Building Fiber Networks in Rural America

The US is about to embark on an unprecedented fiber optic network upgrade primarily targeted toward less populated and rural areas.  This presentation will provide some basic guidelines on designing networks to accommodate these scenarios for backbone, distribution and in-home fiber networks.  We’ll review many of the choices and tools available to the network designer, including pros and cons of different architectures, cable types, and deployment scenarios, and introduce some new ideas to help facilitate network builds. 

Speaker

Mark Boxer
Technical Manager, Solutions and Applications Engineering
OFS

Mark Boxer is Technical Manager, Solutions and Applications Engineering for OFS. In this role, he assists customers deploying fiber in a wide variety of network design scenarios around the world and analyzes trends in telecommunications markets that drive new product innovation. Mark has a BME degree from Georgia Tech and has spent his 30+ year career in the fiber industry. His experience includes varied roles in manufacturing and applications engineering for fiber-based products and markets. Other activities include inventor of six US Patents, member and past Secretary of the IEEE Power Engineering Society Fiber Optic Working Group, Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) Education Committee Chair, Technology Committee Member and Board of Directors Member.

Moderator: Sharon Vollman
Editor-in-Chief, ISE Magazine

Sponsored by:

OFS is a world-leading innovator, manufacturer and provider of infrastructure solutions for communication networks and specialty fiber optic products. Our Furukawa Solutions brand is creating future-ready and sustainable solutions for customers in such areas as telecommunications, medicine, industrial networking, sensing, aerospace, defense, and energy. OFS is guiding light for a better life through the limitless possibilities of fiber optics. Headquartered in Norcross (near Atlanta) Georgia, U.S.A., OFS is a global provider with facilities in several countries worldwide. OFS is part of Furukawa Electric Group, a multi-billion-dollar leader in optical communications. Please visit www.ofsoptics.com/.