Fiber-to-the-room: fibre optics to every single room

The Chinese company Huawei has developed a fiber optic installation system for private households: Fiber-to-the-Room (FTTR). A special glue gun is used to attach the fiber optic cable to door frames or skirting boards in a single operation. The FTTR system consists of a central unit (Master FTTR Unit, MFU), which establishes the Internet connection and is connected to a so-called Switch Fabric Unit (SFU) in each individual room via a fiber optic distribution unit (FDU). This SFU contains a WLAN transceiver (Wi-Fi 7) and several Gigabit Ethernet ports.

This means that at least one MFU and one SFU as well as the glue gun and fiber optics from Huawei are required to get started. The manufacturer has not yet provided any information on prices. Huawei is cooperating with the German sales partner Carrierwerke. Carrierwerke in turn is initially selling FTTR via the fiber optic Internet provider Glasfaser Direkt, which is currently expanding networks in several municipalities in southern Germany.

With the hot needle

Starting from a passive fiber optic splitter, which acts as a transfer point for the Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON), the cable is routed from the basement to the home, for example.

The fiber optic cable itself is attached to joints and door frames using a type of hot glue gun. The battery-operated combination tool applies a heat-liquefied adhesive as a carrier into which it embeds the transparent fiber unwound from a spool.

Cables are available in lengths of 10, 15 and 20 meters and with pre-assembled connections. Excess lengths can be plugged together with a so-called Access Terminal Box (ATB), which makes splicing unnecessary.

Wi-Fi 7 transceivers are necessary in rooms where the fastest possible Internet is required. Wi-Fi 7 achieves the highest transfer rates in the 6 GHz band, which is heavily attenuated by walls. However, Huawei emphasizes that end devices are connected to the optimal node in the mesh at home at all times thanks to seamless roaming and band steering technology.

Full control

In conjunction with the LinkHome app, the Network Control Engine (NCE) allows real-time analysis of the network. Huawei's focus here is particularly on parents who want to control their children's Internet consumption.

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(aki)