Fifth-Generation Fixed Network Boosting the Gigabit Industry

Today, at the 2019 Broadband World Forum Gigaband Industry Summit, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), Wi-Fi Alliance®, well-known analyst firm Ovum, and multiple mainstream operators around the world held intense discussions on how to leverage the fifth-generation fixed network to promote the global gigabit ecosystem.

In the keynote speech at the summit, David Boswarthick, Director New Technologies of ETSI, said, "Looking back on the development history of fixed networks, we have experienced the 64 kbps narrowband era represented by PSTN/ISDN, 2 Mbps era represented by ADSL, 20 Mbps era represented by VDSL, and 100 Mbps era represented by GPON/EPON. Currently, we are entering the fifth-generation Gigabit era (1–5 Gbps) represented by 10G PON. With effective collaboration with wireless technologies such as 5G, Gigabit fiber networks are providing a flexible and high-performance connectivity network for the Telecom Industry as well as opening up exciting new opportunities in numerous vertical industries.”

Compared with previous generations, the Fifth-Generation Fixed Network features full-fiber connection, ultra-high bandwidth, and ultimate experience. Fibers will connect not only homes, but also more vertical industries such as enterprises, transportation, security, and campuses. Symmetric Gigabit and Wi-Fi 6 will further upgrade network capabilities. End-to-end network latency will become lower and more stable, and operators will shift from traffic-centric operation to experience-centric operation.

Meimei Dang, Vice Chief Engineer in the ITSR(Institute of Technology and Standards Research), CAICT, said in her speech, "As cloud VR, smart home, gaming, social networking, cloud desktop, safe city, enterprise cloud private line, online education, telemedicine, and smart manufacturing become more popular, the full-fiber gigabit network will directly generate trillions of revenues for related industries, and Gigabit broadband has become the focus of global broadband development."

At the summit, Kevin Robinson, Vice President of Marketing at Wi-Fi Alliance, said, “Wi-Fi 6 brings a new era of Wi-Fi connectivity, delivering better capacity, coverage, and performance even in the most demanding environments. As bandwidth demands increase, Wi-Fi 6 delivers new capabilities that bring more power and performance in environments including home, enterprise, and industrial IoT. New features enable a variety of advanced applications including those that require support for a large number of clients at once in large venues and campuses and those applications that facilitate vast amounts of traffic including AR/VR and Ultra HD streaming.”

Julie Kunstler, Principal Analyst of OVUM, said, “More than two hundred operators in the world have released gigabit services, and twenty operators have released 10G services. 10G PON has become a basic technology for gigabit networks. In the next five years, it is estimated that the compound growth rate of 10G PON OLT ports in the central office will reach 41%, and that of 10G PON ONTs will reach 124%.”

Besides, mainstream European and Latin-American operators from Switzerland, France, Paraguay and Turkey, shared their successful experience in building gigabit FTTH networks.

Jeffery Zhou, President of Huawei Access Network, said, "We cannot agree more with industry organizations, analysts, and operators on their ideas about the fifth-generation fixed network and Gigabit era. They have drawn a blueprint for the global fixed broadband development. Huawei is dedicated to working with industry partners to promote the Fifth-Generation Fixed Network; to extend full-fiber coverage to each room, desktop, and machine; and to share the trillion-dollar blue ocean across the industry chain.”

As the leader of fixed network industry, Huawei provides the SingleFAN Pro solution to efficiently provide multiple services under various scenarios, bringing the three values of "new blue ocean, new capabilities, and new experience" to operators. To date, Huawei has delivered 1.5 million 10G PON ports, and helped more than 80 operators around the world to achieve large-scale FTTH deployment.