2020.10.30 – Open Broadband News

Give em’ pumpkin to talk about! Broadband Forum releases OB-BAA 4.0

Broadband Forum has published Release 4.0 of its Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA) open-source project, that will provide operators worldwide with greater networking flexibility for how they plan and build their networks and enable the delivery of faster services to their customers.

Building on previous releases, Release 4.0 offers enhanced functionalities to disaggregate the management of the Optical Network Unit (ONU) into the cloud using virtualized OMCI message capabilities. Thereby de-coupling ONU management from the software upgrades and release cycles of the OLT, where traditionally it has been embedded. This reduces operators’ costs for on-boarding and upgrading new features in an ONU as well as eases the deployment of new ONU brands and models. The additional flexibility addresses the big engineering and operations problem of having embedded functions in both ONUs and OLTs.

“As network automation continues to emerge at an accelerated pace, operators will need to think about how they make upgrades compatible with their currently deployed architecture to avoid the costly and disruptive practice of starting from scratch,” said Tim Carey, OB-BAA project lead at Broadband Forum. “That’s where OB-BAA Release 4.0 will help, by creating a network which delivers on the promise of next-generation broadband, while reducing service providers’ costs and protecting their investments.”

Nokia is the pick of the patch to make NetCologne’s network go Gfast-er

Nokia has been selected to upgrade the final drop on NetCologne’s Fiber-To-The Building (FTTB) network from VDSL2 to Gfast. This means that residents of the 30,000 premises currently served by NetCologne’s infrastructure will soon have access to 1Gbps broadband.

Under the contract, Nokia will supply its Lightspan SX Gfast distribution point. In addition, it will also provide a Software Defined Network (SDN) based access controller, which simplifies provisioning, and improves automation – all of which makes the network less expensive to run. Finally, NetCologne will also deploy Nokia’s GPON OLT solution, which supports higher throughput and will therefore help the telco deliver that eye-catching connection speed.

“Nokia delivered a highly customizable solution that is ideal for the next step in our network plans: bringing gigabit connectivity cost-effectively into buildings,” said Horst Schmitz, Head of Technology at NetCologne. “On top, the cloud platform improves our automation capabilities today and for any future devices added to the network over time.”

T-Mobile is the ghostess with the mostess in LTE fixed wireless coverage

According to Light Reading, T-Mobile covers dramatically more households than either AT&T or Verizon when it comes to LTE fixed wireless services.

T-Mobile has announced that it expanded its new LTE Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service to 20 million US households. AT&T has revealed that it expects to cover around 1.1 million locations by the end of this year with its own LTE fixed wireless service.

Verizon also announced its LTE fixed wireless service covers “rural parts of 189 markets in 48 states,” but a new analysis of the operator’s offering calculates the actual number of homes covered by Verizon is around 2 million.

“To gauge service availability, we looked at a sample of 200 locations spread across a dozen ZIP codes (including a mix of urban, suburban and rural areas, both in and outside the Verizon wireline footprint) where Verizon has announced the service would be available,” said the financial analysts at Evercore in a recent note to investors. “We found the LTE home service available in eleven of those locations, or 6%. Assuming a similar availability across the whole list of available ZIP codes would imply the service is available to 2M homes in the US at this point.”

Broadband Forum is ahead of the carve in latest CPE survey

Euromedia Magazine’s annual survey examined the evolving world of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). Most providers are shifting CPE workload to the cloud, but there is still much to play for in perfecting the balance of what should continue to run on the CPE to provide the ideal service mix. As part of the annual survey, Euromedia Magazine spoke to Broadband Forum and a range of industry practitioners to define the role of CPE in an increasingly cloud-based environment, in light of the pandemic.

Broadband Forum provided answers addressing the rise in home working and the need for CPE to evolve, interesting usage patterns during the pandemic, the role service provider CPE plays in monetizing the home and whether there is still a need for a service provider to have a physical presence in the home.

Take a look at pages 10-15 in the latest issue of Euromedia Magazine here.

Are you brave enough to read Omdia’s Fiber Development Index Analysis?

Omdia has released its Fiber Development Index 2020, which tracks and benchmarks fiber development across 81 countries.

Singapore leads Omdia’s 2020 Index with maximum scores in Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) penetration, Fiber-To-The-Cell-Site (FTTS) fiber penetration, FTTH population coverage, and both download and upload speeds. It is closely followed by South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Japan. All countries in the top five benefit from having a small geographical footprint and/or relatively highly urbanized populations with a high percentage of the population living in multidwelling-unit complexes. They all also benefit from strong national broadband plans with ambitious targets around ultra-high-speed services, often backed by generous government grants or subsidies.

In contrast, other highly developed countries that are placed lower down in the fiber index, such as the US, Australia, and the UK, all tend to suffer from a less clear or less ambitious national plan, leading to weaker incentives for operators to invest, according to the report. Find out more here.

