FTTR vs FTTH: Differences Between FTTR and FTTH Deployment

Author: Heming

FTTH (Fiber to the Home) short of being the goal for telecom operators worldwide, it provides residential users with high bandwidth, multi-service integration, and better support for smart-home applications. After decades of buildout, the FTTH market is near saturation. As user demands grow increasingly-particularly with whole-home Wi-Fi-FTTR (Fiber to the Room) is seen as a next-gen solution.

FTTH (Fiber to the Home): Optical fiber gets to the home and terminates closer to the entry point with an ONU/ONT.
FTTR (Fiber to the Room): Optical fiber gets to each room and variants of room-level fiber connectivity.

In summary, FTTR is an evolution from FTTH and can be a transformation, an upgrade that drives the home experience. In this article, we walk you through FTTR vs FTTH comparison, difference architecture, performance, installation and operator management.

1. FTTR vs FTTH: Networking Architectures Differences

Traditional FTTH Architecture

In traditional FTTH deployments, the optical network terminates at an ONU/ONT installed inside the home. The users need to connect a third-party router generally via Ethernet cabling to spread Wi-Fi throughout the house. Overall performance depends heavily on this router's placement, Wi-Fi capability, and specific home layout.

FTTR Architecture

FTTR employs a PON-based master–slave architecture to provide the home with distributed optical backhaul unified. All slave units are connected to the master with indoor optical fiber, forming an optical mesh in the home and serving the market with whole-home coverage and central management. Whereas FTTH only offers a single router to handle the home network, FTTR provides an all-optical home network.

2. FTTR vs FTTH: Downlink Network Structure and Interface Design

FTTH Downlink Structure

In single router FTTH networks, the ONU/ONT typically has:

1 × LAN downlink port

Connected directly to either a router or terminal device

Having only this simple interface does not provide flexibility and also does not lend itself optimally to network distribution across several rooms.

FTTR Downlink Structure

FTTR with a more advanced interface design: the FTTR master device has:

1 × PON downlink port for connecting slave FTTR units

1 × LAN downlink port for connecting end devices

Which means:
The FTTR master can at the same time:

Backhaul the in-home optical network to PON

Serve terminals directly

Rich in terms of network interface, FTTR has more to offer than the traditional FTTH ONU/ONT.

3. FTTR vs FTTH: Installation Method and Indoor Wi-Fi Deployment

FTTH Installation

In many cases, FTTH installations place the ONU/ONT inside the weak-current distribution box near the front of the house, so that the house relies on:

A single standalone router

Ethernet connections where and if needed

Because of walls and distance, that rarely extends to full-home Wi-Fi coverage.

FTTR Installation

Each FTTR master and slave unit then also has high-performance Wi-Fi 6/6E capability. Devices in bedrooms and other areas of high usage. This enables consistent and even room-level gigabit-class Wi-Fi coverage that is not possible using conventional FTTH systems.

4. FTTR vs FTTH: Network Performance and User Experience

FTTH Network Performance

FTTH typically runs into the barrier of where Wi-Fi doesn't reach throughout the home. As soon as Wi-Fi signal passes through the wall of the home, the speed and latency degrade really quickly. The biggest impact is on performance with large homes and duplexes. How the router is specified and installed has a serious impact.

FTTR Network Performance

By extending optical fibre into every room in your home, FTTR delivers a fundamentally better in-home network:

High speed connectivity

Ultra-low latency

Wide area Wi-Fi network coverage

Highly stable signal quality

Fiber's diameter is tiny, super lightweight, lasts for 30 years, and is not impacted by electromagnetic interference. There's tremendous performance combined with wide-area wireless capacity not possible using a traditional FTTH model.

5. FTTR vs FTTH: Who Controls What (Management Scope and Service Control)?

FTTH Management Scope

Because FTTH architectures generally only terminate the optical signal at the ONU or ONT, that's where the operator's network coverage ends, and the provider has no control of the in-home networking functions, such as router, Wi-Fi layout, or wiring. As such, operators have limited visibility when they need to troubleshoot problems related to home networking performance.

FTTR Management Scope

FTTR extends the optical network to every slave FTTR unit in the home. Operators with an FTTR build can manage the access point in the home, and can view and control the entire in-home optical distribution network. Compared to FTTH, FTTR widens the operator's scope of management massively, providing:

Better visibility on QoS

More accurate fault location

Enhanced SLA compliance

Improved quality of user experience

6. So Which is Better, FTTR or FTTH?