network and optimization of the nal network structure to achieve lower total planning cost and at the same time fulll the predened requirements. Documentation presentation - The last phase of the planning method is limited in documenting the acquired results and providing a mapping representation of the nal form of the proposed network. All phases of the proposed planning method consist of smaller steps to carry out the whole process in a sequential manner. Most of these steps have been presented in more details in previous sections of this chapter; GIS data handling in sections 5.1 on page 45 and 5.2 on page 47, network modeling tools and simulation platforms in section 5.3 on page 47, and several graph algorithms in section 5.4 on page 52. The only step that has not been presented so thorougly yet is the data normalisation process. This very important technical part of the network modeling process will be presented thoroughly in chapter 8 on page 70.
59
Chapter
Lolland municipality
Before moving on to the Technical part of the project, an extended reference should be made to the area where the ber access network will be deployed. Important facts that have to be analyzed before proposing a specic network topology in an area include: Geographical location Area demographics Characterization of the area as urban or rural Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the areas population Estimations on population rise in the next 10-20 years Existing infrastructure
6.1
Information about Lolland
Municipality of Lolland in Denmark has been chosen as the test case for the proposed access network. Lolland is the fourth largest island in Denmark, covering an area of 1.243 km2 . The population of the whole island, based on 2009 demographics, is 65.764 inhabitants. The whole region is administered by two separate municipalities: Lolland municipality, which covers central and western Lolland and the small islands in Smalandwaters and Nakskov Fjord Municipality of Guldborgsund, which covers the rest eastern part of the island and lies next to the Falster island It must be claried here that the area picked for the network deployment is not the whole island but only the municipality of Lolland. The municipality of Lolland was created in 2007 by merging the municipalities of Holeby, Hjreby, Maribo, Nakskov, Ravnsborg, Rudbjerg, and Rdby. The total area coverage amounts for 892 km2 , almost 2/3 of the whole mainland. Its population reaches 45.036 60
CHAPTER 6. LOLLAND MUNICIPALITY
inhabitants based on the latest statistical data for the 1st quarter of 2012, obtained from Danmarks Statistik [40].
Figure 6.1: Lolland municipality
Lolland municipality is characterized mostly as rural rather than urbanized area. This can be easily extracted also by the population density which is almost 55 people/km2 . The biggest cities are Nakskov with 15.500 residents and Maribo with 6.000 residents. Due to its milder climate compared to the rest of Denmark mainland, the biggest amount of people are occupied in the agriculture sector. Great interest has been shown the latest years on renewable forms of energy. Apart from the wind power which is vastly exploited in the whole country, solar energy is produced in large scales and experiments are carry out with wave power, bio-mas and hydrogen technology. Moreover, 75% of domestic energy needs for heating comes from renewable resources. This great interest of the municipality on renewable types of energy has emerged Lolland to one of Denmarks leading municipalities in renewable energy implementation and climate adaptation. Therefore, more and more energy companies as well as university researchers will show increasing interest on this eld accompanied by a possible physical relocation at the surrounding region. This fact, urges the need of a survey on a broadband network infrastructure in the area which can be implemented in the near future when the local business and individual needs of a high speed stable wired network will rise. This need can be met with the design of an optical ber access network. 61
6.2
Statistical information
Quantitative measurements of an areas population are very important factors for motivating an ISP company to deploy a ber access network in an area by justifying the need and the payback potential of such a ber network infrastructure investment in the near future. They can be related to peoples age distribution, number of households, employment rate, etc, and should be based not only on present numbers but mostly on future forecast of these numbers that can be extracted from statistic surveys. Table 6.2 shows how the population is spread over a ten age categories with respect to gender. The graphical representation of it can be seen on gure 6.3. This statistic indicates that half of the population in this region is less then 50 years old, which indicates that potentially they will have high speed connection demands, which means that deployment of a ber optical network in this region will be feasible.
Figure 6.2: Table representation of Lolland population by age
Figure 6.3: Graphical representation of Lolland population by age 62
Figure 6.4: Table representation of population projections
Table 6.4 shows the population projection of Lolland over the next 38 years, with respect to the gender and the 10-age categories. The numbers in the table indicate that the population in the region will decrease in the following years and in 2040 the total number of population will be approximately 8000 people less than it is now. The graphical representation of this table can be seen in 6.5, which gives better overview on the population degradation.
Figure 6.5: Graphical represetntation of population projections 63
Table 6.6 shows the different type of buildings that exist in the area, from farm houses or single family houses to factories in the region with respect to the their size. This statistical data also plays very important role on the planning stage of the future network, due to the fact that the end-user could be a one-family house or a whole factory, which will affect the demands on the average access rates. The graphical representation of this table can be seen on graph 6.7. The most households that exist in the area are between 100 - 199 square meters and in general the one family houses and farms are the ones that dominate and are most often seen in this region. The total number of households in the Lolland area on 1st of January 2012 is 22 933, based on the data obtained from Danmarks Statistik [40]. The total amount of households is decreasing over time with comparison, on 1st of January 2010 the total amount of houses was 23 473.
Figure 6.6: Table representation of buildings by use and area
Figure 6.7: Graphical representation of buildings by use and area
Figure 6.8 on the next page gives information regarding the percentage of employment throughout the population of Lolland, separated into a ten-age categories group with respect to the employment rate and the economic activity between the genders in this area. As it can be seen the average percentage of employment for people between 20 and 60 years old is around 70%. Which means that big part of the population are currently and everyday using Internet trough the already established network in the region. This leads to the fact that many of them will benet (in terms of time saving, energy consumption, etc.) from a new high speed network connection, which can be provided to them by a FTTx network. 64
Figure 6.8: Employment rates Based on the statistical data and information about the region, a conclusion can be made. 50% of the people are less than fty years old and more than 70% of the people in this region based on the current statistical data are working in some business, economy, agriculture, sport, cultural, media, etc. sector meaning that their need, life and work is somehow wrapped around the network infrastructure. Statistics reveal a population decrease over the next 30 years time interval together with a decrease in the building infrastructure from the last year until today. This fact can be regarded as a prohibitive factor against the investment in a FTTx network in the area. However, the deployment of a broadband ber access network in Lolland may result in altering such ominous predictions. Providing people with a high-speed stable Internet connection may have a positive impact on the willingness of people to remain in the region as well as increasing the number of people buying properties in it. Moreover, the fact that Lolland is suitable for many companies mainly operating on the sustainable energy sector may lead to an increase in the alien population over time and by using a FTTx network, demands and requirements for high-speed connectivity could be fullled. Finally, it must be stated that Lolland appears as a preferable location for a ber network investment as it is considered a rural area, with the majority of the population spread all over this region and not concentrated only in bigger cities. In that way, the potential penetration of ber optics technology would turn to be high, as it is at the moment the only way of achieving a high-speed stable Internet connection over long distances, especially for people far away from the city centers. Also, existing alternate forms of Internet services provision in the area, such as wireless technology (3G or 4G) or VDSL connectivity, which outperforms over long distances, ber optics solution could turn to be quite protable investment in the area, following the appropriate business plan.
65
Part II
Design and Implementation
66
Chapter
Introduction
In this technical part of the project, some of the tools, algorithms and methods discussed in the chapters of the pre-analysis part will be presented. The target has been set to design a PON and PtP ber access network in Lolland municipality and in the end, compare the algorithms used in this area in terms of total deployment cost and ber cost. Different application softwares like Matlab, python, excel spreadsheets, postgreSQL and MapInfo were the tools used throughout this phase to implement the design algorithms. The ber access network was built from scratch using the GIS model. The GIS models in general describe the real world features of interest by dening their geographical location and essential attributes. GIS models for access network planning projects typically include geographically referenced GIS data for: Potential customers Road network, as trenching layout mainly follows existing infrastructure layout Other spatial entities can and should be dened to include important real world features as suitable for a given network planning project. The GIS model consists of three main conceptual elements:
CUSTOMERS: Spatial entities modeling the potential customers are stored in the Lolland NT text le. Network terminations naturally correspond to potential costumers location, as the overall goal is to provide connectivity to every potential costumer. The attributes included in the NT table are 1 : NT id: Every NTs unique id. KommuneNR: The id of the commune (360 for Lolland commune) Kommunenavn: The name of the commune, which is obviously Lolland for the whole dataset vejkode: The unique street code every NT is located (integer value)
down-stated name bullets were denoted by the owners of the le and the notion has been kept with regards to small and large capitals and special characters
1 The
67
vejkode tekst: The unique street code every NT is located (string value) vejnavn: The unique street name every NT is located to husnr bogs: Identication code for every NT, for example 1A, 9B, etc., to identify neighboring houses or ats being part of the same building husnr: The number of every NT without separating between different apartments or apartments being part of the same building, for example, 1, 9, etc. (integer) husnummer tekst: The number of every NT without separating between different apartments or apartments being part of the same building, for example, 1, 9, etc. (string) Bogstav: Part of the code describing an NT without the number in front, for example A, B, etc. NTs that are described only by a number code keep this entry empty Bogstav ny: Part of the code describing an NT without the number in front, for example A, B, etc. NTs that are described only by a number code have a dash ( - ) as an entry in the table adresse: The unique address every NT belongs to Postnr: A unique four-digit post number separating street addresses belonging in different cities or towns in the municipality but holding the same street name Postdistrikt: The name of the city , town or village every NT belongs to X koordinata: The x-coordinate of every NT Y koordinata: The y-coordinate of every NT ROAD NETWORK: Typically, the existing road network is the one which is followed for trenching the infrastructure to serve the end users (NTs). The spatial entities of the road network are stored in Segment Lolland s text le 2 : The attributes included in the SP table are: s id: Every segments unique id. SP id1: The id of the SP on the one edge of the segment. SP id2: The id of the SP on the other edge of the segment. SP x1: The x-coordinate of SP1. SP y1: The y-coordinate of SP1. SP x2: The x-coordinate of SP2. SP y2: The y-coordinate of SP2. length: The length of every segment. mid id: Middle Point ID. komnr: Lollands community number equal to 360 in all entries of the table vejkode: The code of the street every segment is belonging to vejnavn: The name of the street every segment is belonging to. It happens that street names are reused in different towns, cities or villages in the municipality but they are assigned a different vejkode to easily separate between them.
2 The down-stated name bullets were denoted by the owners of the le and the notion has been kept with regards to small and large capitals and special characters
68
CENTRAL OFFICES: Spatial entities modeling the Central Ofces are stored in the MN table. MNs, as the top hierarchical network node, naturally represent COs for access network planning. Note: The basic GIS model initially does not include any MN entities as the CO geographic location and quantity is part of the network planning optimization. Lolland MN text le contains all information regarding the MNs in Lolland 3 : MN id: Every COs unique id. MN x: The x-coordinate of MN. MN y: The y-coordinate of MN. The overall goal of this access network planning project is to provide a full ber optics connectivity to every NT in the Lolland area. The main access planning objectives of this project are:
Digging - Denes the exact geographical trench layout and provides precise trench length planning parameters. Cable - Denes the exact geographical cable layout and provides precise cable length planning parameters. CO - Denes the geographical location of MNs and their quantity. Splitter distribution - Denes the geographical location of splitters in Lolland area (for the PON network).
NOTE: Throughout the design part the following notion will be used: The COs will be denoted as - stars ( ) The SPs will be denoted as - circles () The splitters will be denoted as - squares ( ) The NTs will be denoted as - x-es (x) The colors of the denoted symbols for the CO, SPs, splitters and NTs will vary depending in which of the 14 regions they are located into. The 14 regions and their appertain colors are:
Figure 7.1: Color notation for each CO

