Optical fibre technologies allow for both higher bit rates and ranges. The bit rate can go up to 10 Gbps for a single optical fibre with a maximum range between 10 and 20 km. currently, these bit rates are too high for a single subscriber. Therefore, point-to-point connections are mainly used in the backhaul network to aggregate large amounts of traffic. In active star and passive optical network (PON) architectures the bit rate capacity is distributed over large numbers of users. For PONs split ratios of 32 (range = 20 km) and 64 (range = 10 km) are common. The most frequently used standard is GPON (Gigabit PON). Current implementations don’t provide large numbers of fiber connections on the optical line terminal (OLT). Usually, between 4 and 72 fibers can be connected.
In wireless access networks the user connection is provided through a wireless link. The user’s devices use radio signals to connect to a base station, which is then further connected to the central office through a backhaul network. Different technologies are available varying in transmission power, transmission frequency, modulation scheme and multiplexing technique and thus providing different access bit rates to the users.