Fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) is now on the roadmap for cable – unofficially, but still. The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) recently began development of a suite of technical industry standards to support greater use of optical fiber in hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) cable networks.

The trend, frequently referred to as “RF over Glass,” concerns the expanded use of optical fiber while continuing to deliver current cable services and technologies . Standards have become necessary with the increasing requirement for additional bandwidth and the growing use of FTTP (largely in greenfield deployments).

The development program is being conducted by the SCTE Interface Practices Subcommittee (IPS). Part of IPS’ RF over Glass focus in the early going has been on a document entitled “IPS SP 910, RF over Glass System Overview.”

This working document addresses DOCSIS and cable television’s HFC systems, an environment where data and video share the same RF spectrum.

Other points of focus for IPS concerning RF over Glass are:

• Specification for performance of fiber optic passive splitters and directional couplers
• Specification for fiber optic passive filters
• Specification for RF over Glass gateway RF levels
• Specification for RF over Glass gateway operation: burst transmitter RF input trigger power level range specification
• Specification for RF over Glass gateway optical input and output RF levels and wavelengths
• RF over Glass gateway environmental requirements
• Recommended practices for mid-split cable equipment and system operations.

The SCTE Standards Program is open to any individual or organization willing to participate and pay a membership fee. More information – including membership benefits, requirements and fees – is available here or by contacting SCTE Vice President of Standards Steve Oksala at soksala@scte.org or 610-363-6888.

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