ETTH

Ethernet To The Home (ETTH) is a specific application of Fiber to the premises (FTTP) that first emerged in a Palo Alto, California garage in 1999. Where FTTP and Fiber To The Home (FTTH) are focused upon the physical delivery medium of "fiber" optic cables, ETTH envisioned a more generalized solution for evolving the carrier networks from a circuit switched model to an entirely packet switched model using Ethernet as opposed to ATM and other competing standards. In this way, and in contrast to the strictly fiber-centric views of FTTH advocates, ETTH was envisioned to establish fiber optics as a reliable backbone network that would serve as a foundation for extending Ethernet Everywhere incorporating other future-looking technologies such as Wifi and WiMAX.

The first known ETTH business plan was presented in 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona, wherein Ethernet was presented as the best universal residential communications network solution. Met with initial investor skepticism and engineering ridicule, it was 1999 before ETTH was [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://fiberhood.net/ first demonstrated] in fully operational field networks using the earliest commercially available Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) technology. Even in 1999, there was still a good deal of debate over whether or not Ethernet was the way that carrier networks could, or should envision their future.

Then, in [http://www.ieee802.org/3/efm/public/nov00/index.html November of 2000] , an energetic and imaginative engineer named Howard Frazier spearheaded formation of the IEEE EFM Working Group. [http://www.ieee802.org/3/efm/public/mar01/index.html In March 2001] , at the second meeting of the group, a Palo Alto company called Fiberhood Networks was the first to present to the group an operational gigabit ETTH field trial in Palo Alto, California. The first ETTH implementation helped to prove earliest market demand, feasibility using COTS components, and helped to shed light on specific operational challenges that EFM would need to solve if it were to successfully enable widespread commercial rollout.

The Working Group was subsequently chartered by IEEE as the [http://www.ieee802.org/3/efm/ IEEE 802.3ah Ethernet in the First Mile Task Force] and officially tasked with defining the formal technical details for implementing the ETTH concept, now renamed Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM). In June 2004, the Task Force completed its work in the form of [http://shop.ieee.org/ieeestore/Product.aspx?product_no=WE95249 IEEE Std 802.3ah-2004] , which "Defines 802.3 Media Access Control (MAC) parameters and minimal augmentation of the MAC operation, physical layer specifications, and management parameters for the transfer of 802.3 format frames in subscriber access networks at operating speeds within the scope of the current IEEE Std 802.3 and approved new projects" (IEEE).

Thirteen years after the birth of ETTH, it was the publication of the 802.3ah Standard, that ultimately validated the concept as not just a viable theoretical solution, but the inevitable reality for the future of residential communications networks.

Today, cable and telephone carriers are rapidly moving toward providing Ethernet Everywhere. Ethernet is increasingly used to move all kinds of media within homes, as well as between businesses. Even AT&T, once the epitome of the circuit switched world, has wrapped itself in a new packet switched identity, since being acquired by SBC in 2006. In this way, ETTH is an important and notable historical link in a long chain of evolving telecommunications standards and methods.

EttH is used by some CATV cable operators in the Netherlands and Korea as a technology to provide for 100Mbit/s ethernet over coaxial cable without the need for cable modems. In this case the TV wall outlet also contains a passive RJ45 interface. Big advantage of this technology is that no installation at the customers premises is necessary. Due to the fast development and price decrease of high speed cable modems (DOCSIS 2.0 and DOCSIS 3.0 standards) ETTH never took foothold on a large scale, though it clearly played a historically significant role in the early evolution of the IEEE 802.3ah technical standard.

ETTH Timeline

* 1991: ETTH presented to investors in Phoenix, Arizona.
* 1999: First operational gigabit ETTH network, Palo Alto, California.
* 2000: IEEE 802.3 EFM, Call for Interest.
* 2001: ETTH presented at IEEE.
* 2004: EFM 802.3ah Standard published.