Fiber-Optic Backhaul: The Gold Standard

If the price is right, fiber backhaul is preferable to all other methods. Fiber links offer higher
throughput speeds than any competing access technology and extremely high availability. All
fiber links are not equal, however, and, moreover, the fiber link should always be considered in
the context of overall metro core network, of which the fiber itself comprises the lowest layer. Fiber-optic networks in the broadest sense may be divided into two categories: active and
passive. Active networks employ optoelectronic elements that on-load and off-load traffic and
direct it along the network paths, as well as amplifying and conditioning the signals to extend
distance and reduce error rates. Passive networks are much simpler and employ passive optical
splitters to direct the signal along parallel optical paths, generally not exceeding 32 because
each split halves optical power in the resulting pathways.