2022.05.20 – Open Broadband News

Broadband Forum in major cloud-native network cost breakthrough for operators worldwide

Operators globally now have the tools to flexibly plan and build their cloud-native networks and deliver faster services to their customers, thanks to Broadband Forum today publishing Release 5.0 of its Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA) open-source project.

With the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) market expected to reach $122 billion by 2027, the latest release is another step that enables service providers to welcome the benefits of cloudification to their networks, but just as importantly, it offers a migration plan from their existing network investments.

“Operators continue to integrate their processes with cloud-native ecosystems and embrace virtualization to build and scale their networks while making sure that these new network architectures are compatible with their existing infrastructure,” said Craig Thomas, Vice President Strategic Marketing and Business Development at Broadband Forum. “This news will deliver on the promise of next-generation broadband, while reducing service providers’ costs and protecting their investments at the same time. It is a major step in the deployment of cloud-native networks.”

Read the latest press release here.

India falls four spots on fixed broadband speed globally; goes from 72nd to 76th rank in April

As the country prepares for the 5G era, India dropped four spots in rank globally for overall median fixed broadband speeds – from 72nd to 76th spot in the month of April.

Overall median fixed download speeds in India saw a slight decrease from 48.15 Mbps in March to 48.09 Mbps in April, according to Ookla, the global leader in network intelligence and connectivity insights. However, India recorded 14.19 Mbps median mobile download speeds which is better than 13.67 Mbps in March.

With this, India is now two notches up in its global ranking and is at 118th position, according to the report. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore led the mobile broadband and fixed broadband categories, with a median download speed of 134.48 Mbps and 207.61 Mbps, respectively.

Splash the cash! US to splurge $45 billion on affordable Internet

The US government has launched an ambitious new broadband funding scheme with the stated aim of closing the digital divide by the end of the decade. With a hefty budget of $45 billion, the bipartisan ‘Internet for All’ initiative is part of the $1 trillion national Infrastructure Bill and comprises three programs that together will extend last-mile network coverage, upgrade middle-mile infrastructure, and improve digital literacy.

The initiative is being managed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is part of the Commerce Department.

“In the 21st century, you simply cannot participate in the economy if you don’t have access to reliable, affordable high-speed Internet,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, in a statement. “Thanks to President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law, Americans across the country will no longer be held back by a lack of high-speed Internet access. We are going to ensure every American will have access to technologies that allow them to attend class, start a small business, visit with their doctor, and participate in the modern economy.”

According to Cable.co.uk’s most recent broadband pricing survey, the US ranks 134th in the world for fixed broadband affordability, with the average tariff costing $55. By comparison, the UK averages $39, while in France and Germany it costs around $29 and $28 per month respectively.

Survey finds poor broadband holding back rural UK businesses

A new survey of more than 4,000 businesses in England, which was conducted by the National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE), has claimed that sub-standard infrastructure in rural areas – particularly the lack of quality broadband in many parts – is making it harder for businesses to be “resilient and bounce back from adversity.”

According to Ofcom, fixed broadband coverage at speeds of 30Mbps+ currently reaches 96%+ of the UK (28.1m premises), but this falls to 83% in rural areas. Meanwhile, the number of premises that cannot get a 10Mbps+ service is 0.4% (123,000 premises) and gigabit-capable broadband only reaches 47% – before dropping to 25% in rural areas alone.

Suffice to say, if you live in one of those disadvantaged rural areas in the UK then running a business, particularly one that benefits from good internet connectivity, can be much more of a challenge. NICRE’s survey, which was conducted during August 2021, found that 34% of rural enterprises judged their broadband quality to be ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’, which compares to 20% of urban enterprises.

“Our significant results indicating a positive relationship between broadband quality and firm resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic are particularly important to the Levelling Up agenda, when viewed alongside the issues with access to, and quality of, broadband in rural areas,” said NICRE Co-director Professor Stephen Roper.

GSMA warns internet value chain growth to stall unless market imbalances addressed

A new GSMA report warns market imbalances between network operators and online services providers may put global growth prospects at risk across multiple sectors of the internet-based economy. The GSMA 2022 Internet Value Chain Report finds that revenues across the internet value chain nearly doubled in five years, from $3.3 trillion in 2015 to $6.7 trillion in 2020.

• Paid-for online services will soon exceed $1 trillion in revenues, driving huge capacity demand on global networks.
• With an annual growth rate of 7.5%, the number of users being connected to the internet globally shows no sign of slowing.
• Traffic per user grew at 27% per year, with almost 80% of that being driven by video traffic.
• Yet the return on investment in infrastructure for network operators was far lower, between 6% and 11%.

“The internet connects 4.6 billion people and drives the global economy. It is transforming business models, unlocking new opportunities, and uplifting communities across the world,” said GSMA Chairman José María Álvarez-Pallete. “But as some sectors in the internet value chain thrive, the demands of investing in the infrastructure those sectors rely on for growth are squeezing network operators. We welcome the growing recognition of this issue by policymakers, and as the internet-based economy expands across all sectors over the next decade.”

Benu Networks reaches 100 Tb speeds on its virtual BNG

Benu Networks has taken its cloud-native broadband network gateway (BNG) to the next level, partnering with Intel to enhance its virtual BNG performance. The companies said the vBNG can reach up to 100 terabits per second (Tbps) of throughput, which can scale to support millions of users.

Typically, hardware based BNGs use application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for the user plane. Because different ASICs have different interfaces and programming models, it’s difficult to port software from one ASIC to another. That means physical BNGs are limited to what the hardware supports and often can’t make use of technology from multiple vendors. What differentiates a vBNG from hardware BNGs is the lack of a physical chassis, which limits the number of physical components a BNG can have, such as line cards.

Operators have already begun catching onto disaggregated BNGs. Vodafone last year began testing the Broadband Forum’s TR-459 standard, which enables control plane and user separation (CUPS). That capability allows broadband networks to establish, for instance, a centralized control plane that simplifies subscriber management and management of IP address pools.

In other developments within software-defined networking (SDN), Broadband Forum is working on a technology called dynamic session steering (also known as subscriber session steering). Put simply, the technology uses SDN to reconfigure a user’s connection on the fly based on the application they’re using.