What does Fibre to the X Mean?

The fibre line can be terminated and joined to a metallic line using optical transceivers at any of the checkpoints along the fibre optic connection from an ISP to a customer until it reaches the client. The fibre to the X (FTTX) concept is based on the notion that the topology of a line and the infrastructure of a distribution network are determined by the point at which a fibre line is terminated and converted into a metallic line. As a result, various terminologies like FTTH, FTTN, FTTC, FTTB, and others are implied by the phrase FTTX.

The node is FTTN is a large-scale optical receiver that terminates a broadband multi-fibre optical cable, coming from an ISP (Internet Service Provider), and distributes it into multiple metallic network lines that reach the clients’ homes or offices. FTTN technically means fibre to the Node but is commonly interpreted as fibre to the Neighborhood, as every neighborhood would have a node for internet line distribution. The term FTTN may also be substituted by FTTLA (fibre to the Last Amplifier), because a long broadband multi-fibre optical cable usually has amplifiers, which amplify the signal along the line.

A FTTC fibre internet line is terminated in a distribution cabinet located no more than 300 meters from the client’s home or . This means an FTTC lines are terminated at the middle between a fibre optic node and the clients. The passive optical network (PON) fibre lines in the FTTC topology are often distributed to several clients through metallic cabling from the cabinet. FTTC technically means fibre to the Cabin but it is commonly defined as fibre to the Curb. That is why it can be known as FTTK in countries that use the British spelling of the word “Kerb”.

FTTK (Fibre to the Kerb) is the British spelling of its American equivalent FTTC (fibre to the Curb). Technically they both mean fibre to the Cabinet typology, in which a fibre internet line is terminated in fibre distribution cabinet, 300 m (at most) away from the client’s home or office.

Fibre to the Home, or FTTH, is a network infrastructure topology in which a fibre internet line reaches a client's home or business, or at least reaches up to 2 meters from the client's property or company premises. FTTH can simply refer to the delivery of a fibre internet line to homes, offices, apartment buildings, and other facilities. FTTH can also refer to FTTF (fibre to the Floor), FTTD (fibre to the Door or fibre to the Desk), and it is commonly used to refer to FTTB (fibre to the Building) and FTTP (fibre to the Premises).

FTTR has three meanings. First, FTTR (fibre to the Router) is a fibre internet line spanning from the ISP to the client home or office router. Second, FTTR (fibre to the Room) is a multiple FTTH (fibre to the Home) line that is spilt within the house to multiple fibre lines, each for a different room. Third, FTTR (fibre to the Radio) is a fibre line that reaches the base station of a radio or mobile network, but it does not reach the actual transmitting antenna like in FTTA (fibre to the Antenna or fibre to the Air).

In FTTB a fibre optic internet line reaches the inner area of a business or residential building and it is usually terminated in a fibre termination box in the basement of the building. That is why FTTB (fibre to the Building) is usually referred to as fibre to the Basement or fibre to the Business, when the building belongs to a corporation.

FTTP is a term usually used to refer to fibre to the Premises architecture topology in fibre network infrastructure. It refers to a fibre internet line that reaches the inner side of the a company premises fence or the inner side of a multi-building residential complex. This FTTP term is relatively large and covers within it many other fibre optic network topologies like: FTTB (fibre to the Building), FTTH (fibre to the Home), FTTD (fibre to the Desk/Door), FTTF (fibre to the Floor), and FTTR (fibre to the Router).

The term FTTF can refer to a fibre internet line that reaches the inner area of a building and it is split into multiple fibre lines, one for each floor and then it is terminated and transferred to a metallic network. It is very close to the term FTTH (fibre to the Home) but the difference that FTTF means the fibre line is terminated higher than the ground floor and then terminated to a metallic network an distributed to multiple apartments. On the other hand, FTTF (fibre to the Frontage) is used as an equivalent to FTTB (fibre to the Building) as to mean that the fibre line reaches the front side of a building. FTTF can also mean fibre to the Farm or fibre to the Factory, depending on the type of area in which the fibre optic infrastructure is laid out.

Fibre network architecture topology names have multiple meanings like the term FTTD; which can mean fibre to the Desk, referring to fibre line from a building server to an office desk, or can mean fibre to the Door, referring to a fibre internet line that reaches the outside wall of a building apartment, with in an FTTH (fibre to the Home) network infrastructure.

FTTA network architecture topology term have two definitions. One is fibre to the Antenna and the other is fibre to the Air, but they both imply the same meaning. FTTA (fibre to the Anetnna or fibre to the Air) term is used when the lines of a fibre network reach up radio antennas, which have optical transceivers and transmitter in order to transfer optical signals into radio waves. FTTA networks represent the base infrastructure of 3G, 4G and 5G mobile networks. On other hand, as previously mentioned in this article, FTTR (fibre to the Radio) means that fibre optic cables reach the base station of a radio or mobile network, but the actual transmitting antenna.