BUILDINGS, ARCHITECTURE, AND GPON

DESIGNING SPACE, WEIGHT, & ENERGY SAVINGS INTO YOUR PROJECTS

Our Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) solution provides architects and clients timely and substantial benefits. GPON achieves significant savings in a building’s space, weight, and energy consumption. In addition, GPON provides amazing bandwidth capabilities at a time when copper is close to reaching its practical transmission limits. In comparison analyses time and again, GPON consistently outperforms traditional copper installations for voice, video, and data applications in any given project.

WEIGHT
- Copper
  A typical copper-based voice, video, and data commercial installation requires thousands of feet of CAT 6 (for voice and data transmission) and RG-6 cables (for video transmission), at a penalty of several tons of weight. Because of its 300-feet Gigabit data-transmission capability, CAT 6 is the preferred best-practice copper cabling alternative used today. At a weight of 27.6 pounds per 1000 feet, CAT 6 cable deployment typically ranges between 10 to 15 tons (20 to 30 thousand pounds) for voice and data in an average-size multistory commercial building. But sometimes the weight actually exceeds this range. SPADA has provided GPON estimates for an eight-story building that weighs in at 37.9 tons (75,900 pounds) of CAT 6 cable for voice and data transmission.
  GPON Fiber
  In contrast, at a weight of 5.1 pounds per 1000 feet, SPADA’s plenumrated GPON fiber is able to drastically reduce the weight of the voice, video, and data cabling required for an installation. The same eight-story facility installation above would require a mere 1.8 tons (3,516 pounds) of GPON fiber, and GPON would also have the capacity to carry within it (at no added weight penalty) a superior video transmission capability not available with CAT 6 cabling.
TRANSMISSION RANGE
- Copper
  CAT 6 cabling can only provide 300 feet (100 meters) of 1 Gigabit (1000 Megabits) signal transmission before needing boosting for further transmission distances.
  GPON
  GPON fiber, in comparison, can provide 25 miles (40 kilometers) of 20 Terabits (20,000 Gigabits) plus signal transmission without needing any boosting. The transmission advantages of GPON, both in speed and distance, are truly beyond comparison. GPON’s advanced transmission capability effectively future proofs the low-power fiber infrastructure.
DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS
- Copper: Active Electronic Distribution
  Because of its 300-feet transmission-range limitation, CAT 6 copper cabling requires access-layer distribution switches on every floor of a building to maintain the required signal transmission quality. These switches must be placed in air-conditioned IDF (Intermediate Distribution Frame) rooms that require valuable space and energy. The power consumed by these IDF rooms is a result of round-the-clock use of the access-layer distribution switches and the air conditioning required to cool them.
  GPON: Passive Distribution
  Because of its superlative transmission range, GPON does not require signal boosting in any given facility. Passive devices split the fiber from one to many segments (1 to 2,4,8,16,32, or 64 segments) at the distribution points. These passive components do not require power or cooling, they occupy little space, and they can be placed at convenient points within the facility, including ceiling tile capable enclosures. GPON fiber distribution does not require IDF rooms on every floor, and the distance of a single fiber run before its distribution point can be up to 25 miles!
SUSTAINABILITY
- Copper
  Copper-based networks rely upon equipment that requires dedicated cooling, monopolizes valuable space, adds weight to a facility, consumes power, wastes natural resources, is responsible for a considerable amount of a facility’s operating expenses, and, because of the high demand for copper on the black market, exposes the facility to a high-theft rate.
  GPON
  In comparison to a copper-based network, a GPON installation is much lighter weight, requires substantially less power, eliminates IDF rooms, and conserves natural resources. GPON replaces the inefficient Layer 2 networking switches with an advanced passive fiber optic network infrastructure. GPON is Green, and its savings can be quantified. Unlike copper, which is a limited resource, GPON fiber is made out of sand.