Reimagine Delivery of Gigabit  Services in the MDU or MTU

Internet providers and building owners that want to offer gigabit services should  investigate G.hn technology and reuse the existing copper wiring or coax cabling.

For both condominiums and apartments to rent, gigabit internet access is highly  valued, on par with state-of-the-art kitchens and spa-like health facilities. A recent report from market research firm  RVA LLC indicates that high-speed broadband,  which usually means (up to) gigabit services, adds  2 percent to the value of a condominium and 8  percent to the rental price of an apartment.

Fiber-to-the-home technologies, such as  GPON, EPON and active Ethernet, are great  technologies to serve single-family homes, thanks  to recent advances in fiber deployment with  techniques such as directional boring or aerial  fiber. But the complexity of reaching all doors  inside MDUs or multi-tenant units (MTU)  with a fiber feed is a major problem, particularly  in brownfield buildings. Bringing fiber to each  door, deep inside a building, can be costly, complex and disruptive to residents. There is a need for a simple, cost-effective way to extend  gigabit coverage deep inside the MDU or MTU  without relying on the installation of new fiber.

The answer is to reuse the existing telephone  wiring or coaxial cabling inside the building.  That’s why the concept of G.fast appeared to  hold some promise. Unfortunately, in many  brownfield situations, G.fast has failed to deliver.

Another broadband protocol, G.hn, which was originally developed for in-home networking, has potential to solve this problem.
Distributing gigabit services with G.hn from the fiber feed into the building, using the existing wiring infrastructure, benefits both building owners and operators. For owners, the availability of gigabit internet services is a great value-add.

As mentioned above, it can increase the monthly rent by as much as 8 percent. Operators can deliver gigabit services at a fraction of the cost of deploying fiber to each door, avoiding major disruptions for building owners and residents. Operators can expand network coverage quickly without a major capex and opex investment, and they can feel confident that their investment is future-proof because it will deliver any bandwidth up to gigabit speeds to each subscriber.

The desire to leverage the existing telephone  wiring or coaxial cabling is not new. This was the  underlying premise of G.fast. Unfortunately, the  lofty goals set for G.fast have yet to materialize,  even with the anticipated availability of newer  G.fast chipsets supporting Amendment 3 that  promise to improve achievable bandwidth.

Despite numerous announcements, many  operators have quietly reduced or abandoned  their plans to deploy G.fast. Real-life use of  G.fast highlights its scalability limitations. Although both G.hn and G.fast work on  existing telephone wiring and coax cabling, only  G.hn will work over coax cabling with splitters.

The ITU-T G.hn standard (G.9960),  also known as Wave-2, was ratified a  few years ago. It allows operators in  many international markets to leverage  existing telephone wiring or coaxial  cabling to deliver gigabit internet  and related services to each door of  an MDU or MTU over the existing  infrastructure. When operating over  coaxial cabling, the current G.hn  standard takes advantage of standard  coaxial splitters to serve as many as 16  subscribers over a single coaxial port,  achieving economies of scale previously  limited to cable TV with DOCSIS.

Let’s compare G.hn and G.fast.  The most prevalent configuration of a  G.fast distribution point unit (DPU)  solution is 16 ports. This raises two  major concerns. The first is that the  delivery of true gigabit speeds on  current-generation DPUs requires  the bonding of two G.fast ports,  reducing by half the number of  subscribers the DPU can serve with  gigabit services. This effectively doubles  the cost for subscribers.

The second problem with G.fast  is that it’s not possible to add another  small DPU when the ports of the first  DPU are all in use because the noise  cancellation/vectoring processor in the  DPU cannot work alongside another  DPU. This forces the operator to go  through a “rip and replace” process to  install a larger (and more expensive)  DPU. With the typical coaxial  cable infrastructure being point-to multipoint, to support cable TV and  DOCSIS, it is nearly impossible to use  G.fast because it is strictly a point-to point technology.

G.hn doesn’t have these problems.  Each port on the G.hn solution can  operate as a single input, single output  (SISO) single-pair or multiple input,  multiple output (MIMO) two-pair  port on copper. The G.hn VectorBoost  technology for copper pairs works from  the get-go across multiple G.hn access  multiplexers (GAMs) for seamless  scalability. Furthermore, G.hn leverages  the point-to-multipoint nature of services at a much lower cost. This  means it’s possible to serve up to 16  subscribers per coaxial port. The cost  per subscriber with G.hn is a lot less  than with G.fast.

For operators and building owners that rely on satellite TV such  as DirecTV or DISH, G.hn is 100  percent compatible with the satellite  TV signal. This means that a single  medium (coaxial cable) delivers gigabit  internet, IPTV and IP telephony to  each subscriber. Operators offering  an IPTV service rely on the existing  telephone pairs or coaxial cabling for  all services they deliver to subscribers.  Either way, building owners no longer  need to worry about the impact of any  construction work in their buildings.

The delivery of gigabit services over  G.hn Wave-2 is as scalable and  predictable as the fiber feed into the  GAM serving the building. Although  speed is a critical component of the  user’s quality of experience, subscribers  now demand a lot more from their  overall experience with the service.

Millennials and other internet savvy subscribers expect additional  capabilities such as self-installation and  zero-touch provisioning. They have  little tolerance for long delays before  they can talk to a support specialist or  get their service levels modified.

When deployed with the optional  GAM captive portal option, G.hn  facilitates subscribers’ self-installation  with zero-touch provisioning and  automated activation. With GAM,  operators now always have the tools to  allow subscribers to remain in control  of their subscriptions.

G.hn redefines the gigabit internet  service user experience. The technology  not only offers users a hotspot-like  experience from the moment they  initially connect to the “always on”  G.hn gigabit infrastructure, but allows  users to change bandwidth levels in  real time. Subscribers can experience bandwidth changes within seconds.  This enhanced user experience is  the best antidote to the high churn rate plaguing the industry and it  helps retain MDU tenants who value  gigabit access.