Which type of single-mode fiber is ideal for fiber to the home (FTTH) installations?

The ideal choice for fiber to the home (FTTH) installations is ITU-T G.657 bend-insensitive fiber. This type of fiber is specifically designed to handle the tighter bends that can occur in residential settings and during the installation process.

Bend-insensitive fiber has a reduced sensitivity to bending losses, which is crucial in FTTH applications where fibers may be routed through walls, corners, or tight spaces. This capability minimizes signal degradation and ensures reliable high-speed data transmission. The characteristics of G.657 fibers make them suitable for indoor environments, where space is often limited, and the risk of tight bends increases.

In contrast, while standard single-mode fiber (like G.652) is widely used in telecommunications, it is not optimized for the bends found in home installations. The other fiber types mentioned may serve different purposes, such as long-distance transmission or minimizing dispersion, but they do not offer the specific bend performance needed for effective and reliable FTTH deployment.