3 The down-stated name bullets were denoted by the owners of the le and the notion has been kept with regards to small and large capitals and special characters
69
Chapter
Data preparation
In this chapter the discussion will fall on the data preparation (or data preprocessing) performed by manipulation of the given data into a more suitable form for further analysis and processing. The data preparation phase has an important target set: Normalization of the trace network. Before illustrating the normalization part of this phase and reasoning why it is so important process for the design part of the network, we will present all the intermediate steps of the data preparation phase, as shown in gure 8.1 on the facing page Data preparation phase starts with initializing the whole planning process. The supported le format of the presented data (which was in text les) is not suitable and convenient to work with. In order to have an easy access and to be able to manipulate the given information some modications have been made. The original data was saved into spreadsheets. The software that was used to store these spreadsheets was Libre ofce and the le format of the new les was changed from *.txt to *.xls. By having the data stored into *.xls le format we were able to execute a python script. The main and only purpose of this script was to fetch row by row all the data stored into these spreadsheets and import them into a postgreSQL database tables, denoted with the same name as the original *.txt les: Lolland s (see 3 on page 116) and Lolland nt (see 2 on page 115). The main advantages of using a database and in our case postgreSQL are: The location of the database was set on the university servers, which provided the members of this project with fast and easy access to the data from anywhere at any time Suitable and user friendly interface to work with - of course the terminal access to the database is also simple but it is time consuming, which will eventually affect in terms of time delay the productivity and the performance of the group itself Especially useful for making multiply queries to different tables at the same time and fetching the desired search results almost instantly (which is a bit relevant and depends on the amount of data and the tables that are in use) Simplicity Note: On the way of working with the database we encountered with some issues based on unknown nature. This issues caused a huge time delay and re-checking the whole procedure from the top. The 70
CHAPTER 8. DATA PREPARATION
reason for these problems was not dene nor found. From which we concluded that using this specic database is not trustworthy and not reliable at all, especially when it has to be used for a huge amount of data, where the output results cannot be completely checked. The reason for choosing this database was based on the lack of options of any other databases provided by the university. Once the data was imported to the database the rst step of the planning network structure and more precisely the data preparation was triggered as it can be seen in gure 8.1.
Figure 8.1: Data Preparation
71
Having already available GIS coordinates and information for all the NTs, SPs and segments in the area, as described previously in chapter 7 on page 67, we must isolate the most important attributes for our planning process and nd a way to link the two tables based on these attributes. Initially, the two tables did not share a common attribute for linking NT information with SP information. Such an attribute would be to connect every NT in the area with the closest SP. Using the Euclidean distance algorithm in python, that was the rst thing that has been implemented. Assigning the closest SP id to all 29 175 NTs in the Lolland nt table (see 2 on page 115), one way to link the two tables has been discovered. Next, the degree of every SP has been calculated in Matlab and stored in an altered version of Lolland s table (see 2 on page 115), named Lolland seg deg (see 3 on page 116) table, as deg1 for every SP1 and deg2 for every SP2. Degree refers to the number of segments connected to every one of the, initially, 49 545 unique SPs. Knowing already the degree of every SP as well as which SPs are connected to at least one NT, we were ready to apply the normalization of the data. Normalization of given data points, or more accurately SPs, refers to the minimization of the initial networks dimensionality before applying graph algorithms to achieve the desired network topological structure. Initially, Lolland s (see 3 on page 116) table consisted 50 322 rows. After normalizing the data, this number dropped to 16 950 rows. Almost, 2/3 of the initially given data has been deleted which led to large drop in the computation time when applying several graph algorithms which used as input those data, after fetching them from the database. But which data was actually normalized? Every row of Lolland seg deg (see 3 on page 116) table holds the degree of every SP in the digital road map, as was presented in the previous paragraph. All SPs of degree 1 or 2 that are not connected to any NT can be deleted from the database and replaced by longer distance segments with length equal to the sum of the lengths of every consecutive segment that has been formerly deleted. Figure 8.2 on the facing page shows an example of a small part of an optical ber network. Several SPs of different degree value are connected with each other and houses. The three dots sign in the gure depict the expansion of the network beyond this region. In gure 8.3 on the next page, SPs B, D, E and I as well as all consecutive segments linking them are marked. All these segments and SPs should be deleted from the segment table. Figure 8.4 on the facing page presents the optical network after the completion of the normalization process. Segment AC replaced segments AB and BC and a new lengthAC = 14m was assigned to it, derived from the summation of lengthAB = 8m and lengthBC = 8m = 6m. Following the same principle, segment CF of lengthCF = 20m and FJ of lengthF J = 15m were created. Normalization of segments was implemented in Matlab. All the needed tables were stored in *.xls le format and imported in Matlab workspace. The normalization process was achieved in two phases. Firstly, all SPs of degree 2 without NTs connected to them have been deleted; then, all the SPs of degree 1 without NTs connected to them followed. A new table named Lolland normalise nal edition (see 5 on page 118) has been created and uploaded in the postgreSQL database. Also, all the unique SPs in this table have been stored in table Lolland sp id distinct (see 6 on page 119), together with the x and y coordinates of the SPs, their degree and the number of the houses connected to them. These tables have been the source of fetching all the data needed to run several algorithms used and plot the road map, the SPs and the NTs in python, after making the appropriate queries to the database.
72
Figure 8.2: Part of an optical ber network
Figure 8.3: Deleting SPs of degree 2 and all the segments interconnecting them
Figure 8.4: Normalized network
73
Chapter
Planning Algorithms
In many cases, an optical network designer has to design the optical ber network under many restrictions such as the locations of COs where OLTs are installedand the paths where the optical ber cable could be placed. In this section, we propose different network planning algorithms for solving this issues. Once the data has been normalized the algorithm planning procedure has been triggered, following the intermediate steps in the owchart 9.1
Figure 9.1: Planing algorithms and documentation presentation 74
CHAPTER 9. PLANNING ALGORITHMS
The proposed algorithms use graph related algorithms as key elemental techniques. These techniques are: A algorithm - Shortest path algorithm used for minimizing the total ber length SMT - Spanning tree algorithm used for minimizing the total digging length K-means algorithm - Graph Clustering algorithm used for clustering certain amount of NTs to a particular splitter
Figure 9.2: Lollands NT density
As it was mentioned in the design and implementation introduction part on chapter 7, one of the main objectives of this project is to nd the location of the COs. There are many different approaches to do so. We have considered three approaches here and implemented the selection and location of COs using the last one. 75
Figure 9.3: Neighboring squares
76
The rst approach was to split the whole area into xed size squares and then based on the density of the NTs, to place the COs inside each square. The problem with this method was that the nodes that are close to the borders of each square are connected with the CO in that square, even tough the neighboring CO is closer. The graphical representation of this method can be seen on 9.3 on the facing page. The gure shows that the distance from a node to the CO is 1 km but if this node was connected to the CO in the neighboring square the distance would be 200 m, which means that the initial assignment of the node was not wrong but it will affect the total ber length, in terms of increasing it.
The second approach that was implemented (which is a better optimized version of the rst approach) in order to nd the most appropriate position of the COs, was to split the whole area again into xed size sub areas. This time the splitting was done dynamically in order to nd the most appropriate position of every CO inside each area. The restriction that has to be satised is that the number of NTs that each CO can serve cannot exceed 1024 [23]. In the algorithms rst iteration, the total area was split into two subgraphs. Because it did not meet the predened constrain, both subareas were gradually split into smaller subgraphs. In every iteration, the number of nodes placed inside every subgraph must satisfy the maximum number of NTs threshold. If this condition is not satised in one of the subgraphs, this subgraph is further split into smaller subgraphs until the threshold requirement is met. At this point, the algorithm center of mass was implemented to nd the proper placement of the COs inside every new formed subgraph. Due to the fact that NTs are not uniformly distributed in the area, it was decided that this approach will not be the appropriate one. The reason is that the area is mainly a rural one. Graph 9.2 on page 75 shows that there are some areas which have high density of NTs and there are many areas in which the density is low. This condition will lead to using a higher number of COs in the dense areas and smaller number of COs in the sparse areas, which eventually might increase the amount of the used ber cable and also the total digging length. If we decrease the number of NTs connected to the COs, the total amount of COs will be increased. This in turn will increase the equipment cost and the number of buildings that has to be allocated for the COs but there might be some reduction in the total ber length and the total digging length. If the NTs in a CO are increased there will be some reduction in the number of COs and used equipment in each of them but again we can not be sure that it is the best option, due to the already mentioned trade-offs.
The third approach used in selecting the position of the COs was picking them manually, only by looking at the map and taking into account the density of NTs and the distance constrains between the main elements. Based on these conditions, we decided to place 14 COs into the area.
Figure 9.4 on the following page shows the graphical representation of the area and the placement of the COs. The following table 9.1 on the next page shows the number of SPs and the number of NTs that are connected to each CO. The number of NTs varies a lot, due to the fact that the placement of the COs was made by hand and the density of the area.
77
Figure 9.4: Lolland area with the corresponding manually placed COs
SPs NTs
CO1 CO2 CO3 CO4 CO5 CO6 CO7 CO8 CO9 CO10 CO11 CO12 CO13 CO14 1220 895 686 1190 2642 945 1665 1005 918 742 1317 596 1533 816 1630 1084 739 1663 6962 1379 3890 1605 1428 820 2003 1197 3618 1157 Table 9.1: Number of NTs and SPs connected to each CO
After selecting the position of the COs, the next step was to calculate which SPs were the closest to which COs. This calculation was accomplished by the Astar algorithm. Using straight lines between two SPs and not the road network carries the risk of misplacing a SP into a wrong coverage region. Figure 9.5 on the facing page presents a simple example of wrong allocation of a SP into an invalid region in case euclidean distance algorithm is used instead of A . The black line represents segments that belong to the road network, while the red line is an euclidean distance line added to directly connect the SP with CO1. Using euclidean distance, the total length from SP to CO1 will be 7 m and the length from SP to CO2 will be 8 m. Consequently, SP will be allocated to CO1 coverage region. However, this is not correct as the actual distance separating SP from CO1 is (3 + 5 + 4 + 1) = 13 m, which is bigger 78
