Charles Pointe, West Virginia: An FTTP case study

Nov. 14, 2006
By Tom Doiron, Tellabs -- One size rarely fits all in the network equipment business, and Charles Pointe's business plan--including a plan to deliver triple play from the beginning--produced several high-priority requirements for its suppliers.

One size rarely fits all in the network equipment business, and Charles Pointe's business plan--including a plan to deliver triple play from the beginning--produced several high-priority requirements for its suppliers.

By Tim Doiron, Tellabs

West Virginia is realizing the fruits of an economic development initiative ten years in the making, the cornerstone of which is the state's High Technology Corridor. Land development company Genesis Partners has created a master-planned community, Charles Pointe, within this high-tech corridor to appeal to people looking to live, work, or grow a business there. The community is equipped with a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network that is helping Charles Pointe achieve a win-win situation for the developer, service provider, and customer.

When purchasing property at Charles Pointe, home and business owners also are buying advanced data, voice, and video services delivered over a FTTP network, says James Corton, managing partner of Genesis Partners. "From the start, we looked at more than land," he recalls. "We've always envisioned voice, video, and data over fiber and wireless to cover every physical space in the community, and from there we began selecting partners. My primary concern was content, so the question was, 'What's the greatest capacity and best technology we can get in the ground?'" he muses. "We're a greenfield development, so we can implement the best new infrastructure. We never considered DSL or coaxial cable. We saw those as temporary fixes."

"Treating advanced communications services as another amenity, along with parks, recreation, and a traditional downtown area, is integral to our business plan," Corton continues. "Whatever 'fiber' may mean to [prospective buyers and tenants], we're certain everybody will use it, and we're building it right into the infrastructure of the homes and businesses."

Unique challenges

From the outset of the project, Genesis Partners wanted a fiber-optic local access infrastructure. The company hired The Broadband Group to design requirements for the infrastructure and tapped Communications Plus (a TelAtlantic subsidiary) to build and manage the network.

In its request for proposals (RFPs) to suppliers, TelAtlantic stipulated that the winning technology must support triple-play voice, data, and video services--including hundreds of voice and high-speed data lines across business and residential customers--by year two.

By year five, the system would need to support a ten-fold increase in business demand and a five-fold increase in residential demand. During that time, the winning bid also would have to support migration from 3-Mbit/sec data service to a substantially higher data rate. This migration will be critical as more bandwidth-intensive IP-based services--including VoIP, IPTV, and multiplayer gaming--become commonplace.

"We were determined to offer video services and data speeds equal to or greater than the incumbents at a better price," reports Walt Burmeister, chief operating officer of TelAtlantic. "We're also planning wireless data access in common areas for residents and guests."

One size rarely fits all in the network equipment business, and Charles Pointe's business plan--including a plan to deliver triple play from the beginning--produced several high-priority requirements for its suppliers.

Multi-source equipment supply. The partners sought a supplier who could ensure multiple sources of equipment through standards-based interoperability. This would guarantee price competition for equipment as the community grows.

Voice evolution. The network would be required to carry standard circuit-switched telephone traffic as well as high-speed data traffic.

Video evolution. At launch, the system must support hundreds of digital and analog standard and HDTV services. Simultaneously, the transport platform must accommodate IPTV as the technology matures.

Business and residential customer equipment. The sole access network must serve single-family homes, multiple-tenant dwellings, and businesses. Each property would be outfitted inside and out for optimal service performance from the first day of occupation. Consequently, the partners needed multiple types of optical network terminals (ONTs) supporting a variety of voice, data, and video interfaces.

Operational efficiency. Charles Pointe wanted a system that would not break its return-on-investment (ROI) model with higher maintenance costs as the community grows. The partners sought a system with minimal complexity to keep total cost of ownership (TCO) predictable and customer support highly responsive.

After evaluating multiple passive and active optical network approaches, the three companies selected Tellabs' DynamicHome portfolio. Based on BPON standards, the primary components include the Tellabs 1020 system optical line terminals (OLTs), which are connected to a range of Tellabs 1600 ONTs. Each OLT can deliver 622 Mbits/sec downstream and 155 Mbits/sec upstream, shared by up to 32 ONTs.

Communications Plus will install and operate the fiber-access network. Initially, it is deploying all OLTs in a single central office that features an integrated voice gateway and support for voice, data, and video services. Each OLT will serve 16 homes at distances less than a mile, delivering nearly 40 Mbits/sec to each property downstream.

(The downstream and upstream capacity of the OLT also may be divided among 32 homes, effectively yielding 19 Mbits/sec downstream and 4.8 Mbits/sec upstream. On the flipside, TelAtlantic can easily reprogram the OLT to serve fewer locations as customers demand more bandwidth-intensive applications, potentially delivering all the bandwidth to a single location should demand justify it.)

Each ONT is mounted on the exterior walls of tenant properties, with backup battery power typically located inside the property. During property construction, an inside-wiring contractor will install a wiring closet and high-end Category-5 Ethernet, phone, and cable TV wiring, as well as a security system, fire protection, and HVAC wiring.

