Building a Private Fibre Network for an Estate, Holiday Park or Campus

Who builds a private fibre network, and why?

Private fibre is common wherever one owner or operator controls a large site and wants to run its own services across it. Twisted-pair Ethernet is limited to 100 m per run, so once buildings, gates and camera poles are spread across a site, fibre is usually the practical backbone. The usual builders:

ARC IP Networks examples of common use. Every site is different.

A PON suits these sites because the field plant is passive. Splitters, closures and terminals need no power, so the only active equipment is the OLT in the comms room and the ONU at each end point. One OLT port serves many end points through splitters, and the ARC-OLT-8X reaches up to 20 km over single-mode fibre. For the basics of OLTs, ONUs, splitters and GPON vs XGS-PON, read our guide to passive optical networks; this post is about planning a build.

Where nbn fits, and where a private PON fits

nbn Co provides internet access across Australia, and private fibre doesn't replace it. Two points from nbn Co are worth knowing before you plan:

• Whole-building upgrades. nbn Co runs a program to upgrade whole buildings on FTTN or FTTC to full fibre (FTTP). It requires a Body Corporate, Owners Committee or building owner and a majority vote, the co-contribution is $275 inc GST per unit and per common-area service, and eligibility is assessed case by case. Source: nbn Co, more fibre for buildings.
• Speeds. nbn Co says the fastest wholesale plans on FTTP and HFC are up to 2000 Mbps. Source: nbn Co, choose a provider.

nbn Co supplies and manages its own NTD at each premises, so ARC DATA OLTs and ONUs are not for nbn services. A private PON carries the networks the site runs itself: cameras, gates and doors, building management, staff and guest Wi-Fi, and, for an ISP or WISP, the services it sells on its own network. Many sites run both: nbn services where residents want them, and private fibre for everything the operator manages.

Planning a private fibre network: the eight steps

Most private FTTH and campus PON builds are planned in the same order. Each step below links to the parts that do the job.

Swipe the table sideways to see all steps →

ARC IP Networks planning order. Your designer may group the steps differently.

1. Survey the site

Start with a site plan and walk it. Mark:

• Every end point: homes or units, cabins, buildings, risers, camera poles, gates, kiosks and plant rooms, plus where future stages will go.
• What each end point needs: a single internet handoff, powered ports for cameras or access points, or a 10G link for a building switch.
• Existing pathways: pits, conduit, cable trays, risers and poles you can reuse, and where new trenching or aerial runs are needed. Check for underground services before anyone digs.
• Power: where mains power already exists at each end point, because every ONU needs it (step 7).

The survey is also where you count spare capacity. Adding cores later usually means another trench or haul, so designers typically run more cores than day-one needs.

2. Choose the head-end location

The head end is the comms room or cabinet that holds the OLT, the rack ODF and the upstream connection: your internet service, core switch, NVR or servers. Look for a secure room with a 19-inch rack, reliable power and space to grow.

The ARC-OLT-8X is a 1U, 19-inch OLT with eight XG(S)-PON and GPON combo PON ports, each of which can be hot-switched to GPON on its own. Uplinks are 1 x GE RJ45, 4 x 25GE SFP28 and 2 x QSFP28 (40/50/100GE). It draws 150 W, is ordered with single or dual AC or DC power, and operates from -20 °C to +60 °C. Each port supports a split of up to 1:256, with 1:128 recommended, and a reach of up to 20 km.

Because the field plant is passive, a central head end can usually serve the whole site. Sites with very separate areas sometimes use more than one head end; your designer will check the optical loss budget either way.

3. Terminate on an ODF

The ODF (optical distribution frame) is where the outgoing cables are spliced to pigtails and patched to the OLT. At the head end, the ARC-ODF-RM-2U holds 24 cores on two sliding trays of 12, so one tray can be worked on while the other stays in service; higher-density frames are available on request. At building entries and risers with no rack, the lockable ARC-ODF-WM-24 wall cabinet takes up to 24 SC, 24 FC or 48 LC-duplex. For choosing between them, connectors and polish, see What is an ODF?

4. Plan the route, closures and split points

The feeder cable runs from the ODF out across the site. Wherever it joints or branches, the splices go in a sealed splice closure:

• ARC-DJC-16: an IP68, re-enterable dome closure for up to 16 splices, for aerial, duct, buried, pole or wall positions.
• ARC-DJC-16-S16: the same dome family with an integral 1 x 16 PLC splitter and up to 144 splices on six trays, so one joint can both splice and split.

