Optical Architecture and Interface Lightguide Unit for Fiber-to-The-Home Feature of the AT&T SLC(R) Series 5 Carrier System

The subscriber loop has undergone evolutionary changes over the past half century. Today the stage is set for cost-effective extension of fiber to the subscriber. Once this last mile has been converted, it will be possible to supply wide band services not supported by copper plant. One of the challenges in providing cost effective subscriber loop transmission systems is to develop rugged low cost optical source and detector packages compatible with a high volume manufacturing environment. This paper describes some of the considerations which went into the optical design of the Fiber-To-The-Home-Feature of the AT&T SLC(R) Series 5 Carrier System and features of the Optical Interface Lightguide Unit (OILU) used in the optical transceiver of the system.