than 8 m and therefore, SP must be served from CO2. However, this resulted in increased computation time from running A algorithm between every one of the totally 16 170 SPs to each one of the 14 COs and executing sequential comparisons until the shortest distance was returned.
Figure 9.5: Astar algorithm vs Euclidean Distance algorithm in allocating SPs to the nearest CO
The main problem that occurred while applying the Astar algorithm was that there were some islands located close by to the shore in the west and east part of Lolland. The script was fetching data from Lolland s (see 3 on page 116) and Lolland co (see 7 on page 120) tables and when it reached a certain point it did not found and path between the main land nodes and the island nodes as it can be seen on gure 9.6, which resulted in error in the code. In order to x this issue each of these island were located and a path was created into the initial table connecting the island points to the main land nodes as it was showed in the data preparation owchart 8.1 on page 71. That is the reason why it was put into a box with a dash line, because is not a part of the data preparation phase but it was found by applying the A* algorithm to the total amount of NTs in the area, which also led to adding two more additional rows into the Lolland norm nal Edition table (see 5 on page 118), which led to increasing the total number of rows from 16 950 to 16 952. In this few cases an undersea cable or wireless antenna can be used in order to connect these nodes and in this case the number of COs will be reduced, because we do not have to place another one on the island, which will have minimum capacity due to the small size of these islands and the inhabitants will not be discarded from the access network. At the end the script returned which SPs was closely located to which CO. Then we moved the COs to the closest SP location, due to simplicity reasons.
Figure 9.6: Lolland area and the corresponding islands located into the marked red boxes 79
9.1
Point to Point architecture
After dividing Lolland municipality in 14 regions as it can be seen on gure 9.4 on page 78 and assigning the closest SPs to every one of the 14 manually placed COs, the next step was to experiment with different graph algorithms aiming to minimize the total digging cost as well as the total ber length used to provide access to all the 29 175 NTs in the area. Python was used for programming the algorithms. Also, Excel spreadsheets were created to store several tables. The fact that appropriate tables were created, storing all relevant GIS information of all points of interest in the area, such as which SPs are connected to which NTs, the number of NTs every SP is connected to, which SPs are connected to every CO, what is the number of NTs in every CO coverage area, etc. helped in maintaining a full mapping of the area with all the basic elements needed in order to proceed successfully with the algorithms. Moreover, based on these tables we were capable of visualizing the obtained results in every separate region, by plotting them both in Mapinfo and matplot library in python. For further details regarding information stored in the tables created, see Appendix. The rst target set in a broadband ber access network, especially from an ISP point of view, is the minimization of the networks total deployment cost. This cost derives from summing up the trenching cost and the total ber length needed to connect all the end users to the network. Also, this cost includes passive and active equipment installed to route the trafc through the ber cables, maintenance cost of the network, purchase cost of buying or renting the premises where the equipment will be placed, etc. However, a comprehensive cost analysis of the network is not within the scope of this report and that is why the interest is shown in the two rst cost cases, which acquire the biggest share in the total network installation expenses. The nature of the area (urban, suburban, rural) where the network is designed affects signicantly each individual cost, making the application of, basically, two types of graph algorithms essential for comparing the partly total lengths and picking the best possible solution for every different scenario. These algorithms belong to two big categories: spanning tree algorithms and shortest path algorithms. For the PtP connection between every CO to every SP, SMT has been chosen as the spanning tree approach and A as the shortest path algorithm. SMT has been chosen as it is proved to be the best algorithm for minimizing the trenching cost and A as the shortest path algorithm for minimizing the total ber length deployed. SMT algorithm has been built from scratch in python, following the basic pseudo code steps presented in 5.4.2 on page 53. A algorithm has not been implemented but, instead, used as a function already built in networkx, a very useful pythons library for making and running graphs. A has been picked among other shortest path implementations in this library, such as Dijkstra, as it was tested and proved to be computationally faster than the rest, especially when a graphs dimension is quite large. The rst algorithm that was applied in Lolland area was SMT. We picked as our rst testing case the region where CO12 is located and provides ber coverage, as it is the area with the least amount of SPs (596). Knowing all the SP ids in this area as well as which of them where connected to NTs, we divided them into 541 terminal nodes (connected to end users) and 55 nonterminal nodes (not connected to end users). As we are interested to provide full access and, consequently, dig until the terminal nodes, we created the fully connected graph of all the terminal nodes and assigned a new weight in every edge of the fully connected graph. This weight is the shortest path length connecting every pair of terminal nodes in the initial graph and we calculated it by using the function nx.astar path length(graph, source, target) from networkx library, where graph is the initial graph, source is every starting node in the fully connected graph and target is every sink node from all the possible edge combinations. Then, MST was applied in the fully connected graph. This time, we used the function nx.minimum spanning edges(graph) from networkx, where graph now is the fully connected graph we created in the previous step, and stored 80
in a list all the edges that form the MST. The last step was to create the nal spanning tree which adjusts to the initial graph, as some of the edges of the MST found in the previous step were not present in the initial graph. In order to deal with this, we have to choose among three different cases: Edge of the MST is present in the initial graph and has the same length (see gure 5.4 on page 55, step (c) - edge (v2,v5)) - Such edges were directly appended into a list called steiner list Edge of the MST is present in the initial graph but its length in the MST graph has a smaller value than in the initial graph (see gure 5.4 on page 55, step (c) - edge (v1,v2)) - Such edges were partitioned into two or more edges existing in the intial graph (see gure 5.4 on page 55, step (d), (e)) by using the function nx.astar path(graph, source, target) and appended into a list called astar path list Edge of the MST is not present in the initial graph (see gure 5.4 on page 55, , step (c) - edges (v1,v4), (v2,v3)) - Such edges were partitioned into two or more edges existing in the intial graph (see gure 5.4 on page 55, step (d), (e)) by using the function nx.astar path(graph, source, target) and appended into a the same list as previously, astar path list All the edges belonging to the astar path list were nally appended into the steiner list, by checking for duplicate edges and thus not appending such edges. For example, by looking at steps (d) and (e) in gure 5.4 on page 55, edge (v1, u1) was added only one time instead of three times and edge (u1, u2) was added again only once instead of twice. By storing all the spanning edges into a list, which also exist into the Lolland norm nal Edition table (see 5 on page 118) in the database, we easily calculated the total trenching cost for region 12, just by matching the road segments from the steiner list with the road segments lengths from the normalized table. Moreover, we plotted the SMT graph in matplot in python, in order to verify that we formed a spanning tree and no circles were created. Figure 9.7 on the next page presents the SMT for region 12. The red line shows the road segments that have to be trenched until the terminal nodes, which are the SPs that connect the end users to the ber network. The gold circles denote all the SPs of degree 1 or 2 that have NTs connected to them or of degree higher than 2 that are cross-connection nodes. The biggest circle colored green is CO 12 that provides ber connectivity in this region. The plot axis represent the real coordinates of the SPs and segments in the map. In order to calculate the total ber length, we used the function nx.astar path(graph, source, target). The graph now was the Steiner graph shown in gure 9.7 on the following page and not the whole graph, as we are using the already trenched road paths to reach all the NTs. The source was CO 12 and the target were all the terminal nodes lying in the region. By knowing the exact number of NTs connected to every unique SP in this area, we recursively calculated the total ber length for all the 596 SPs by adding every segment that forms the path from CO 12 to all these SPs and multiplying in every one of them the number of NTs connected to it:
81
Figure 9.7: PtP Steiner Minimal Tree in region covered by CO 12
14
T otalF iberLength =
j =1 i=1
[(COj , v1 ), (v1 , v2 ), ..., (vn1 , vn ), (vn , SPi )]N T num[i],
(9.1)
where:
k is the number of terminal nodes j represents the number of different regions [1 - 14] (vm , vm+1 ) is an edge, with m [1, n 1] , where n is the number of nodes that it passes trough [A*path(G, COj , SPi )] N T num[i] is the number of the NTs connected to every SP i. It must be stated here that the trenching has been made until the SPs connected to at least one NT and not until the nal end user. That is the reason why no NTs are shown in gure 9.7 as well as the plots created in MapInfo and presented later on in this section. However, in table 9.2 on page 87, the calculations for the total trenching length and total ber length cover the trenching made and ber used to connect every CO with all the NTs in all 14 coverage regions, using the euclidean distance algorithm between every SP to all NTs connected to it in each of the regions. Figure 9.8 on the next page was created in MapInfo and shows a portion of the whole area trenching using SMT algorithm. The spanning tree is depicted by the red lines which follow the initially given GIS coordinates of the road map and three different areas can be seen in this plot, colored in different color labels. 82
Figure 9.8: PtP Steiner Minimal Tree in region covered by CO 12
Finally, after completing the implementation of the SMT algorithm for the rst region and visualizing the results, we sequentially run the python code for the rest 13 regions, by changing only the CO id, the SP ids and the NT ids for every different case. The result was plotted in MapInfo and it is presented in gure 9.9. The red color line depicts the trenching in the whole map and was added as a layer on top of the initially given black colored road map. Other elements, such as SPs and NTs were not added as extra layers in this plot in order to make it more visible for the reader.
Figure 9.9: Fiber trenching using Steiner Minimal Tree in Lolland
83
The second algorithm that was applied was the A algorithm. The target now has been set to calculate the total trenching length and total ber length using a shortest path algorithm. The expectations before running the algorithm in the code was to take higher trenching length and lower ber length. In order to achieve that, we used once again the function nx.astar path(graph, source, target) from networkx library, where graph was the the whole Lolland graph, source was CO 12 and target was in every iteration 1 out of the 541 terminal nodes in region 12. The trenching was calculated next in a similar way, following the same shortest paths that the ber followed. Once again the results were plotted rstly in python matplot tool for visual verication and can been seen in gure 9.10.
