Variety, speed, quality and quantity in telecommunication services have created a pressing need for telecommunication operators to upgrade their access infrastructure. Costs, flexibility and Time To Market are critical issues for the operators' business success. Therefore, the identification and selection of the appropriate migration strategy is of the utmost importance to a telecommunication operator. The actual roll-out of ADSL-systems is based on a FTTEx-strategy, where the high-speed ADSL-systems are terminated in the DSLAM, located in the operators exchange and at the customer premises as well. The next logical step on the migration path towards Fiber to the Home is very likely the introduction of FTTCab-systems, which increase the number of potential customers and enable the provision of more sophisticated broadband services with higher and more symmetrical bandwidth requirements. A key element to this strategy is the outdoor cabinet. FTTCab-systems are typically VDSL-systems, based on an optical transport system terminated in an outdoor cabinet and a VDSL-system for the final drop. Since the cabinet for this application has to contain active elements also, it is obvious that requirements for the 'Broad-Band Cabinets' (BB-Cab) have to be identified and recommendations towards the standardisation of the design have to be issued, in order to obtain appropriate and cost minimised cabinets readily available.
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