Gfast rollout to accelerate as Broadband Forum publishes new certification and performance test plans  

Cost-effective rollout of fiber-grade services over existing copper infrastructure based on the Fiber-To-The-Extension-Point (FTTep) architecture will be sped up thanks to Broadband Forum publishing new Gfast certification and performance test plans.

The publication of TP-337 Issue 3, together with its Corrigendum 1: Gfast Certification Test Plan and TR-380 Issue 2: Gfast Performance Test Plan will allow service providers to deploy their equipment with confidence and eliminate the need to retest equipment that has the Broadband Forum stamp of approval. This also accelerates time to market for products, avoiding large investments of time and customizations. This multi-vendor interoperability will ensure developers and implementers have invaluable feedback to improve new products and services, with the end-user having more choices in devices and services at a lower cost.

“Gfast technology presents a viable option for operators across the industry looking to utilize existing copper infrastructure and rollout gigabit capable services when the delivery of fiber is not possible,” said BroadbandTrends Principal Analyst Teresa Mastrangelo. “The latest Broadband Forum standards are a significant step forward for accelerating Gfast deployments and will help operators deploy equipment more efficiently, providing an enhanced quality of experience for end-users seeking ultra-fast, seamless connectivity.”

The right certification program can cure your interoperability woes

When you consider the Passive Optical Network (PON), you can’t just look at the passive elements – the active elements that build your network must be considered. This includes Optical Line Terminals (OLTs), optical modules, and Optical Network Units (ONUs). The interoperability of the PON is the ability of two active elements, an OLT and a ONU, to work together to bring the intended service and provide Quality of Service (QoS) to the end-user.

We must first take a look at the standards set by the ITU including ITU G.984.x (GPON), G.987.x (XG-PON), G.9807.x (XGS-PON), and G.989.x (NG-PON2), and G.988 (OMCI). Whenever there is wiggle room, you have interpretation from different vendors, and therefore, several behaviors are possible.

Continue reading the blog by Franck-Nicolas Sellier, CEO at MT2, and Thierry Doligez, Director at LANPARK, here.

Deutsche Telekom targets 2 million new FTTH connections in 2022

The operator has expanded its Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) network by 1.2 million homes in 2021, with plans to further increase its pace to 2 million a year in 2022.

This week, German incumbent Deutsche Telekom has shown off what a successful year it has had in both fiber and 5G, noting that its fiber rollout in particular is set to accelerate even further in 2022.

According to the operator, the company has laid more than 70,000km of fiber throughout Germany this year, bringing the total length of the company’s network to 650,000km. This equated to 1.2 million additional homes gaining access to a FTTH connection in 2021, over double the amount that were connected back in 2020.

This fiber acceleration does not stop there, however, with Telekom continuing to ramp up deployment, aiming for 2 million additional connections in 2022. Looking further still, Deutsche Telekom is targeting 10 million FTTH connections by 2024, after which the company will target 2.5 million additional connections every year.

Broadband Forum standard helps move workloads to metro edge services

A new breakthrough which will bring edge computing to cloud-based broadband networks will enable service providers to improve their customers’ Quality of Experience (QoE) while increasing their revenue streams.

Broadband Forum’s TR-466 ‘Metro Compute Networking: Use Cases and High Level Requirements’ is a framework defining a new metro-compute networking architecture, ensuring a greater user experience by moving applications or content towards the lower edge tiers in the network hierarchy.

The metro-compute networking architecture will include in-depth integration of computing and network on top of the cloud-based broadband network with the purpose of connecting isolated edge sites – such as Broadband Forum’s CloudCO – as one cloud to serve edge computing services.

Trade groups write playbook for spending infrastructure money

Two broadband trade groups are wasting no time to help U.S. states figure out how they can best use the billions of dollars that the federal government is going to dispense for broadband under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) and NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association plan to publish a playbook to assist state governments as they receive funds from the infrastructure act.

The $42.5 billion that is dedicated to broadband will flow through a new program called Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD). The program will be administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which has been tasked with distributing the $42.5 billion to administrators in all 50 states as well as territories and the District of Columbia. Each of these locales will receive a minimum of $100 million from the NTIA plus additional funding based on the number of unserved locations.

New report from KX plots a path for telco operators to capture the $200BN opportunity

KX in partnership with STL Partners has published a new report outlining the key strategies operators should adopt to accelerate their go-to-market strategy for edge computing.

Based on a series of in-depth interviews with operators and enterprises across different regions and markets, the report titled ‘Why telcos need to capture the edge opportunity now’ offers a path for operators to build out edge networks and services that will deliver a platform for long-term commercial success while also ensuring short-term revenue generation.

Edge computing is forecasted to be a $200 billion market by 2026, according to STL Partners. Despite 49% of enterprises in sectors including healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and transport & logistics already exploring edge computing, the report acknowledges that many operators have so far found it challenging to capture a significant amount of this demand and generate revenue.

However, with 5G networks now well established, much has been learnt regarding both the technical requirements for edge computing and the demand from enterprises keen to take compute and analysis closer to where data is being generated. The report argues that with the groundwork laid, now is the time for operators to fully commit.