Figure 9.10: PtP Astar shortest path algorithm in region covered by CO 12
Following the same principle as in gure 9.7 on page 82 before, the gold circles denote all the SPs that are connecting road segments formed by A algorithm, the big green circle is CO 12 and the red line shows the road segments that have to be trenched until the terminal nodes. At a quick glance, gures 9.7 on page 82 and 9.10 seem the same. Most likely, this cannot happen as we are using two algorithms that function differently although they look alike. As a proof for this, we have zoomed in the same area of these gures (northern - west neighbor), where the different paths formed by the two algorithms are much more visible. Figure 9.11 on the next page presents the zoomed trenching path returned by A* algorithm. Figure 9.12 on the facing page presents the zoomed trenching path returned by SMT algorithm. Recursively, as previously, all the trenching and ber lengths were calculated for the rest 13 regions, and a plot was made in MapInfo showing the whole trenching in all 14 regions. The whole trenching resulted by A is presented with the red color line in gure 9.13 on page 86. 84
Figure 9.11: Zoom in northern-west neighbor of region covered by CO 12 returned by Steiner algorithm
Figure 9.12: Zoom in northern-west neighbor of region covered by CO 12 returned by Astar algorithm
85
Figure 9.13: PtP Astar Trenching
In order to make it more visible in Mapinfo, we have zoomed in the same part of the whole map as we did in gure 9.8 on page 83, also to enable graphical comparison between the results returned from the two algorithms applied. The A trenching can be seen in gure 9.14.
Figure 9.14: PtP Astar Trenching
86
Finally, we have gathered in table 9.2 the total trenching length and the total ber length in meters returned from SMT and A algorithms for all the 14 regions in Lolland area. Astar Steiner Trenching Length Fiber Length Trenching Length Fiber Length CO1 163.229.153 7.568.045.118 150.916,33 13.748.997,37 CO2 165.160,57 5.156.835,80 157.161,38 8.422.141,37 CO3 130.987,94 2.681.054,46 122.640,28 5.558.246,88 CO4 147.777,32 8.611.982,62 141.061,46 12.465.165,63 CO5 202.454,44 15.171.629,4 195.345,76 18.867.137,67 CO6 251.893,92 4.160.560,06 243.328,42 4.887.871,21 CO7 146.947,57 10.107.008,34 143.712,98 16.990.215,36 CO8 195.779,22 7.512.929,79 186.142,62 14.265.918,11 CO9 143.966,16 5.294.297,70 137.417,90 7.798.097,30 CO10 140.245,03 3.042.019,18 134.920,93 3.662.346,94 CO11 159.830,97 8.253.730,44 145.680,18 9.478.348,78 CO12 96.814,16 2.739.957,96 961.49,71 2.764.878,72 CO13 129.756,15 10.861.339,5 124.213,07 17.192.246,68 CO14 190.100,47 5.036.924,0 183.796,61 10.751.862,26 TOTAL 2.264.943,51 96.198.314,48 2.162.487,71 146.853.474,3 Table 9.2: Comparison between the total Fiber and Digging length for Steiner and Astar algorithm for the PtP architecture, with respect to each CO
From the table above it can be concluded that SMT algorithm reduces the total trenching length in expense of increasing the total ber length while applying A algorithm, the total ber length can be reduced in expense of increasing the total trenching length.
87
The ber length and the Trench length results obtained by applying the two algorithms are plotted and compared for each region :
Figure 9.15: Trench length in PtP
Figure 9.16: Fiber length in PtP
88
In addition, based on the obtained results shown in the table 9.2 on page 87 we can make cost calculation of the ber and trenching for the two different algorithms used. In PtP architecture, from the COs until an average point(in our design it will be a terminal SP) a bundle of ber is used to serve a number of NTs. The commonly used type is a bundle which contains 96 bers inside to serve 48 NTs (a single for upstream and a single ber for downstream per customer). For calculating the total cost of the access network we have used an average cost price for ber, trenching and splitter (used later in PON case) in Danish Kroner, which will be used throughout this project. [41] [42]
Cost(in DKK) Fiber - SP to NT (per meter) 5 Bundle of Fiber (for 48 users per meter) 10 Trenching(per meter) 150 Splitter (per 32 users) 220 Table 9.3: Cost Expense Parameters
Based on the total trenching length, the ber length and the cost parameters, the total cost of the network can be calculated for both algorithms. When the total ber cost is calculated it is assumed that around 80% of the ber used is a bundle of ber from CO to the terminal SPs in every region, while the 20% is a single ber from each SP to the NTs connected to it.
T otalF iberCost = T otalF iberLength(m) (80%
10 users DKK + 20% 5 ) 48 users m
DKK/m
(9.2)
The cost comparison is shown in table 9.4:
Steiner Astar Trench length total (m): 2.162.487,71 2.264.943,51 Trench expense total (DKK): 324.373.156,5 339.741.527 Fiber length total (m): 146.853.474,3 96.198.314,48 Fiber expense total (DKK): 170.350.030,19 111.590.044,8 Total Expense (DKK): 494.723.186,69 451.331.571,8 Table 9.4: PtP Steiner Vs. Astar Cost Expenditure
In addition, from the total cost the cost expenditure share of ber and trenching is shown using a pie chart. From the pie chart, we can see that in PtP access networks the total cost of the ber cable is huge and is even higher than the trenching cost. This is the result of using separate cable to serve each NT from the CO, which leads to large amount of ber being used. 89
Figure 9.17: Total expense using Steiner in PtP
Figure 9.18: Total expense using Steiner in PtP
90
9.2
PON architecture
SMT and A algorithms that were applied in the PtP architecture in Lolland, were also used in the PON ber architecture. Firstly, a comparison between the algorithms within the same architecture and secondly a comparison between the two architectures with regards to total trenching length and total ber length is possible. The same principle that was followed and presented in details in section 9.1 on page 80 in terms of algorithms implementation, was also followed in the PON case, although two main differences exist, thereby separating sufciently the two architectures : Separation of every one of the 14 coverage regions into clusters, using k-means clustering algorithm SMT and A algorithms applied in two levels: The upper level extends from the CO until the splitters (terminal nodes) The lower level extends from every splitter, which becomes the CO within its cluster, to all the NTs that are served by this splitter (maximum of 32 end users connected to every splitter.
9.2.1
K-means Clustering algorithm
Cluster analysis is based on the assignment of a large number of data into multiple groups (called clusters) so that data in the same cluster are similar with each other in some sense. Clustering is a method of unsupervised learning, and a common technique for statistical data analysis used in many elds. Among many clustering techniques, k-means algorithm, which classies n data into k clusters (k<n) based on Euclidean distance, is the most well known and commonly used clustering algorithm. The k-means algorithm is a fairly simple data clustering technique which minimizes the average distance between data and its cluster center. The number of clusters to form, k, is an input parameter to the algorithm. Given a set of points x = {x1 , x2 , ....., xn } where each point is a d-dimensional real vector, k-means clustering aims to partition the n points into k clusters (k n) S = {s1 , s2 , ....., sk } so as to minimize the within-cluster sum of squares (WCSS): [43]
k
argmins
i=1 xj Si
|xj i |2 ,
(9.3)
where i is the center of the i-th cluster Si . The algorithm is composed of the following steps: Place K points into the space represented by the objects that are being clustered. These points represent initial group centroids. Assign each object to the group that has the closest centroid. When all objects have been assigned, recalculate the positions of the K centroids. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until the centroids no longer move. This produces a separation of the objects into groups from which the metric to be minimized can be calculated.
The following gure illustrates how the k-means algorithm works: 91
Figure 9.19: k-means clustering: [44]
Although it can be proved that the procedure will always terminate, the k-means algorithm does not necessarily nd the most appropriate conguration, corresponding to the global objective function minimum but provides a reasonable conguration in short time. The algorithm is also signicantly sensitive to the initial randomly selected cluster centers. The k-means algorithm can be run multiple times to reduce this effect. In PON access networks we have used this algorithm to nd NTs which are closer to each other and can be serviced by the same splitter. The passive splitter we took into consideration is 1:32. When the clusters are formed, the maximum number of cluster members should not be greater than 32. The other point which has been taken into consideration is that, the distance from the splitter position( Centroid of the cluster) to an NT should not be grater than 2 km. Based on this two constraints we have applied the algorithm and found 928 clusters in Lolland region. However, we came across few outliers (far away located NTs) which are positioned out of reach of the splitters service area (2 Km radius). In such cases, we considered the use of optical ampliers to serve this far away points. The total number of NTs which are out of the typical PON access network service area in our designed network are 5. The total number of clusters in each of the 14 regions are 928; which in other words means we have 928 splitters in Lolland region as it can be seen in table 9.5 on the facing page as well as the number of NTs connected to each of them. Considering the percentage of NTs which are out of range, the total achieved efciency is:
5 = 99.9828%, 29175
(9.4)
it was deduced as a good clustering result in reasonable time. 92
CO Number of Splitters Number of NTs 1 52 1630 2 36 1084 3 25 739 4 54 1663 5 219 6962 6 45 1379 7 118 3890 8 53 1605 9 46 1428 10 28 820 11 63 2003 12 39 1197 13 112 3618 14 38 1157 Table 9.5: Number of Splitters in each Region
The mapinfo plot of the total splitters in Lolland region is shown in gure 9.20. Their distribution as clearly viewed from the plot depends on the density of NTs. In densely populated areas the splitters are closely placed, and in sparsely populated areas the vice versa.
Figure 9.20: Splitters
To have a closer look, the splitters to the road network and the NTs are plotted together in a small part of the most dense region (which is served by CO 5 - Nakskov region) as it can be seen on gure 9.21 on the following page. The splitters are positioned on the road side of segment points. 93
Figure 9.21: Splitters and NTs
A further closer look at 6 passive optical splitters and the clusters of NTs formed around them using K-means clustering as it can be seen on gure 9.22.
Figure 9.22: Cluster Formation
94
Finally, we can conclude that it is a good option to use k-means clustering algorithm to group NTs that are going to be served by a splitter, but this advantage comes with some drawbacks. The main aws in implementing k-means clustering for PON networks are: Since the working principle of k-means algorithm takes random points initially as cluster centroids, then assign points around them and change their position every time a point is assigned to the cluster it is not possible to know or even assume the computational time of the algorithm. For large regions it might take hours or even days to nd the most appropriate positions of the splitters and the only solution to this problem is to run the algorithm multiple times. So, this is a huge drawback because we can not take previous computational times and region size relationships to help us in further computations. K-means assigns an NT to the closest cluster by calculating the euclidean distance from every centroids and choses the closest one. But this principle is not always applicable to PON networks because the splitter has a limited capacity, which in turn limits the number of NTs that should be connected to it. Due to this reason, an NT might be assigned to another cluster because the cluster it should actually belong to is full( all splitter ports used). This condition has a negative effect on the total trenching and ber length of the network under consideration.
9.2.2
Spanning Tree and Shortest Path Algorithms
