OTN Fiber Network: How to Layout for Latin American Broadband Projects?

Latin America is experiencing a broadband revolution, with operators investing aggressively in national connectivity plans and in rolling out fiber, trying to satisfy ever growing demand by the consumers for higher speeds. To bring faster access to urban centers of São Paulo and Mexico City, remote villages of the Amazon or the high mountain lands of the Andes, optical transport networks are a fundamental part of this infrastructure. OTN fiber networks offer the necessary stability, scalability, and affordability for Latin American operators undertaking successful broadband deployment.

Latin American Broadband Market Demand

The broadband market of Latin America is very diverse. The areas with high demand, that are the metropolitan ones, have customers seeking gigabit speeds, necessary for streaming, online gaming and home office. The suburban and exurban markets require reliable internet access, especially small and medium businesses and distance learning programs. Rural areas, largely underserved and with the next area of growth opportunity, have already begun to benefit from universal service initiatives focused on digital inclusion.  Mobile backhaul traffic from 4G and early-stage 5G networks adds further load to the transport infrastructure. The total addressable bandwidth market in the region is expected to grow by more than 10% every year, and OTN fiber networks can address this demand with a singular transport infrastructure suitable for residential broadband, enterprise connectivity and mobile backhaul applications.

Key Requirements for Urban Broadband Layout

Urban broadband layout in Latin America has a specific set of requirements that OTN networks can readily satisfy. The high population density requires highly-scalable aggregation sites that can concentrate capacity from multiple fiber distribution sites. The space limitation within historic city centers demands that the network use compact and high-density equipment so as to minimize the number of ports per rack unit. Rings that link multiple central offices will be required to support the redundancy that businesses in the city center demand, and speed of service provisioning for fast turn-up will be crucial in a competitive pricing environment. Any equipment deployed will need to co-exist with the operator's existing SDH or Ethernet aggregation equipment. DCI platforms developed for urban deployment address these needs with their smaller form factors, a variety of line cards to carry various traffic types, and a greater port count than previously available devices. For cities such as Bogota, Lima and Santiago, these advantages will result in quicker deployments and lower civil work costs.

Simple & Practical OTN Fiber Deployment

In a dynamic environment, time is of the essence and any approach that adds complexity will slow the pace of development. Deploying an OTN fiber network will be easy if its development incorporates practical principles. When planning the network layout, it will be desirable to utilize the operator's existing fiber, such as lines from utility poles, metropolitan fiber rings and leased dark fiber, rather than building new infrastructure where possible. Optical amplification and dispersion compensation will be included on the OTN transport gear to eliminate or reduce the need for repeater sites. Pre-connectorized cables and pluggable optics will reduce on-site work for fiber technicians to install and test. Remote management capabilities should be in place from the start so that the entire network can be provisioned from a central location without the need for site visits. Network operators should also favor modular growth by installing only as many line cards as are needed for current demand in each switch and then populating additional slots as bandwidth demands dictate.

Cost-Effective OTN Network Construction

The most important consideration for Latin American operators, especially as they look beyond the most populous cities, will be how to obtain the lowest possible total construction cost. This begins with utilizing the appropriate type of equipment at each layer in the network: fully featured OTN for core nodes, smaller switches for aggregation nodes, and OTN terminal multiplexers for the access layer. When possible, plain grey optics may be used instead of colored transceivers in short-haul links within a single metropolitan area. The use of passive WDM may be favored on some branches where a lower capacity connection is required, deferring active OTN switches for high-capacity points. Consider utilizing the CKD model where equipment is shipped to local markets for assembly so that landed costs can be reduced, and in some markets, the local assembly will satisfy domestic manufacturing requirements (i.e. Brazil). Where available on the wholesale market, fiber optic cable should be leased rather than laid anew.

Easy Maintenance for Broadband Operations

The longevity and profitability of a network are critically dependent on how simple it is to maintain once constructed. In most Latin American markets, there is simply not a large engineering work force available to support network operations, especially outside of a major metropolitan area. A single network management application that presents the status of every OTN node on a single interface will significantly reduce engineering effort. Advanced built-in performance monitoring can alert operators to degraded fiber spans or failed components, helping prevent customer service issues. Inventory costs and replacement times can be reduced through standardization on transceiver types used throughout the network. Software upgrades can be performed on remote sites, reducing truck rolls and associated labor costs. Troubleshooting tools such as comprehensive logging and readily accessible web interfaces will enable first tier support centers to identify and resolve network problems.

Reliable OTN Solutions for Local Operators

The Latin American regional and local service providers, utility networks and municipal broadband initiatives require reliable OTN solutions that fit within their budget. Sino-Telecom offers OTN platforms that are specifically tailored to these demands. Our devices can accommodate the wide temperature variations encountered when air conditioning is unavailable, employ redundant power supplies to address unreliable power grids and hardened optics that are immune to varying fiber quality. Management interfaces are available in Spanish and Portuguese, reducing training costs for local engineers. Our SKD and CKD models are compatible with local content policies in markets such as Brazil, Argentina. This helps providers meet the requirements for obtaining development bank financing or government subsidies. Sino-Telecom's OTN solutions have proven reliable in more than 30 countries around the world, including deployments in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Chile.

OTN Network Advantages for Latin American Markets

Latin American markets will benefit from the advantages offered by OTN fiber networks in ways that no other transport technology can. Because it can instantly protect service and maintain signal integrity even during failures in a fiber span, OTN fiber networks offer high availability service, which customers requiring dependable, uptime intensive connectivity are willing to pay more for. Operators can dynamically adjust bandwidth without interrupting customer service by leveraging OTN's built-in bandwidth adjustment capabilities and thus tier their service offerings from 100 Mbps up to 10 Gbps, 100 Gbps or beyond seamlessly. Comprehensive monitoring provides operators with service level agreement tracking, and standard interoperable interfaces reduce integration challenges when interconnecting with other network operators. Support for mixed client signals such as PDH and SDH also makes the transition from older networks painless.

Conclusion

The OTN fiber networks serve as a reliable, expandable and affordable backbone for future growth by the broadband operators in Latin America. By understanding local market needs and implementing simple, practical deployment, cost-effective construction, and easy maintenance, broadband operators can build sustainable fiber networks from urban centers to rural areas.

Contact us through our website or email today to learn why many operators in Latin America turn to Sino-Telecom for reliable OTN fiber network solutions.