Inspiration: There is something about a face-to-face event, such as last week’s Broadband Forum Summer Meeting and BASe Technical Summit in Munich, that can inspire new ideas. In this case, it was the discovery of a missing link that could potentially turn an old idea into reality. In this case, it could mean a way to pull data from an existing fiber-to-the-premises network to provide a low-cost earthquake detection system, as an example.
Thanks to the Broadband Forum, my employer, for supporting this newsletter. The content, views, and opinions expressed herein are not those of the Broadband Forum.
An Open Approach for Creating a Sensing Network? #
As background, physical disturbances to fiber can be used to infer information about the surrounding environment. This means that with the right equipment, you can detect movements under (e.g., earthquakes), on (e.g., traffic), or above the Earth (e.g., gas detection). Representatives from the Fiber Optics Sensing Association gave a great overview of the possibilities in this ViodiTV interview several years ago.
If there were a way for network operators to use their already deployed fiber and ONTs, it is conceivable that an early warning detection system could be instantly turned up without new hardware. This could be of huge benefit to society as early detection of a bridge failure, a landslide, or an earthquake could save lives. The challenge is, how do you collect the data in a low-cost, anonymized, neutral manner?
The Broadband Forum’s OB-CAS (Open Broadband Cloud Application Software Development Kit) might be the enabler for turning an operator’s fiber-to-the-home network into a sensing platform. For instance, it is conceivable that changes to the laser bias current or received signal strength (added 7/1/25) in the OLTs and ONTs might reflect disturbances to the fiber network. OB-CAS would be the interface for third-party applications to analyze that data.
From technical to commercial, there are countless reasons why this might not work. With that said, this seems like the perfect university research project for a cross-disciplinary team consisting of business/economics, science, and engineering students to see what is viable. The open-source nature of the OB-CAS program fits in well with the academic environment.
Such a project would also be able to take a high-level view and understand the opportunities for creating data lakes that transcend operators (e.g., would be required to provide broad coverage) and allow machine learning models to do their magic with big data streams derived from various points in the network. University professors, please contact me to further brainstorm and discuss.
Unlocking Career Growth: The Power of Association
Speaking of inspiration, thanks to Rob Shema for recommending a ViodITV interview with Jennifer Vassil of the Fiber Broadband Association. In this interview, filmed at Fiber Connect 25, we talk about the opportunities for career growth that associations and standards bodies enable. Encouraging participation in these organizations seems like a no-brainer for an HR department to help their employees with their respective career paths.
Some Chirps and Short Thoughts
- @DSBatten “Ethiopia made over $55 million in just 10 months by mining Bitcoin. This electricity would otherwise have gone to waste because Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) hasn’t yet built the transmission lines to supply all that electricity generated.” And for those applications where batteries are needed to augment intermittent power sources, Redwood Materials announced, “A 12 MW and 63 MWh capacity microgrid, which is the largest second-life battery deployment in the world and the largest microgrid in North America. It’s powering a modular data center for AI infrastructure company Crusoe … at an energy cost lower than the grid.” Both of these serve as proof points for using fiber connectivity to enable distributed data centers in locations that are energy-rich but lacking in high-power electrical transmission facilities.
- Interesting speculation about the value Tesla and Starlink could add to the evolving eVTOL industry. It hearkens back to this 2020 Viodi article, “A Multi-Dimensional Broadband Network or Is This Just Pie in the Sky?“.
- People are at the heart of the fiber industry, as seen in this crowd-sourced mosaic at@fiberbroadband #FiberConnect25 display
The Korner – A Travel Trailer for the Electric Age
There is a line in the song about summertime and the living is easy. Well, what could be easier for your vacation plans than having a travel trailer that pulls itself? There are a couple of new entrants in the travel trailer market who, as the kids say, are taking a first principles approach to the design of these temporary domiciles on wheels. And one of those principles is to reduce the load on electric vehicles. An all-electric, self-propelled trailer appears to be the ticket.
We had a chance to catch up with the founders of a couple of these next-generation travel trailers at CES. In this month’s issue, we talk to one of the founders of Lightship. Lightship is producing more than a travel trailer. It is producing a platform for family memories. It is something that Ben Parker, the CPO and Co-founder, hopes that will be passed on from generation to generation. And it has other practical uses, such as home power generation and emergency power backup.
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