SMT and A algorithms were applied again in the PON architecture, targeting at comparing the different total digging length and total ber length values in all 14 regions in Lolland area. As it was referenced in this sections introduction 9.2 on page 91, the algorithms were run twice, once for every level. All information regarding the splitter ids, the NTs connected to these splitters, to which CO ids they belong, which SPs lie in every region, etc., were gathered in one table and uploaded in the database to enable easy fetching of this data whenever the algorithms was jumping from region to region. In the upper level, SMT algorithm was again implemented from scratch to create the Steiner Spanning Tree that connects every CO with all the splitter locations within every one of the 14 regions. In that case, the splitters play the role of terminal nodes, as SPs with end users connected to them were playing this role in the PtP case previously. Again, region covered by CO 12 has been used as the test case, due to its smaller dimensions, before running the algorithm for the rest 13 regions. All the edges that follow the road map to connect CO 12 with the splitters were appended into a list called steinerlist1. Having already found the spanning tree in the upper level, calculation of the total ber length in this level, which is named in the code cheap ber length as it is in total cheaper than all the ber cables connecting all the splitters with the end users, was easy task. Networkx function nx.astar path (graph,source,target) has been applied in the created spanning tree (graph) from CO 12 (source) until all 39 splitter ids (target), returning sequential segments already existing in the Lolland norm nal Edition (see 5 on page 118). Matching these segments with the lengths from the same table was easy and adding them all up, we saved the nal value in the variable cheap ber length. In the lower level, again SMT was applied in every one of the 39 clusters in region 12. Every cluster can be treated as a subgraph, where the splitter plays the role of the CO and the NTs play the role of the terminal nodes. All the road segments that were used as spanning edges to connect the splitter with the NTs were appended into a list called steinerlist2. Merging steinerlist1 with steinerlist2 resulted in the nal steinerlist which was used to calculate the total trenching length. However, a very important detail here is that steinerlist2 contains a small amount of road segments already existing in steinerlist1. Consequently, only unique minimum spanning edges (segments) from both lists were saved in the nal steinerlist, as a road is dug only once (excepting cases were digging is applied in 95
one side of the road and later on, to meet increasing demands or providing redundancy, it is dug in both sides). The last thing that had to be calculated is the total ber length. Again applying the function nx.astar path(graph,source,target), where graph is the spanning tree that extends from the source, which is the different splitter id in every cluster, to the target, which is the NTs in every cluster, we saved in a list all the road segments that form all different 39 shortest paths and easily after matching them with their lengths in the Normalized Table, we calculated the total ber length by adding them up together and also added the cheap ber length found in the upper level to the nal result. Based on the three created lists previously, we plotted the SMT of region 12 in matplot, to verify the resulting tree by visualizing the outcome. Figure 9.23 presents the SMT in region 12.
Figure 9.23: PON Minimal Steiner Tree in region served by CO 12
In comparison to gure 9.7 on page 82 for the PtP case, some more elements are added in this plot. The big green node is CO 12. The medium size purple nodes are the 39 splitters in this region. The smaller cyan nodes are the 1197 NTs. The red line is the Steiner Tree created in the upper level, connecting CO 12 with the splitters. The blue line is the Steiner Tree created in the lower level, connecting every splitter in each cluster with the NTs. We differentiated between the colors used for every SMT found in order to denote how we approached and solved the PON case, as it was described previously. Overlaps between segments of steinerlist1 and steinerlist2 are avoided and trenched road segments are unique, resulting in correctly calculated total trenching length. Recursively, we calculated the total digging length and total ber length for the rest 13 regions, and plotted the results in MapInfo.
96
Figure 9.24: PON steiner Trenching
Figure 9.24 shows the SMT for the PON architecture in the whole map, where the red lines are the trenched road segments, the black lines are the road segments that are not trenched and the blue lines shows the connection between the SPs and the NTs. In order to make it more visible for the reader, we have zoomed in one region of the whole map in MapIfo. Figure 9.25 presents more clearly the trenched road segments returned by SMT algorithm.
Figure 9.25: PON Steiner Trenching
97
It must be stated here that in the PON architecture the digging was calculated and plotted, as can be also seen in the gures, until the nal end users, compared to the PtP architecture where it was done until the SPs which have at least one NT connected to them (terminal nodes). This choice was not random as the clustering algorithm used is placing the centroids of the clusters in every region based only on NTs coordinates on the map. This means that there are cases where terminal SPs located in one region are connected to NTs that lie in more than one cluster. In that case, terminal SPs that have this property are duplicated in the splitter lists used in the code to store the unique NTs connected to them, affecting the nal outcome of the programs. Figure 9.26 presents a case of two neighboring clusters with a terminal SP located in the border of these clusters and having two NTs connected to it lying in one cluster and two NTs connected to it lying in the neighbor cluster. The notation that has been used is: The two clusters are denoted with yellow squares The terminal SP is denoted as purple circle The NTs belonging to the two neighboring clusters are denoted with green and red x-es.
Figure 9.26: Bordering clusters
After completing the implementation and testing of the SMT algorithm, A has been applied rstly in the upper and lower level of region 12 and recursively in the rest regions. In the same principle as in the PON Steiner case, the cheap ber length has been calculated and three lists were created : astar path list1, astar path list2 and nal astar path list. In both levels, networkx function nx.astar path(graph, source, target) was used to store the road segments in the lists astar path list1 and astar path list2. Total trenching was calculated after storing in nal astar path list the unique road segments and total ber length was calculated by adding the cheap ber length with the lengths of all the segments appended in the nal astar path list by matching them with the lengths stored in the Normalized Table. The rst plot was created again in matplot for visualizing the resulted tree. Figure 9.27 on the next page presents the A outcome in region covered by CO 12. The colors and symbols used in gure 9.27 on the facing page are the same with the notations already presented for gure 9.23 on page 96 previously. The two gures look very much alike and that is true, something that can be veried if someone looks in the total trenching and total digging length of region 12 in Table 9.6 on page 101. However, we zoomed in the same area as we did with the gures in the PtP case, so as to show clearer the difference in the trenched road segments.
98
Figure 9.27: PON Minimal Astar Tree in region served by CO 12
Figure 9.28: PON Zoom in Minimal Steiner Tree in region served by CO 12, western of CO 12
99
Figure 9.29: PON Zoom in Astar algorithm in region served by CO 12, western of CO 12
Figure 9.28 on the previous page shows the zoomed in neighbor west of CO 12, while gure 9.29 shows the zoomed in region for the A case.
Figure 9.30: PON Astar Trenching
100
Finally, after verifying the results of both algorithms in region 12, we recursively calcuclated the total trenching and total ber length in all remaining regions of Lolland and plotted the outcome in MapInfo. Figure 9.30 on the preceding page shows the A trenching outcome for the PON architecture in the whole map. The red lines are the trenched road segments and the black lines form the remaining initial road map which is not trenched. In order to make it more visible for the reader, we have zoomed in one region of the whole map in MapIfo. Figure 9.31 presents more clearly the trenched road segments returned by SMT algorithm.
Figure 9.31: PON Astar Trenching
Astar Steiner Trenching Length Fiber Length Trenching Length Fiber Length CO1 181.343,50 1.188.699,68 174.957,76 1.312.686,31 CO2 154.157,23 1.013.369,82 152.833,05 1.036.287,11 CO3 121.166,56 661.378,03 116.052,21 704.167,14 CO4 178.505,60 1.106.653,17 177.906,26 1.329.729,06 CO5 312.204,10 2.373.975,55 307.950,51 2.558.215,56 CO6 137.712,45 822.646,54 135.124,78 849.128,02 CO7 207.599,34 1.738.969,91 206.978,43 1.844.873,67 CO8 145.915,24 1.033.724,46 144.164,68 1.186.428,77 CO9 147.404,85 1.009.405,40 145.557,34 1.047.557,63 CO10 125.558,43 742.140,32 119.384,13 811.636,10 CO11 186.399,55 1.515.800,98 181.506,03 1.590.724,01 CO12 75.845,98 485.682,40 75.669,15 493.790,55 CO13 212.079,31 1.564.538,65 208.874,59 1.719.018,66 CO14 115.594,73 738.808,61 114.385,91 820.615,79 TOTAL 2.301.486,93 15.995.793,57 2.261.344,91 17.304.858,45 Table 9.6: Comparison between the total Fiber and Digging length for Steiner and Astar algorithm for the PON architecture, with respect to each CO
101
The ber length and the Trench length results obtained by applying the two algorithms are plotted and compared for each region :
Figure 9.32: Trench length in PON
Figure 9.33: Fiber length in PON
In addition, based on the obtained results shown in the above table we can made cost calculation of the ber and trenching for the two different algorithms used. Based on the total trenching, ber length and 102
the cost parameters the total cost of the network can be calculated for both the algorithms. The cost comparison is in table 9.7: Steiner Astar Trench length total (m): 2.261.344,91 2.301.486,93 Trench expense total (DKK): 339.201.736,5 345.223.041 Fiber length total (m): 17.304.858,45 15.995.793,57 Fiber expense total (DKK): 86.524.292,3 79.978.967.85 Passive Optical Splitter total(DKK): 204.160 204.160 Total Expense (DKK): 425.930.188,8 426.652.713,5 Table 9.7: PON Steiner Vs. Astar Cost Expenditure
In addition, from the total cost the cost expenditure share of ber and trenching is shown using a pie chart. Unlike the case of PtP networks, a huge portion of the total cost in PON access networks comes from the trenching. The usage of a single ber cable from the COs until the splitters has decreased the total ber cost by a huge margin. The total splitter expense when compared to the ber and the trenching cost is almost negligible.
Figure 9.34: Total expense using Steiner in PON
Figure 9.35: Total expense using Steiner in PON
103
Part III
Conclusion and Assessment
104
Chapter
10
Conclusion
A number of promising technologies have been developed that have turned Optical access into reality the last two decades. Among these technologies, generally, PtP and PON architectures take the largest share. We have designed and analyzed the FTTH infrastructure for Lolland region in the physical layer, using this well established architectures. The choice of which architecture to use is dependent on a number of parameters. One of the main parameter which plays an important role in selecting the best architecture in the network planning part is the total infrastructure cost of the network, or else the CAPEX. In this project using different algorithms we have discussed various deployment scenarios and evaluated the resulting total trenching and total ber cable cost, which leads to the most lucrative deployment decisions. Although PtP architecture has a number of advantages over the PON architecture, the initial needed capital expenditure is higher compared to PON architecture, which tips the balance in PON implementation direction. This fact is shown graphically in gure 10.1
Figure 10.1: PtP Vs.PON Cost Comparison
105
CHAPTER 10. CONCLUSION
