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Tue 14 FEB
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It won't give you bad breath or make you cry, but the network design of the National Broadband Network shares more with an onion than you might ever imagine.
It starts with one huge loop that goes around Australia and is built in smaller and smaller circles right down to the individual household level.
On the very outside of the 'onion' is the transit network, which is the large fibre optic ring that will go round Australia, and connects up 121 points of interconnect (POI). These POIs are the spots that phone and internet service providers connect their networks into ours.
One layer inside the onion, there are multiple smaller rings of fibre optic cable, which go from the transit network to telephone exchanges. Once we have installed our fibre-optic equipment into the phone exchanges, they become known in NBN-speak as Fibre Access Nodes (FANs).
Each phone exchange, or FAN, can cover several suburbs, but each suburb is divided up into numerous Fibre Serving Access Modules (FSAMs). Each FSAM covers about 3,000 premises and is surrounded by a loop of fibre.
Finally, within each FSAM, there are Fibre Distribution Hubs (FDHs), which are cabinets about 1m high on the nature strip beside footpaths and which connect directly to around 200 premises. Individual fibre-optic cables run from the FDH cabinet to each premise through the pipes currently used for phone cables.
In our separate photo gallery, you can see a day in the life of an NBN installer, showing the various stages of installing the fibre network.
View more about:
Construction, Rollout, POI, FAN, FSAM, FDH, Transit network, Fibre
By Dan Warne, NBN Co Blog Editor
Dan has been a technology journalist for the last 10 years, first with broadband community site Whirlpool.net.au, and later with APC Magazine and Sydney Morning Herald. He has a baby boy, two chocolate labradors, and a fascination with broadband and everything it can make possible. Email: danwarne@nbnco.com.au
When we talk about speeds delivered over the National Broadband Network, we are referring to the wholesale speed to telephone and internet service providers. The speed you can achieve, and services you can use, on your individual connection will depend on many factors including the services you subscribe to, the software and communication protocols you use, quality of your equipment and connection to your home/business, the broadband plans offered by your telephone or internet provider and how it designs its network to cater for multiple users.
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