A Spooktacular Series of Fortunate Events – by Broadband Forum

Trick or treat! Get your latest market update

Service providers face competitive and regulatory pressure to guarantee high-quality, high-bandwidth broadband service for their end-users. However, existing methods of capacity measurement are often inaccurate and difficult to employ. Experts from the Broadband Forum have released a new open-source solution for so-called “Speed Tests.”

In its recent webinar on ‘Guaranteeing Broadband Service Quality with New IP Capacity Measurements,’ learn how this new way of thinking about capacity measurements can help you validate and troubleshoot broadband quality to meet all of your KPIs. Would you like to receive a copy of the latest webinar? Download it here.

Broadband Forum also released its latest Market Update which explores the motivation and gives an introduction to the new UDP-based IP Capacity Metric and Associated Measurement methods recently developed in Broadband Forum in coordination with other global organizations. If you wish to view this Market Update you can find it here.

Creep it real and register now to attend the virtual Q4 meeting  

In light of the current global situation and restricted international travel, Broadband Forum’s Q4 quarterly meeting is going virtual, taking place December 7 – 11, 2020.

The value of Broadband Forum’s quarterly meetings is known by all but as a continued courtesy during these unprecedented times the meeting will be free of charge.  Please note the Forum will continually evaluate the way to host its future quarterly meetings and assess appropriate meeting fees.

As we have seen in previous virtual meetings, this makes it an ideal opportunity for a wider level of participation, within current member and observer companies, as well as prospects. If you would like to invite a colleague from within your company or a prospective company please feel free to introduce them to Rhonda Heier, Director of Membership Development at rheier@broadband-forum.org, for meeting registration.

The detailed meeting agenda is available at: https://wiki.broadband-forum.org/display/BBF/2020+Q4+Virtual+Meeting+Detailed+Agenda

To register, please visit: https://aro.broadband-forum.org/bin/c5i?mid=5&rid=6&k2=1260

Time to get on the case for UFBB BASe

It’s time to register for this year’s UFBB BASe Conference, the leading industry event for technologists and strategists.

The virtual event will take place at 9:00am to 11:00am CET, from November 17-19, 2020, and focuses on how operators plan to leverage the latest advancements within the access network and the Connected Home. Unlike many events, UFBB is designed to meet the requirements for more technical discussion, real-life implementations, testing, and strategic technical planning, as well as valuable peer-to-peer networking.

UFBB BASe will be built around themes for each of its three days:

• Day One:A Market and Regulatory Overview of Europe and Beyond
• Day Two:A Deep Dive on Next Generation Access, Open Source, and Connected Home Technologies and Case Studies
• Day Three:How to Find Success with Advanced Technologies and What to Expect Next

Delivered by those at the forefront of developments in the industry, the seminars will focus on:

• Market updates from operators on the technical challenges and planned new access solutions to meet network and market needs
• The latest breakthroughs in next-generation copper and fiber access technologies
• Real-life use cases and best practice for next generation access
• The latest innovations in the Connected Home and advanced Wi-Fi

Due to the worldwide pandemic, this event will also be FREE OF CHARGE for all attendees. Free attendance includes full access to all seminar speaker sessions, virtual networking opportunities and access to sponsor online booth space.

If you would like to register for the event, please visit: https://hopin.to/events/ufbb-vbase-2020

We’ve got you under our spell – watch the BASe North America webinar!

This year due to the impact of COVID-19 and global travel restrictions, Broadband Forum hosted its Broadband Acceleration Seminar (BASe) North America event virtually with industry leading key speakers followed by a round table.

The event focused on “2020 Lessons and 2021 Reality” and included a range of insights on the state of standards, ecosystem readiness for emerging use cases and applications, including:

• The state of fiber connectivity and CSP fiber options
• The new Connected Home
• Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) and 5G
• Best practices across the full spectrum of Cloud CO and network virtualization

Missed the event? Not to worry, receive a copy of the webinar here: https://www.broadband-forum.org/meetings-and-events/broadband-forum-base-n-america-2020

Let’s have some skele-fun at BASe FTTH Europe 2020

On Wednesday, December 2, 2020 from 14:00, Broadband Forum will host its BASe FTTH Europe Virtual Workshop. This 90-minute session focuses on what technology lessons we have learned and what are the most likely outcomes and realities deployed in 2021 and beyond.

Senior technologists will be discussing how the PON access networks have performed and what FTTH innovations will improve the user experience for fixed, 5G and Fixed-Mobile Convergence and the delivery of better fiber broadband experience. In addition, the technology trends in the optical components, management and managed testing that will make the next generation PON technologies a reality.

Register your attendance now! https://ftthconference.eu/visiting/registration-and-pricing

Read – or watch – all about it – if you dare!

From 5G and the smart home to next-generation access and network automation, Broadband Forum is working on a series of initiatives to enable the next era of connectivity.

If you would like to track or get involved in these projects, you can learn more about Broadband Forum’s work in progress here or visit its YouTube channel for further insight.

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