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Microtrenching is becoming a thing, which is rapidly dropping the costs of installation. It's just a groove 1.5" wide and about 6" deep. Drop a couple of cond

by Vvector 10y ago

Microtrenching is becoming a thing, which is rapidly dropping the costs of installation. It's just a groove 1.5" wide and about 6" deep. Drop a couple of conduits in it, and back fill it. Vehicles can drive right over it during the process, no need to close lanes for multiple days.

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
Does that mean every time you replace the road surface you also need to redo the fiber installation?
- dogma1138 10y ago
  No, that's how they deployed coax (and later fiber) in Israel when the cable company was formed in the late 80's at a fraction of the cost. The cables are laid in a trench about 30 CM deep just off the curb the trench itself is maybe only 10 CM wide you have a single machine that digs the trench lays the coax and then covers it with gravel (which is made from the asphalt, dirt and gravel it digs up) after that they just put the asphalt over it and it's done they you can do 100-200M an hour or even more like this pretty easily. If you need to redo the road you don't have to scrape off the trench part anyhow no car can drive so close to the curb, and even if you do scrape that part off it's just like scraping the road you usually only go maybe 1cm/half and inch deep you don't remove the entire surface and even if you need to redo the road completely you can leave the 10cm wide trench alone. Also fiber and coax cables can last for decades there is no need to redo them, the same cables can be used again and again with each upgrade to the standard since to get more speed you only need to change the optical or RF equipment there is no need to change the cable. The same cables that used to deliver 100mbit can be used for 10gbit and even higher speeds, multiplexing is also possible over older cables. One thing i wondered it why simply they just don't make curb stones (e.g. http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00AeqanjdwtkoK/Blue-Stone-Limestone-Kerb-Stone-Curb-Kerbstone.jpg http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00AeqanjdwtkoK/Blue-Stone...) with a few ducts in them already couple inches in diamiter so you could just pull fibers through at any time without having to even dig up the road... Yes you have to replace them, but how often do you that? every 10 years? 20 years? and if you design it well you can either pull the cable out or heck even replace the cable with the curb stone, people can live without internet for 6 hours during the night.
walrus01 10y ago
The main obstacle to microtrenching and surface inlaid is not technical , but political. Many cities' streets departments won't allow it. It will take an aggressive education and lobbying effort. It is less costly than cut and cover but in $/km of fiber is ridiculously expensive compared to aerial. Even more so when you see that the limits in strand count for very small diameter cables are 72-144.

by Vvector 10y ago

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago

Does that mean every time you replace the road surface you also need to redo the fiber installation?

dogma1138 10y ago
No, that's how they deployed coax (and later fiber) in Israel when the cable company was formed in the late 80's at a fraction of the cost. The cables are laid in a trench about 30 CM deep just off the curb the trench itself is maybe only 10 CM wide you have a single machine that digs the trench lays the coax and then covers it with gravel (which is made from the asphalt, dirt and gravel it digs up) after that they just put the asphalt over it and it's done they you can do 100-200M an hour or even more like this pretty easily. If you need to redo the road you don't have to scrape off the trench part anyhow no car can drive so close to the curb, and even if you do scrape that part off it's just like scraping the road you usually only go maybe 1cm/half and inch deep you don't remove the entire surface and even if you need to redo the road completely you can leave the 10cm wide trench alone. Also fiber and coax cables can last for decades there is no need to redo them, the same cables can be used again and again with each upgrade to the standard since to get more speed you only need to change the optical or RF equipment there is no need to change the cable. The same cables that used to deliver 100mbit can be used for 10gbit and even higher speeds, multiplexing is also possible over older cables. One thing i wondered it why simply they just don't make curb stones (e.g. http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00AeqanjdwtkoK/Blue-Stone-Limestone-Kerb-Stone-Curb-Kerbstone.jpg http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00AeqanjdwtkoK/Blue-Stone...) with a few ducts in them already couple inches in diamiter so you could just pull fibers through at any time without having to even dig up the road... Yes you have to replace them, but how often do you that? every 10 years? 20 years? and if you design it well you can either pull the cable out or heck even replace the cable with the curb stone, people can live without internet for 6 hours during the night.

walrus01 10y ago

The main obstacle to microtrenching and surface inlaid is not technical , but political. Many cities' streets departments won't allow it. It will take an aggressive education and lobbying effort. It is less costly than cut and cover but in $/km of fiber is ridiculously expensive compared to aerial. Even more so when you see that the limits in strand count for very small diameter cables are 72-144.