Introduction to Fiber Optic Broadband Access Networks and Technologies

Abstract

Internet broadband penetration has increased globally as a result of various fiber optic technologies employed.Nigeria fiber optic network is massive and very enterprising because the nation has great potentials in utilizing Internet broadband bandwidths as the largest Black Country in the world. The country presently has active submarine fiber optic cables connecting the country to the world through Europe with huge Internet broadband capacities. However, the Internet broadband penetration in the country is still very low with about 10% of the Oceanic Optical fiber capacities utilized and just 6% of fiber optic broadband penetration. This paper reviews the present state of fiber optics Internet broadband network penetration in Nigeria looking at the spread of fiber optic networks in the country, the application of the fiber optic technologies and the challenges of deploying fiber optic technologies for Internet broadband penetration in Nigeria. The paper classified the fiber optic network in Nigeria into the core, the backbone/backhaul and the access/last-mile fiber optic networks. The core fiber optic network is the oceanic fiber optic from Europe and Cameroun while the backbone fiber optic network is the fiber to the states and to central offices/ISPs. The access/last-mile fiber network is the fiber optic to the base transmission stations and the end users. It can be deduced from this paper that the last mile fiber optic network in the country is still very low and over 99% of the Internet penetration in the country is through the wireless mobile phones.