FTTB

Fiber To The Building (FTTB) is a broadband network architecture in which optical fiber is brought to the exterior edge of a building, with the final connection to individual units provided over in-building cabling or copper. It is commonly used for multi-dwelling units and office buildings, where laying fiber to every dwelling would be costlier or less practical than delivering services over the building’s internal infrastructure.

In a typical FTTB deployment, the service provider runs fiber to a central distribution point inside the building, such as a basement telecommunications room or a common cabinet. From there, the last link to each dwelling or unit is completed using the building’s internal cabling. The external fiber segment may connect to an optical line terminal (OLT) at the provider’s central office, while the in-building portion often uses Ethernet (Cat5e/6) or existing copper technologies such as VDSL2 or G.fast to distribute data to individual units. Some deployments may use a passive optical network (PON) or an active optical network (APON) within the building, but the final leg to each unit is generally copper-based or Ethernet-based.

FTTB lies between FTTH (fiber directly to the unit) and FTTN (fiber to a nearby node) in terms of fiber reach. It can offer high bandwidth while reducing street-level fiber costs and leverage shared infrastructure, though performance to each unit can be affected by in-building cabling quality and internal networking. It is widely deployed in dense urban areas in various regions, chosen based on building layouts, cost considerations, and desired service levels.