Indicative of the total cost difference comparing PtP and PON architecture in both algorithmic approaches, using SMT in both cases PON total cost is 13.9% less than PtP total cost, while using A PON total cost is 5.46% less than the respective PtP total cost. Consequently, applying PON architecture in Lolland municipality, with respect to overall CAPEX minimization, is a preferable solution, regardless of security, scalability and energy efciency parameters. Nevertheless, it must be stated here that in real-life FTTH planning projects, an ISP company never provides access to the 100% of the total end users in the area. The very simple reason is that the customers penetration into the new deployed network never reaches this percentage. Consequently, no company exists that will spend huge amount of money to deploy a FTTH network when there is no future potential of getting a payback by providing services to the end users. In this project, the objective is to compare PtP with PON architectures using two basic categories of algorithms that contribute differently in the two basic types of cost we are researching, by applying them in the entire area. From this and only point of view,PON architecture is the winner in this race and more specically, SMT returned the least total cost, enumerating an overall expenditure of 425.930.188,8 DKK, 722.524,7 DKK less than using A approach both for trenching and ber deployment in the area. The nature of the area where an optical ber access network is wished to be deployed, affects signicantly the network modeling process. No global solution exists whether a PtP or PON network is the best solution, as both of the architectures possess advantages and disadvantages with respect to several parameters. Cost minimization is the most important among them, and this project showed that in case the target has been set to minimize the overall initial expenditure, PON architecture is a cheaper solution than PtP architecture in the specic scenario. Whether a minimal spanning tree or a shortest path algorithm is used for both trenching and placing the ducts with the total amount of ber, the total difference is not expected to be very high in both PtP and PON architectures and, additionally, it is very much dependent on the area where the network is deployed.
106
Chapter
11
Assessment
The assessment part of this project will be split into two sections. The rst section will discuss up to which level the objectives set at the beginning of the survey have been achieved. Also, some difculties we came across while working on them will be presented and how they were dealt with is discussed.The second part will cover what is missing from the project or what can be further implemented or altered as part of the future work.
11.1
Achievements
A PtP and PON architecture has been created to provide ber access in 99.98% of the houses in Lolland area. SMT algorithm has been implemented from scratch both for the PtP and PON case and A algorithm has been taken from networkx library in python, also for both cases, to compare with. The CAPEX investment in all four cases (SMT - PtP, A - PtP, SMT - PON and A - PON) has been thoroughly analyzed and relative results have been presented in the form of tables in the technical part of the report. Specically for the PON design case, k-means clustering algorithm has been modied and implemented in python to t with our need , which resulted in dividing the area in 928 clusters with the intention of serving a maximum of 32 NTs by a unique 1:32 passive optical splitter. Indicative costs for trenching, ber cable and splitters have been assumed, giving us the chance of comparing the results in terms of real expenses (in DKK). Most of the main objectives that have been set as a target at the beginning of this project have been achieved. Throughout the network modeling phase of the survey, a combination of important tools has been used to contribute to the nal result. The usage of real GIS coordinate data together with MapInfo as the GIS tool to visualize trenching traces, separate regions served by different COs, splitter positions, different clusters of NTs has highlighted the importance of GIS tools and the assistance they can provide to the network designer, by displaying regions of interest and acquired results that are easily visible, through a big amount of spatial data concentrated into the same map. The implementation and running of different graph algorithms, related to the nal target of the project, and the usage of networkx library in python, specically designed for graph theory programing, as well as pysql library, for making queries in postgreSQL database and data fetching into the code, has helped 107
CHAPTER 11. ASSESSMENT
us to familiarize with programming techniques and skills, necessary for carrying out the technical programing part of a ber network deployment efciently and in a reasonable time. In conclusion to the main achievements part, the most important contribution gained through this project is a valuable experience by digging continuously into arising problems and multifaceted aspects inuencing the progress of the research. In many cases altering our approach, which thereafter alter the nal result, in a eld very interesting, broad, and currently missing a global solution thought us how to look at alternative approaches and choose the best one. When the need emerges for continuous optimization inextricably linked with the local nature and the geographic formation of every individual urban, suburban or rural area the problem will become a multi objective one and should be considered and dealt in that manner.
11.2
Future Work
Besides the achievements in this project, plenty of things are missing or should be optimized in order to integrate this project into a complete FTTH survey for Lolland area. Some of the improvements or alterations that can be made are: Number of COs - In this project, the total number and placement of the COs has been made manually, based on the NTs density distribution in the area. The picked number of COs are 14. Based in this number, the whole survey has been carried out. In order to choose the minimal cost different scenarios, a varying number of COs has to be chosen, testing 4 COs as a starting point, in order to meet already predened distance constraints, and extending this number with different size-steps, reaching a reasonable upper level amount, having a cost that will not overpass the already achieved nal costs. Algorithm for automatic CO placement - By manually placing different number of COs on the map and abide to specic constraints, the computational time becomes an issue. Moreover, it is not considered an appropriate way to do so as it lacks in automation. An algorithm that can take as an input specic parameters, such as the NTs density, the total number of NTs, the extent of the area, etc. and automatically return the appropriate number and position of the COs on the map would turn to be a breakthrough.Of course, such an algorithm integrates into a project by itself and it may turn out to be not so much tting in every geographical scenario. Improving the clustering algorithm - The K-means clustering algorithm can be improved to make it more automated. When assigning the initial centroid points, instead of picking random centroids, assigning centroids based on the data density can improve the clustering technique. Furthermore, the algorithm should be enhanced in a way that after forming a cluster of NTs, it should nd the appropriate location of the splitter (centroid) not by using a center of masstype algorithm or by having as a constraint the 2 km maximum distance from every NT and the predened maximum number of NTs in the cluster (32 in our case), but dynamically assign varying capacity splitters, basically aiming to minimize its distance from the NTs it will serve. Improving the Steiner Minimal Tree algorithm implementation - The SMT current implementation is quite efcient but it needs further improvement. The rst and most instant thing that should be altered is within the MST formation phase of the algorithm (see pseudo code - step 2, section 5.4.2 on page 53). Due to the fact that the MST algorithm for this phase of the Steiner Tree formation has been taken from networkx library, the way it choses between two edges that are assigned with the same weight is random and only one of them can be picked and marked, otherwise a circle will be formed. Figure 11.1 on the facing page presents such a case. When it comes to compare the total trenching length, both gures (a) and (b) result in a total trenching 108
length of 3 m. However, the total ber length calculation returns different results. In case (a), total ber length = 1 + 2 = 3 m, while in case (b) total ber length = 1 + (1 + 2) = 4 m.
Figure 11.1: PtP Vs.PON Cost Comparison
This randomness affects the achieved results in the SMT application on the PtP and PON test cases. However, as it can be concluded by the results, the implications it causes are very limited. A way to improve this drawback would be either to intervene into the source code of the MST implementation in python and add some code that would take into account the total ber length every one of the two edges marked will return, marking obviously the edge that results in lower ber length, or implement from scratch the MST algorithm used in our code to adapt to this constraint. Consequently, an algorithm that calculates simultaneously the total trenching and total ber length can be built, although it is expected to increase the computational time of compilation. The second improvement is related with reducing the running time of the algorithm. The SMT in the PON case and the A in both PtP and PON cases were not computationally heavy, compared to the SMT in the PtP case. Indicative example is that the running time for the area served by CO 5, which is the mostly populated area in Lolland (Nakskov), reached 36 hours to complete. This is a purely programing optimization and not so much related to the engineering nature of such a project. Hybrid architecture - A hybrid architecture that acquires the benets of both PtP and PON architecture can be tested, exclusively from the PON test case. As the ber that connects every CO with every splitter is cheaper than the total bers used to connect the splitter with the corresponding NTs, SMT algorithm will be applied in the upper level and A or an alternative shortest path algorithm, in the lower level of the hybrid algorithm. Adding redundancy to the COs network - In the current implementation of the project, every CO is individually functioning and totally separated from the rest COs in the area. That raises redundancy issues in the network as a total, as every one of the 14 COs constitutes an SPoF. Redundancy can be added in the existing COs by creating a single ring (lower redundancy) or double ring (higher redundancy) that will interconnect the total amount of COs in a networking mode, offering them the capability of rerouting temporarily the trafc, in case of a failure in one of the COs or a cut ber, until the damage is restored. Dening the exact number of NTs - The number of NTs used throughout this project is 29 175. However, this does not form the real number of end users ports in Lolland area. With the current approach, every NT is considered to be 1 end user. This is not true, as businesses in the area, factories, school buildings, community buildings, etc. which consist of many ofces as well as varying number of apartments or ats that are located in the same building structure, are regarded as a sole NT. Further survey on this eld must be done, potentially in cooperation with the local municipality or with companies that maintain such information, in order to calculate the exact total CAPEX and further OPEX cost of the proposed ber architecture. 109
Comprehensive cost - analysis - The cost analysis that was made was limited in the total trenching, total ber and splitter cost calculation. In order to come up with more concrete results with regards to the best algorithmic and topological choice to apply in Lolland, a comprehensive cost analysis is required that will include several costs not taken into account, such as: maintenance cost of the network, cabinet cost, renting or buying expenses to place the COs, amplier cost (in case they are used), the equipment costs installed inside the CO, OPEX cost of the network and much more... Energy efciency - Energy efciency with respect to the chosen architecture, is a standalone project and has not been taken into consideration into the current project. However, it is a very important factor that could potentially inuence the nal choice of ber architecture, between PtP, PON, even AON that has not been researched so far.
110
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[14] Electro Magnetic Spectrum.

