Uncertainty in FTTH splitter installation

In this article, a problem of rational splitter installation in Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) networks is considered. The most expensive and time consuming part of the FTTH deployment is trenching and other labor involved in cable installation. When cables are deployed, the operator can start to connect customers to the network. However, the process still requires expenditures for both passive (splitters) and active (ONUs, OLT cards) equipment. First, we define an optimization problem of rational selection of splitters in the process of connecting new customers to a network. Second, we present two methods for handling the problem. The methods are named SpliSeals (Splitter Selection Algorithms). They take into account the actual take-up rate and customer arrival patters to minimize the total expected cost of installed splitters. The average cost savings the presented algorithms can provide over rational, computer unaided methods exceed 10%, reaching almost 20% in some groups of cases, or even 40% in particular test cases. SpliSeals not only can be used to minimize the deployment cost of FTTH networks but also to assess the impact of uncertainty on network designs returned by automated methods. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. NETWORKS, 2017