"To deliver maximum quality of service, we needed standards not just to the house, but inside the house," says Corton. "This is a world-class community competing with the world for clients. There are people spending millions for homes that are not doing what we're doing. Quality is everything."

At the central office, Communications Plus will provision each property on the Tellabs 1020 system. On the access side of the OLT, the connection is made to the ONT at each property. On the WAN side of the OLT, connections are made to Communications Plus' telephone switch and Internet backbone connection and to Genesis Partners' initial video services partner, Time Warner Cable.

On move-in day, both home and business owners will find their properties outfitted with ONTs. They also will find state-of-the-art in-home and in-business wiring and public area Wi-Fi broadband Internet access throughout the community.

Fulfilling RFP requirements

In short, the Tellabs DynamicHome portfolio enables TelAtlantic to fulfill the key requirements of its RFP, including the following:

Multi-source equipment supply. To ensure that its ONT equipment will interoperate seamlessly with certified partners' equipment in a single, multi-vendor FTTP PON network, Tellabs has implemented an ONT Interoperability Program. This testing and certification program meets TelAtlantic's goal of access to multiple suppliers of BPON equipment for its continued deployment over the coming years.

Voice evolution. Communications Plus will use the OLT to deliver voice and high-speed data services to each property and public-area wireless network. The OLT's integrated voice gateway supports traditional telephony signaling and voice-over-IP (VoIP) signaling via the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), setting the stage for seamless migration to advanced VoIP services.

Video evolution. Initially, the Tellabs system enables Communications Plus to devote a separate wavelength on the fiber to a radio frequency (RF) 'overlay' for delivery of several hundred digital and analog TV signals, including HDTV. This is provided by the initial third-party programmer and broadcast across the network to each ONT, much as cable TV operators deliver broadcast, multi-channel TV.

Tellabs' IP packet data support and enhanced capacity also supports the coming IPTV revolution. This enables Communications Plus to deliver highly personalized, on-demand video services to each residence and business once TelAtlantic deems IPTV technology "effective and affordable."

Business and residential customer equipment. The partners have contracted Tellabs to develop and deliver additional ONT designs to serve multiple categories of single-family, multi-tenant, and small- to medium-sized business properties.

Operational efficiency. The Tellabs 1090 network management system provides seamless integration into Communications Plus' existing infrastructure. Tellabs also supports centralized management and flow-through provisioning from either Telcordia Operational Support Systems (OSSs) or proprietary OSSs. This centralized management yields seamless control of the access network and helps ensure smooth deployment. It also minimizes labor and field technician truck roll costs. "This will be absolutely non-labor intensive," says Corton, "because it will all be software controlled from 30 miles away."

Looking ahead

With the technology and equipment decisions made, Genesis Partners then focused its attention on the management of the FTTP network. Rather than turning over broadband services to the incumbent operator, Genesis Partners decided to make these services an integral piece of the real estate. Property owners pay for base-level communications services as a part of their association fees.

Genesis Partners' investment in infrastructure and its structuring of partnerships carves out a forward-looking, ongoing role in services. "In our financial model, we look at utilities as a source of revenue," says Corton. "We're installing these utilities anyway, so why not make the best deal for our customers up front?"

TelAtlantic co-developed an agreement structured to share revenues and responsibilities with Genesis Partners, creating an investment and growth opportunity for Communications Plus, TelAtlantic's WV subsidiary. The company will deliver services to 100% of the homes and businesses in the community. Additionally, TelAtlantic is free to develop and offer advanced voice, data, and video services to residents, including VoIP and IPTV services. That said, TelAtlantic expects two-thirds of telecommunications service revenues to come from commercial accounts.

In conclusion, Charles Pointe's FTTP network yields benefits for its customers, partners, and suppliers, including the ability to:
• Attract buyers with a set of advanced communications, entertainment, and information services;
• Increase bandwidth and improve quality and richness of services compared to alternative network architectures;
• Offer converged voice, data, and video services to both residential and business customers over a common infrastructure;
• Easily provision services from a centralized location with fewer costly truck rolls; and
• Reduce network-operating expenses through all passive network components, eliminating right-of-way issues, outside plant powering, and maintenance.

Over the next two decades, Genesis Partners expects the master planned community to grow to more than 2,300 single and multi-family homes and 2.5 million square feet of commercial office and retail space.

In Charles Pointe, Genesis Partners has established a long-term interest in an integrated utilities and fiber-optic communication infrastructure for an entire community. The developer and its service provider partner now have a stake in an infrastructure with ample 'headroom' for continued service innovations.

"Most developers do not have the fortitude to plan, build, and own a network, much less the determination to execute it," contends Don Knasel, principal consultant for The Broadband Group. "Charles Pointe used its real estate expertise to change the economics for a developer to invest in a fiber network. It has focused its resources to achieve its goal for a state-of-the-art communications network and the associated marketing advantages."


Tim Doiron is group marketing manager at Tellabs. He may be reached via the company's Web site at www.tellabs.com.


DynamicHome is a registered trademark of Tellabs.

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