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[17] Bill Woodward and Emile B.Husson. Fiber Optics Installer and Technician Guide. SYBEX, 1151 Marina Village ParkwayAlameda, CA 94501, 2005. http://www.scribd.com/doc/23550544/266/Link-Performance-Analysis. [18] Asst. Prof. M.Tahir Riaz. Network Performance and Applications. 8th semester, Network and Distributed systems: Networking and Security Center for Network Planning (CNP) Section. [19] Ole Brun Madsen and Tahir M. Riaz. Planning broadband network infrastructure. [20] Wayne D. Grover. Mesh-based Survivable Transport Networks: Options and Strategies for Optical, MPLS, SONET and ATM Networking. Prentice Hall PTR, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA, 2003. [21] Network Architecture Evolution, July 2012. [22] Jacob T. Madsen, Thomas S. Kristensen, Dimitar Mihaylov, Chres Wiant, and Konstantinos Papaefthimiou. Mini Project in Network Performance and Applications. 2012, Spring semester Project group 12gr800. [23] Asst. Prof. M.Tahir Riaz. SQoS based Network Planning. 8th semester, Network and Distributed systems: Networking and Security Center for Network Planning (CNP) Section. [24] Active vs. Pon, 2004.
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[25] Raheeb Muzaffar, Rizwan Ahmed, Dr. S. M. H. Zaidi, and Dr. M. Y. A. Raja. EPON Technology Survey. [26] BT Russell Davey, NTT Junichi Kani, France Telecom Fabrice Bourgart, and ATT Labs Kent McCammon. Options for Future Optical Access Networks. IEEE Communications Magazine, October 2006. [27] Samuel Varghese. Fabrication and Characterization of All-Fiber Components for Optical Access Network. PhD thesis, December 2008. Ph. D Thesis. [28] Fibre to the Home, Council Europe.
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[29] Rodney S.Tucker. Optical Packet-Switched wdm Networks: a Cost and Energy Perspective, 2008. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=04528328. [30] Asst. Prof. M.Tahir Riaz. Network Modelling and Planning Algorithms. 8th semester, Network and Distributed systems: Networking and Security Center for Network Planning (CNP) Section. [31] MapInfo Professional.
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[32] Michael Arthen. Pitney Bowes MapInfo GmbH. 2008.

