In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

So that ducting (i.e. tubing) will go down the pole to the chamber by the phone pole and fibres will either already be there or it will be blown down the ducting to you splitter node.

That's different to how mine was done, mine came from the splitter node (100 to 128 fibres) to the first DP in the chamber where it took 12 fibres and passed the rest through to the next DP where it took 12 and so on.

With your there doesn't seem to be pass through, so there must be loads of ducting under ground.

It is definitely not tubing coming down the pole, just fibre in the cable, which is pre-connected inside the block. And yes, it means no pass-through. I guess it can consume duct space ... see the photo on my previous link, where there is a lot of the cable with yellow spiral protection covering.

Remember the point of the connector at the top of the pole is to provide a physical joint with fibre, and no need for a splice on the house exterior.

Some of the gains come from not having to splice fibres (including internal to external), and some from not having to blow fibre through BFT. In particular, no need to setup the equipment to do either.

More than duct, believe it will have the fibre in it already, hence increased speed to install

Seeing a trickle of FTTP appearing in Northern Ireland but have been expecting a wave

Also means training is quickly since its more plug and play

Pretty sure I have some cut open fibre cable pictures somewhere

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

More than duct, believe it will have the fibre in it already, hence increased speed to install

Oh, so its like the fibre cable they replaced last July between all the DP's down my road, that cable had all the fibre already in it.

That makes sense, so that cable coming from the connectorized block will be joint to a cable going back to the splitter, I say this due to that coiled up fibre cable looks only long enough to reach the chamber and that's it.

The only issue I think there will be when using the new connectorized way would be only a cleared underground network would be able to use it, due to there will be several fibre cables going through them where as the old way only one or two cable(s) goes through due to its all daisy chained where as the new way isn't, the new way is Star Connected.

I am not saying the new way isn't better, just not viable everywhere due to some chambers are linked by smaller piping that might even be blocked or damaged which would restrict the amount of fibre cables being pulled through it.

What I do like about the new Star Connection is that if a cable is severed it only take out the one pole of connections, where as the old way could take out the lot due to it being daisy chained.

Also is a cable is required to be replaced it would only affect the DP on the pole using it, the old way will affect the DP it connects to and all the following DP due to the daisy chain.

So both have their good and bad point.

As for saving time, I think that isn't entirely true.
Fibre still need to be all spliced and joint up, this all takes time, but all this would be when its all installed as a whole.

The only saving time would be when the customer orders FTTP, that's where you will see a possible speed increase due to the lack of the need to join a strand of fibre at the DP end and then the customers home/building.

I haven't seen the new way in person yet so I am more biased to the old way, but I am sure that will change once more and more areas use the new way.

Paul

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Also means training is quickly since its more plug and play

Pretty sure I have some cut open fibre cable pictures somewhere

There is that to it.

If its the type of cable I think it is I have a small piece here some place, when the engineers replaced the cables between all our DP's they left a piece several inches long in the kerb when they cleaned up when they was finished that July a year or two ago.

I will see if I can dig it out, its not something I would throw away
It was about just over a centimetre thick maybe 1.5cm I think (not seen it for over a year) and it had the fibre strands already inside it.

Paul

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

If its the type of cable I think it is I have a small piece here some place, when the engineers replaced the cables between all our DP's they left a piece several inches long in the kerb when they cleaned up when they was finished that July a year or two ago.

That is likely to be their standard cable, which wasn't pre-connected, where one or more "elements" of 12 fibres are delivered to a DP.

Because it isn't pre-terminated, that cable needs to be spliced at both ends ... so both ends need a node with splice trays. That would be the splitter node, and the old-style fibre DP.

The fibre DP is the point where empty tubing takes over, and is sent up to each manifold.

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

so that cable coming from the connectorized block will be joint to a cable going back to the splitter, I say this due to that coiled up fibre cable looks only long enough to reach the chamber and that's it.

In one presentation, Neil McRae talked about the new fibre being Corning SST ... because it was small, but had strengtheners that allowed it to break through silt blockages that (in the old method) required a dig.

The SST fibre comes pre-terminated in the connection block, so it has to start from the top of the pole. It will need routing to "wherever", and then splicing.

However, there are no other nodes in this setup where splice trays exist ... so that cable has to go all the way back to the splitter node.

What kind of distance is that?

Splitter nodes can handle 128 premises, so you could assume they can manage 1 or 2 typical streets, and I guess there'll be 3-6 splitter nodes per PCP. In most cases, they're not going to be more than 200m away - less than the distance to a PCP.

Looking at Corning's website, you can see the following as an example of an 8-port connection-block with a pre-connected SST stub cable:
https://goo.gl/KfsYLK

Those come in 4 variants, where the stub can be 50m, 100m, 150m and 200m.

They look to be being sold in the right kind of way.

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

The only issue I think there will be when using the new connectorized way would be only a cleared underground network would be able to use it, due to there will be several fibre cables going through them where as the old way only one or two cable(s) goes through due to its all daisy chained where as the new way isn't, the new way is Star Connected.

Between the splitter and the DPs, you are right - the pass-through is lost. It ends up replaced by separate SST cables. The question is whether those new cables are slimmer than previously.

The network between Aggregation Node and Splitter Node can still be a daisy-chain. In fact, looking at the architecture diagram in the link earlier, it is envisaged that the distribution from Aggregation node could be changed to BFT tubing, with a simple tube-intercept joint in the chamber.

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

I am not saying the new way isn't better, just not viable everywhere due to some chambers are linked by smaller piping that might even be blocked or damaged which would restrict the amount of fibre cables being pulled through it.

The available space is definitely a consideration. However, Neil McRae's presentation suggested this fibre is definitely being used to help through blockages.

@MrSaffron has previous articles describing BT's use of ever-smaller fibre cables, so that they can get through in space-challenged environments. I don't know how those cables relate to these ones, though.

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

As for saving time, I think that isn't entirely true.
Fibre still need to be all spliced and joint up, this all takes time, but all this would be when its all installed as a whole.

As far as I can see, there is still a splice needed in the splitter node, which (as you say) is done at the pre-build stage.

However, at this stage, the majority of the gain comes from being able to beat more blockages without resorting to a dig.

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

The only saving time would be when the customer orders FTTP, that's where you will see a possible speed increase due to the lack of the need to join a strand of fibre at the DP end and then the customers home/building.

Beyond that, on the final day of appointment, there is no need for a splice at the DP, no need for a splice on the outside of the house, and no need to blow fibre from the DP to the house.

All that is needed is the time to deploy the (connectorised) drop cable from the top of the pole ... which should be the same amount of time as deploying the empty BFT tube drop from the manifold.

IIRC, the old way used one day (without appointment) to get the fibre to the outside of the house, and a second day (with appointment) for the inside. I think the aim is to get this down to just one visit.

There's a temporary issue that means some of the fibre cables don't have the yellow stripe on the side.

In reply to a post by Icaras:

There's a temporary issue that means some of the fibre cables don't have the yellow stripe on the side.

That is going to cause great confusion in twenty years time when a fault develops.

The fact there is no yellow stripe will not be documented, and nobody around will remember - even if Openreach is still involved, so they will never find the cable .

It is the corning stuff and final drop ones have a pull limit of 100lb and the bundles are tough enough to almost rod their way through blockages and small enough to squeeze through gaps between large bundles.

48, 72 fibre in a cable 1cm diameter if brain is remembering, will dig camera when I have more than an hour away from work PC.