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@fibresystemsmag | www.fibre-systems.com


FEATURE STANDARDS


Here be dragons C


Pauline Rigby bravely explores the roadmap for next- generation optical access


artographers once drew dragons, sea serpents and other mythological creatures in uncharted areas of their maps, illustrating their


anxiety about the unknown. Technologists are made of sterner stuff. When entering uncharted territory, they use roadmaps to navigate through calm waters towards common objectives. For 20 years, the Full Service Access


Network (FSAN) group has guided the development of passive optical networks (PON) by building consensus on the best approach, before their ideas are passed over to the ITU for standardisation. Tey had a roadmap, but it came to an end in 2015. ‘Te group was at a point where we were


falling off the edge of the world,’ commented Peter Dawes, co-chair of the Next Generation PON Task Group at FSAN. ‘We were off the edge of the map and it was time to think about the next 10 years.’


Roadmap review Te FSAN group had achieved everything they set out to achieve with their previous roadmap. It culminated in the approval in October 2015 of ITU Recommendation G.989 for ‘40-Gigabit-capable passive optical networks (NG-PON2)’. Tis technology is the first to use multiple wavelength pairs in the access network, and increases capacity four times compared to the previous technology generation. It does this by overlaying additional 10Gb/s wavelengths on the optical distribution network. A later amendment increased the number of possible wavelengths to eight. Tis was followed in December 2016 by first


stage approval for G.9807.1 for ‘10-Gigabit- capable symmetric passive optical network (XGS-PON)’, a related technology that also provides 10Gb/s capacity on a single wavelength, but takes advantage of lower-cost, fixed-wavelength optics rather than using the tunable transmitters required for NG-PON2.


We were off the edge of the map and it was time to think about the next 10 years


Tese latest technologies are in the early


stages of deployment in commercial networks. Verizon, for one, is currently evaluating vendors for a roll-out of NG-PON2 technology across its access network, including to its FiOS customers. It has just completed what is believed to be the first demonstration of interoperability between NG-PON2 equipment from different vendors. But while service providers are still kicking the tyres on the new technology, they are already discussing what comes aſter that. ‘FSAN is an operator-driven group,’


explained Dawes. Out of about 70 member companies, 26 of them represent the world’s biggest telecom operators, including AT&T, China Mobile, NTT, Verizon, and Vodafone. In a series of meetings over the course of a


year, FSAN members discussed the creation of the new roadmap. ‘Te first time we discussed it was December [2015], so that was a year ago,’ recalled Dawes. ‘It was a fairly long process and we went through several iterations before we arrived at the roadmap that you see now.’


The need for speed One thing that came out of those discussions, certainly for the first part of the roadmap until 2020, was the realisation that everyone is looking for an evolution to the recently standardised technologies. ‘It’s not a case of working on a brand-new technology straight away,’ Dawes remarked. ‘It’s more a case of making the existing technologies a commercial success, and building on those standards … rather than taking a shiſt into a whole new principle of operation,’ he said. Verizon’s interoperability trial is a case in point. While the majority of fibre-to-the-home


(FTTH) networks around the world are based upon PON technology, residential services are no longer the main driver for their development. ‘Te mass market is very well served by GPON,’ observed Derek Nesset, co-chair of FSAN’s Next Generation PON Task


Issue 14 • Winter 2017 FIBRE SYSTEMS 29


Kjolak/cigdem/Shutterstock.com


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