Optical connection cable
Optical connection cable , short OPAL ( Engl. For Optical Access Line ) is a technology of the local loop , in seven pilot projects of the Deutsche Telekom was used. The use of fiber optic technology in the local network was tested and this was finally introduced.
The background to this was the enormous pent-up demand for telephone connections in the new federal states after German reunification . Not only were there a lack of exchanges , but above all lines. The federal government had therefore put out a program to promote fiber optic cabling and so a combination of fiber optics and copper cables was laid in the new federal states for OPAL technology. Only the last part to the participant was made of copper. The electrical signals from the copper wires were then bundled, converted into an optical signal and routed to the exchange via the optical fibers. In 1991, for example, the fiber optic cabling of OPAL4 in Leipzig reached a data rate of 35 Mbit / s and 288 participants .
When broadband Internet access based on DSL was later introduced, the fiber optic technology in the local network, which had previously looked modern and forward-looking, turned out to be a serious disadvantage. The preferred DSL technology requires a continuous copper line and does not work on passive glass fibers. Technologies for data transmission via fiber optic already existed, but the technology for it was so expensive that it was more profitable to tear open the streets again, to lay a copper cable next to the fiber optic cable and to purchase the technology for copper.
Today it is possible to use the existing OPAL structure for the Gigabit Passive Optical Network .
See also
Web links
- Telepolis : The fiber in its course ... stops DSL in the east from February 12, 2001
- Telepolis: The fiber optics in its course ... DSL is still on from February 25, 2008
- Telepolis: Problem anniversary - In East Germany, old OPAL fiber optic cables are still hindering fast Internet access from July 28, 2011