Table of Contents:

Definition and Overview

1. Rural Market Characteristics

2. Population Shifts and Changed Expectations

3. Rural versus Urban Telephony

4. Rural FSN Architectures

5. HFC Network for Rural Applications

6. A Fiber System for the Rural FSN

7. Wireless Access to the Rural FSN

8. High-Speed Digital Access in the Rural FSN

9. Conclusion

Self-Test

Glossary

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For HFC, the broadband-transport system must be installed prior to any service activation. For rural applications, the HFC–over-coax approach is generally too costly, as evidenced by the fact that coaxial cable for video transport is not in the rural areas because of the high cost (see Figure 5). The number of television households not passed by a CATV system is approximately 4 percent or 4 million homes—a significant amount.

Figure 5. Typical Network for Telephony over HFC

In some cases, there may be a high enough concentration of passings to justify the construction of a miniature HFC infrastructure. In these instances, the telephony system justifies bringing fiber to a location where it would not be justified on a video-only basis. Video services are added only to those ONU locations that can effectively amortize the cost of video optoelectronics and coaxial network. Telephony services are provided over separate fiber and copper facilities (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Selective Addition of HFC Capability to the Fiber-Based Rural FSN