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113
Part IV
Appendix
114
Figure 2: Lolland nt table
115
116 Figure 3: Lolland seg deg table
Figure 4: Lolland nt sp co splitter table
117
118 Figure 5: Lolland norm nal edit table
Figure 6: Lolland sp id distinct table
119
Figure 7: Lolland CO table
120

PON and Point-To-Point FTTH Based Infrastructure Planning in Lolland Municipality

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PON and Point-To-Point FTTH based infrastructure planning in Lolland municipality

Networks and Distributed Systems Group 922

Aalborg University, 3. semester Winter 2012

Supervisor: Jose Gutierrez Michael Jensen

Lolland municipality 6.1 Information about Lolland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Statistical information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Design and Implementation

Conclusion and Assessment

11 Assessment 107 11.1 Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 11.2 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Lolland sp id distinct table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Lolland CO table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Figure 2.1: Fiber optic cable [13]

Figure 2.2: Pig tail [13]

Figure 2.3: Spectrum of the electromagnetic radiation [14]

Network Planning Factors

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

Network Structure Performance Parameters

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

Figure 3.2: Global Architecture of SQoS

Figure 3.4: Single ring topology 24

Figure 3.5: Symmetric double ring topology

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

Figure 3.6: Honeycomb topology

Figure 3.7: Grid topology

Figure 3.8: Mesh topology

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

CHAPTER 3. NETWORK PLANNING

Optical access network architectures

Passive Optical Network

Figure 4.1: PON architecture [24] 30

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Passive star PON

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Splitter factor 4-factor 16-factor 32-factor 64-factor Table 4.3:

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Figure 4.4: PON Optical Amplier

Point-to-Point Optical Network

Figure 4.5: Different Architectures [27]

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Active Optical Network

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Figure 4.7: Active Architecture [24]

Analysis on the three architectures

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

nician in the place where an optical splitter is located for example.

Figure 4.8: Energy consumption in Access network [29]

Access network PON Point to point AON

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Table 4.6: PtP, PON and AON architectures

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Table 4.7: PtP, PON and AON architectures 41

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

Achieving redundancy in PON is difcult, because it is a tree architecture.

There is no compatibility between different manufacturers, which results in price variations.

Overall the PON architecture requires less space.

CHAPTER 4. OPTICAL ACCESS NETWORK ARCHITECTURES

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK MODELLING

The Digital Road Map

CHAPTER 5. NETWORK MODELLING