The telecommunications access network is the section of the network that connects the local exchange to the customers. At present most of the access network is composed of low bandwidth copper cable. Electronic communications are becoming an essential feature of life both at home and at work. The increasing use of applications that require larger bandwidths (such as the internet and video on demand) are making the copper infrastructure inadequate. These demands could be met using optical fibre technologies | Telecommunications Optimization Heuristic and Adaptive Techniques. Edited by David W. Corne Martin J. Oates George D. Smith Copyright 2000 John Wiley Sons Ltd ISBNs 0-471-98855-3 Hardback 0-470-84163X Electronic 7 Optimizing the Access Network David Brittain and Jon Sims Williams Introduction The telecommunications access network is the section of the network that connects the local exchange to the customers. At present most of the access network is composed of low bandwidth copper cable. Electronic communications are becoming an essential feature of life both at home and at work. The increasing use of applications that require larger bandwidths such as the internet and video on demand are making the copper infrastructure inadequate. These demands could be met using optical fibre technologies. At present optical fibre is principally used in the trunk network to provide connections between exchanges and to service customers with high bandwidth requirements. point links are used. In the access network customers generally have lower bandwidth requirements and also require a cost-effective service. For them point-to-point links are not viable as both the link and the dedicated exchange-based equipment are expensive. A network based on point-to-multi-point links provides a high capacity service together with shared equipment costs. Point-to-multi-point networks can be created using optical fibre and passive splitting devices. They are known as Passive Optical Networks PONs . With this new architecture and a commercial environment that is increasingly competitive there is a need for improved methods of network planning to provide costeffective and reliable networks. Currently much of the access network planning that takes place is performed by hand which may mean networks are not as cost-effective as they could be. There have been many attempts to produce systems that optimise the topology of copper networks although they often make use of much simplified network .
