FibreToTheHome

FTTH (fiber-to-the-home): Fiber reaches the boundary of the living space, such as a box on the outside wall of a home. Passive optical networks and point-to-point Ethernet are architectures that deliver triple-play services over FTTH networks directly from an operator's central office The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council, a non-profit organization of more than 200 companies and organizations dedicated to expanding the deployment of all-fiber, next-generation networks is developing the first-ever certification program aimed at professionals who design, administer, and manage FTTH systems.

The announcement was made at OFC/NFOEC, which is underway this week in San Diego, Calif. The Certified Fiber to the Home Professional (CFHP) program, to be launched later this year, will consist of a special curriculum and examination program to determine and certify competence in FTTH design, architecture, deployment, and administration technologies. The Council will serve as the sponsor and operator of the certification and testing platforms. The program is aimed at accomplished professionals who wish to obtain industry certification of their skills, as well as to those who wish to upgrade their skills and knowledge to achieve the certification. For the latter group, the Council is partnering with one of its members, The Light Brigade, to develop a curriculum and study materials to support the certification program. The course and the certification examination will address topics critical to the FTTH design and planning, including physical network architecture services (triple play) and topologies, the impact of bandwidth on FTTH system, standards and building codes, Ethernet networks, and future migration considerations. Also covered will be video systems, such as RF video versus IPTV, compression techniques, and RFOG and return paths. The program is intended to certify competence in overall FTTH theory, terminology, topology, equipment, and system cost estimation, and is not intended to involve competency in a particular vendor's equipment. "The need for this kind of program has arisen because of the rapidly growing number of telecommunications providers that are now planning or building fiber to the home networks," says Joe Savage, president of the FTTH Council. "It makes sense for our organization to establish a credible certification program for those individuals who are going to be building North America's next generation networks. And we are delighted that The Light Brigade is going to contribute its expertise in fiber-optic training to make this happen."