Right To Use (RTU) is a part of hardware. It is used to authorize hardware capabilities in installments, such as capacities, ports, and cross-connect degrees . RTU is a license for the use of hardware resources and has the same lifecycle as hardware.
Carrier
Using RTUs to provision services requires the following:
- Hardware: subracks, boards, and optical modules that support RTUs
- RTU certificate: setting the number and type of RTUs that have been applied for
Benefits
- Reduced initial investment: The RTU provides customers with a method of purchasing hardware capabilities in installments, which can significantly reduce initial investment and quickly achieve balance between income and expenditure.
- Improved slot utilization: The per-slot capability is improved by two times to more than four times, saving a large number of slots and subracks.
- Reduced OPEX: Services can be provisioned by remotely loading RTUs. Therefore, customers do not need to install hardware boards onsite to achieve capacity expansion.
RTU Types

No. | RTU Type | Function |
---|---|---|
1 | Port enabling RTU | Controls the number of available ports. There are client-side port enabling RTUs and line-side port enabling RTUs. |
2 | Line capacity RTU | Controls the capacities of line ports. |
3 | OXC line/tributary board degree RTU | Controls the optical cross-connect degrees that can be configured for optical line and tributary boards. |
4 | OXC subrack OCh add/drop RTU | Controls the number of OChs that can be configured in an OXC subrack. |