Where to split. Splitters can sit in one place (centralised) or in stages along the route (cascaded). The total of the stages is what counts against the OLT: for example, a 1:4 split in a closure followed by a 1:8 split in a terminal gives 1:32 on that PON port. Keep the total within the ARC-OLT-8X's recommended 1:128, and within the loss budget your designer calculates. Splitters are passive, so they can go wherever the route needs them. Splicing practice, trays and closures are covered in Fibre splicing in the field.

5. Place distribution terminals near each group of end points

A fibre distribution terminal (also called a FAT box) is where the drops to each end point leave the feeder. It sits on a wall, pole or kerb near the homes, cabins or buildings it serves. Pick it by the number of drops in that group:

From the ARC DATA product pages. PLC splitters for the ARC-FDT-24-SCA are ordered separately.

6. Choose an ONU for each end point

The ONU turns the fibre back into Ethernet. Choose it by what the end point has to power or connect, not by the building type alone. The table further down maps common buildings to an ONU. In short:

• ARC-ONU-1G: one Gigabit port, GPON or EPON auto-detect, 4 W or less. A home or unit.
• ARC-ONU-X: a 10GE and a GE port, XG-PON or XGS-PON chosen at order, no Wi-Fi. A riser, floor or building switch.
• ARC-ONU-4P and ARC-ONU-8P: four or eight Gigabit PoE+ ports, up to 30 W per port, 60 W or 130 W total. A camera or access-point cabinet. See CCTV over fibre for camera planning.
• ARC-ONU-STICK-G and ARC-ONU-STICK-X: an ONU inside an SFP or SFP+ module, for a router, switch or firewall that already has a free port.

7. Plan power at every ONU

The fibre plant needs no power, but every ONU does, so each end point needs a powered, protected spot:

Swipe the table sideways to see power for each ONU →

From the ARC DATA product pages.

The ARC-ONU-1G, ARC-ONU-4P and ARC-ONU-8P have hardware Dying Gasp, which reports a power loss to the OLT, so you can tell a power fault from a fibre fault. Where cameras or gates must keep running through an outage, many sites typically add a UPS in the cabinet. Mains work at a cabinet is a job for a licensed electrician.

8. Give each service its own VLAN

One fibre network can carry many services, kept apart with VLANs from the OLT to the ONU port. A common plan has one VLAN each for:

• resident or guest internet
• CCTV
• access control and gates
• building management and plant
• staff Wi-Fi and office systems
• network management of the OLT and ONUs

The ARC-OLT-8X supports 4096 VLANs, QinQ and VLAN translation, with Layer 3 routing and 2048 multicast groups. The ARC-ONU-1G, ARC-ONU-4P and ARC-ONU-8P support VLAN tag, transparent and trunk modes (up to 8 VLANs) and IGMP snooping; the ARC-ONU-X adds hybrid mode and MLD snooping. Write the VLAN plan before the ONUs are ordered, so each one can be provisioned from the OLT when it's connected.

Example bill of materials, by component type

This is an illustrative ARC IP Networks example for a mixed site such as an estate or holiday park, with homes, a few service buildings and camera cabinets. It lists component types only. Quantities depend on your survey, routes, split plan and loss budget, so they're left out on purpose.

Swipe the table sideways to see the whole list →

Illustrative ARC IP Networks example, not a design. A designer confirms the components, quantities and loss budget for your site.

Which ONU for which building?

ARC IP Networks suggestions based on the published specifications. The STICK-X needs a 10G SFP+ port that accepts third-party modules.

Who installs a private fibre network?

Fibre cabling on a site is a job for qualified people. In Australia, customer cabling, including fibre, is generally required to be installed by a registered cabler with the right endorsement for optical fibre, and any mains power work needs a licensed electrician. Rules can differ with where the cable runs and who owns it, so confirm the current requirements with your cabling contractor and the relevant authority before work starts.

A typical build involves:

• a designer who turns the survey into routes, split plan, loss budget and as-built records
• civil or aerial crews for trenching, conduit and pole work
• fibre technicians who splice, terminate and test each link
• the network integrator, who configures the OLT, VLANs and ONUs

ARC IP Networks supplies the equipment and can match a bill of materials to your contractor's design.

Related fibre guides

• What Is a Passive Optical Network (PON)? A Guide for Australian Fibre Projects
• What Is an ODF? Rack-Mount vs Wall-Mount Fibre Patch Panels in Australia
• Fibre Splicing in the Field: Splice Closures, Trays and Distribution Terminals
• CCTV Over Fibre: Power IP Cameras Beyond 100 m with a PoE GPON ONU
• What Does It Cost to Put Fibre Into a Hotel, Apartment Building or Village?