Verizon Fi OS - Technical Details

Technical Details

As described in 2007, Verizon FiOS services are delivered over a fiber-to-the-premises network using passive optical network technology. Voice, video, and data travel over three wavelengths in the infrared spectrum. To serve a home, a single-mode optical fiber extends from an optical line terminal at a FiOS central office out to the neighborhoods where a passive optical splitter fans out the same signal on up to 32 fibers, thus serving up to 32 subscribers. At the subscriber's home, an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) transfers data onto the corresponding in-home copper wiring for phone, video and Internet access. Older FiOS installations mount the ONT inside the house and use Category 5 cable for data and coaxial cable for video, while newer markets mount the ONT outside the house and use Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) protocol for both data and video over a single coaxial cable. Voice service is carried over the existing telephone wires already in the house.

One of the three wavelength bands is devoted to carrying television channels using standard QAM cable television technology. The other two wavelengths are devoted to all other data, one for outbound and the other for inbound data. This includes video on demand, telephone and Internet data.

This allocation of wavelengths adheres to the ITU-T G.983 standard, also known as an ATM passive optical network (APON). Verizon initially installed slower BPONs but now only installs GPONs specified in the ITU-T G.984 standard. These bands and speeds are:

• 1310 nm wavelength for upstream data at 155 Mbit/s (1.2 Gbit/s with GPON)
• 1490 nm wavelength for downstream data at 622 Mbit/s (2.4 Gbit/s with GPON)
• 1550 nm wavelength for QAM cable television with 870 MHz of bandwidth

The set top box (STB) receives IR code and channel subscription information through the out-of-band (OOB) channel just as other coax or RF-based STB's do. However, guide data, cover art, widgets and other data are sent via IP over the data channels. All upstream OOB requests (or responses) are sent via IP over the data channels. All non-OOB data transactions to or from STB's are carried over the MoCA channels. The MoCA channel is also used to carry out inter-STB transactions (multi-room DVR, synchronization, etc.).

FiOS is also compatible with CableCard technology allowing FiOS TV subscribers to receive encrypted and premium cable channels on CableCard capable devices.