Fiber To The Office (FTTO)

Fiber optic cabling up to the workspace offers high data rates and long link lengths. In many projects floor distributors can be omitted. Terminal devices with RJ45 ports are connected to micro switches at the workspace with standard RJ45 copper patch cords. Read on to find out more.

FTTO is the acronym for “Fiber To The Office”. Fiber optic cables run from a central distributor in star-topology to the workspaces. The distributor is not necessarily located in the same building. Maximum link is typically 400 meters up to 550 meters using multimode fibers and up to 10 kilometres using singlemode fibers. The maximum link length always depends on the data rate, the fiber category and the network electronics (switch ports). Link lengths exceeding 10 kilometres using singlemode fibers are possible. Typically LD duplex, SC duplex or ST connectors are used.

FTTO networks do not need large floor distributors like copper networks; small splice boxes to connect fiber optic cables will do nicely.

At the workspaces micro switches are installed. These small switches typically have one or two fiber ports on the network side and four RJ45 ports for PC, printers, etc. on the front. Copper cables are only used as patch cords or to connect two adjacent micro switches for redundancy.

IT cabling with continuous fiber optic cables up to the workspace is recognized as “combined channel” by ISO/IEC 11801-2 “Information technology – Generic cabling for customer premises – Part 2: Office premises”.