The Installation and Maintenance of FTTH

In accordance with the needs of FTTH installation and maintenance, and aiming at the key issues in installation, customer service, together with departments such as marketing, network development, and operation and maintenance, have gone deep into the frontline, carefully analyzed the entire process and links, and conducted detailed analysis and discussion on each detail that affects installation efficiency and customer perception. Reasonable solutions have been put forward for the current problems in FTTH installation.

The first priority in FTTH installation and maintenance is to vigorously strengthen and do a good job in user negotiation to avoid the problem of low user acceptance. The FTTH access mode needs to gradually change the habits formed by existing users under traditional cable networks. The placement of ONU (Optical Network Unit) in users' homes, the laying of exposed wires or perforation construction in users' homes, and the change in the concept of using traditional telephones, etc., all affect users' acceptance.

For example, a certain region achieved excellent results by popularizing optical network knowledge through home decoration promotion meetings and guiding home wiring through publicity. It is necessary to inform family members to reserve the position of the multimedia box and arrange indoor information points correctly during home decoration; at the same time, it is also necessary to guide families to use qualified cables and interfaces for home decoration. Only in this way can we avoid the problem of a rising demand for multiple information points after a large number of customers have installed the service, which leads to high installation and maintenance man-hours and material consumption. At the same time, informing customers of the charging standards during acceptance and clarifying them in the agreement can avoid future disputes; or, after flexible handling during implementation, for the addition of general indoor information points, installation and maintenance personnel can specify the agreement but offer preferential exemption to customers, so as to improve customer perception.

Exploring Flexible Solutions

There are already a large number of norms and requirements for the engineering implementation of installation and maintenance. At this stage, attention should also be paid to refining configurations for different situations and flexibly selecting different schemes.

For example, from the perspective of user practicality and reducing obstacles, ONUs should be reasonably selected; customer service personnel should participate in design and put forward humanized requirements for equipment selection and installation; improve the entry craftsmanship, take good protection and sealing measures, and enhance users' recognition of home construction. The setting of the home multimedia box in the customer's home is very important for both the implementation of the FTTH project and the customer's experience.

The location of the box should be convenient for both installation and maintenance. The following points regarding its location still need attention: the introduction of power supply and optical fiber cables; protection of optical fiber cables; simplification of common fault handling operations; observation of the working status of indicator lights; and avoidance of direct sunlight. It is common to see that the ONU placed in the home multimedia box is located at the entrance, making it difficult for WiFi to cover the entire indoor area, and at the same time, WiFi heat dissipation becomes a problem. Through the analysis of such cases: the WiFi function itself is prone to failures and will significantly increase the heat generation of the ONU, thereby increasing the failure rate of the ONU. The multimedia box is located in the wall, with a cover affecting coverage and heat dissipation, and its position will affect WiFi coverage, resulting in poor indoor performance.

The following points need to be emphasized when choosing WiFi configurations in ONUs: in scenarios where the home multimedia box needs full coverage but indoor wireless coverage is difficult, especially when users have multimedia boxes with metal covers, ONUs without WiFi should be selected; in scenarios where customers need thin coverage, ONUs with WiFi can be selected. During construction design, managers from the customer service department need to cooperate with the design department to formulate a simple entry scenario manual to guide the implementation of installation and maintenance. The craftsmanship of optical fiber entry construction is also a key link affecting the entire laying of optical fiber cables. Good protection and sealing measures should be taken, and other craftsmanship must also comply with the construction specifications for FTTH entry wiring.

From the practice of FTTH, contradictions such as heavy installation tasks, insufficient large-scale installation and maintenance personnel, and the need to improve installation and maintenance levels are prominent. This further requires that the management of installation and maintenance must be done well. At present, since the formation of large-scale domestic installation and maintenance forces will take time, arranging engineering teams to cooperate and support installation and maintenance work is also an important factor affecting the rapid rollout of FTTH services. At this stage, large-scale installation of FTTH is often completed through the combination of engineering and installation and maintenance.

Strengthening the Courage to Innovate

For areas with thin coverage renovation, based on practical summaries, they can be mainly divided into three modes: centralized support mode, decentralized support mode, and division-of-labor mode.

Through comparative analysis, each of the three modes has its advantages and disadvantages, and their impacts on installation and maintenance efficiency and costs are also different. All regions can choose according to their own situations and encourage each region to carefully summarize and analyze the support modes, innovate actively, and select a suitable local installation support mode.

Taking the installation target of 100,000 households as an example, the man-hours required for thin coverage are calculated for the above three modes. The results show that when installation and maintenance tasks are heavy and personnel are limited, to do a good job in installation and maintenance, attention should be paid to scientifically planning and designing the installation and maintenance process, focusing on detailed design and optimization, and improving construction efficiency and quality. Through the analysis of cases of thin coverage installation processes and their optimization in a certain region, it is found that optimizing the process can greatly improve the local installation and maintenance capabilities.

On-site installation and maintenance personnel should construct according to orders, update information in a timely manner, and adhere to error correction. Personnel in the installation and maintenance center should first clarify management and control goals, such as a 100% compliance rate with FTTH construction orders. Secondly, a long-term mechanism should be established, such as a long-term mechanism for dynamic maintenance of line resources, including monthly inspections, spot checks, and notification and assessment mechanisms. Thirdly, it is necessary to improve the awareness of resources and establish a sense of responsibility for resource data quality: "I use the resources, so I should maintain them for my own convenience." Finally, the benchmarking effect can be utilized by establishing benchmark areas or benchmark boxes in each district and county for installation and maintenance personnel to follow.

Facing new services, installation and maintenance work must strengthen collaboration and innovation in work methods, approaches, and styles. Marketing, network, and service departments should form a joint force, complement each other's resources, and jointly promote large-scale FTTH installation. During business acceptance, users should be informed of matters needing attention and preparations to gain their understanding and improve installation efficiency. Linkage with engineering is crucial: the more support and detailed considerations during construction, the greater the convenience for installation and maintenance work.

For installation and maintenance work, there must be the courage to innovate, reform, and try. Compared with traditional copper cables, FTTH is a new thing. Attention should be paid to every detail involved. A small improvement in a detail may lead to a significant improvement in efficiency or customer perception. Effective experiences in local regions should be fed back in a timely manner to facilitate rapid promotion across the entire region and form large-scale applications.

In conclusion, FTTH installation and maintenance work should proceed from reality, be brave in innovation, coordinate and mobilize overall forces, go all out to ensure the completion of installation tasks, build installation and maintenance capabilities, and effectively protect customers. Participants in installation and maintenance work need to take active actions, go deep into the frontline of FTTH installation and maintenance, carefully identify current problems and shortcomings, courageously explore and innovate, and actively solve problems in processes, links, efficiency, quality, materials, and terminals in FTTH installation and maintenance. They should straighten out the linkage and cooperation processes among marketing, construction, network, and service departments, improve FTTH installation efficiency, enhance FTTH user perception, and achieve the goals of installation and maintenance work.