Ribbon vs. loose tube fiber cabling

In the distribution portion of the passive optical network (PON) for fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) architectures, the choice of fiber cabling ribbon vs. loose tube - can directly impact ease of installation and future performance. As is usually the case in these networks, specific architectural characteristics and particular applications may dictate the deployment of one type of cable over the other. However, ADC's experience in developing and manufacturing FTTP network equipment has concluded that in most cases, ribbon cable provides a considerable performance advantage over loose tube in the distribution portion of the PON network. This document will focus on fiber density and hybrid design and will discuss in detail the fiber requirements of connectorized distribution.