OCT 2017 VOL. 19 · NO. 5 · ISSUE 172
VIP Voices Telenet: To See the Beauty Coming out of Convergence
Tech Forum Broadband Networks in the Next Decade: Trends, Challenges and Evolution
Special Topic: NG-PON TITAN: A Flagship Optical Access Platform for the Next Decade
Micha Berger, CTO of Telenet CONTENTS ZTE TECHNOLOGIES OCT 2017
05 17
VIP Voices
05 Telenet: To See the Beauty Coming out of Convergence Reporter: Liu Yang
11 ZTE CTO Xu Huijun Talks 5G at MWC Shanghai Source: GSMA’s Mobile World Live
15 IV Tier National Data Center: Heart of Digital Bangladesh 2021 11 Reporter: Liu Yang
Special Topic: NG-PON
TITAN: A Flagship Optical Access Platform for the 19 Next Decade By Wang Xinsheng, Han Jing
23 The Evolutionary Path of NG-PON By Yuan Liquan
16 27 An Analysis of 100G PON Application Prospects By Guo Yong
30 Key WDM-PON Technologies for 5G Fronthaul By Yang Bo PtP Combo PON 21 ZTE TECHNOLOGIES GPON TITAN Advisory Committee 10G PON TWDM-PON Director: Chen Jane 100G PON 25G PON Deputy Directors: Xu Ming, Zhang Jianguo, Zhu Jinyun Advisers: Bao Zhongjun, Chen Jian, Cui Li, Fang Jianliang, Wang Xiang, Yang Jiaxiao
35 Editorial Board Director: Wang Xiang Deputy Director: Huang Xinming Members: Bo Gang, Cui Liangjun, Han Gang, Heng Yunjun, Huang Xinming, 37 Liu Shouwen, Sun Jiruo, Wang Xiang, Ye Ce, Zhang Zhenchao, Zhou Yong
Sponsor: ZTE Corporation Edited By Strategy Planning Department 2 Editor-in-Chief: Wang Xiang OCT 2017 Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Huang Xinming ZTE Editorial Director: Liu Yang Executive Editor-in-Chief: Yue Lihua Circulatio n Manager: Wang Pingping
Tech Forum Address: NO. 55, Hi-tech Road South, Shenzhen, P.R.China Broadband Networks in the Next Decade: Trends, Postcode: 518075 33 Challenges and Evolution Tel: +86-755-26775211 Fax: +86-755-26775217 By Heng Yunjun Website: wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/about/ publications Email: [email protected] Success Story
OCT 2017 VOL. 19 · NO. 5 · ISSUE 172 A technical
AUG 2016 VOL. 18 Ȕ NO. 4 Ȕ ISSUE 165 magazine that keeps
VIP VIP Voices Voices Telenet: To See the Beauty up with the latest Better Tools Makes for Better Work Coming out of Convergence 37 VIP Voices Tech Forum industry trends, Orange Jordan: Simplify the Lives of Broadband Networks in the Customers Next Decade: Trends, Challenges True Uses QRun for a Fast FTTx Roll-out and Evolution communicates Tech Forum OEID: A New Tag Technology in By Guo Wenkui Opcal Wireless Communicaons leading technologies
Special and solutions, and NG-PON Topic SpecialA Topic:Discussion NG-PON of NG-PON shares stories of our TITAN:Evolution A Flagship OpticalTrends Access Platform for the Next Decade
Olivier Wicquart, CTO of Orange Jordan customer success Micha Berger, CTO of Telenet TE News
ZTE 6-Month Profit Rises 29.8% on Higher Mobile Network and Devices Sales
issued by GlobalData. By virtue of its sustained innovations and leadership in 4G and 5G technologies, the company has made steady achievements in global markets, and has deployed over 60 Pre5G networks as well as 240 SDN and NFV networks globally. In wireline networks, ZTE achieved breakthroughs in network virtualization, 100G optical transmission, and next-generation optical access fields. ZTE has 24 August 2017, Shenzhen, China ― ZTE reported a forged extensive partnerships with telecoms operators 29.8% surge in first-half net profit, powered by growth in from Germany, Spain, Japan, Russia, Thailand and China the company’s mobile network and smartphone businesses. in the field of fixed and bearer networks. 37 Net profit attributable to holders of ordinary shares ZTE achieved a year-on-year growth of 41.7 percent OCTSEP 2017 2016 of the listed company jumped to RMB 2.29 billion in self-developed chip shipments in the first half of 2017. ZTE ZTE in the first six months, according to ZTE’s results The company’s Pre5G multi-mode software baseband announcement today. Basic earnings per share increased chips were shipped to top international operators, and its to RMB 0.55. First-half revenue increased 13.1% to IoT chips have been put into interoperability tests with RMB 54.01 billion. different vendors. ZTE’s R&D spending increased to RMB 6.68 billion In the consumer division, ZTE posted growth in both in the first half, or 12.4% of revenue. This takes the operating revenue and gross profit. The company’s handset company’s R&D spending past RMB 10 billion in sales channels cover over 160 countries and regions. ZTE the past 12 months, as ZTE focuses on innovations in is ranked fourth in the US smartphone market and ranks 5G, IoT and cloud computing to sharpen its overall among the top five in countries including Australia, competitiveness. In March 2017, the company was ranked Germany, Canada and Spain. ZTE’s terminal STB No. 1 in the World Intellectual Property Organization shipment gained a year-on-year increase of 15% in first- (WIPO)’s latest annual list for patent applications, half, exceeding the annual shipments in 2016. reflecting the company’s increased focus on research ZTE established its domestic Enterprise Business and development of next-generation technologies. operations in 2017, which will focus on rail transit In the carrier networks division, accounting for deployment, financing and government businesses. It will 59.9% of revenue, ZTE is further strengthening its keep the first place in the domestic rail transit integrated investment in key 5G technologies including wireless communication market. and 5G bearer networks. Underpinned by its leadership Looking forward, the company will be committed in 5G technologies, the company is committed to helping to becoming a pioneer in 5G technologies, taking carriers deploy the latest network innovations and the lead in standardization, technical perspective smoothly evolve from 4.5G networks, supporting the and commercialization. In future, the company will ongoing digital transformation of operators globally. unswervingly strengthen its investment in two aspects— In wireless networks, ZTE’s LTE portfolio has key technologies like 5G wireless and 5G bearer networks, been named the only ‘Leader’ in the latest report and will focus on key markets and customers. TE News
ZTE Introduces Artificial Intelligence Solution
7 September 2017, Shenzhen, ZTE Trials Pre5G Massive MIMO China ― ZTE officially released in Singapore its artificial intelligence (AI) solution to help operators build next generation highly-intelligent and cost-effective automated 3 August 2017, Shenzhen, China increase in throughput, shared the AI networks. From platform, ― ZTE announced that it has teamed traffic volume of super-busy macro- services, network and chip aspects, up with Singtel to complete live station cells, and significantly the solution fully elaborates on deployment of the 2.6 GHz Pre5G improved network speeds on user future-oriented AI end-to-end Massive MIMO network at one terminals as well as user experience, architecture, applications, and Marina Bay site in Singapore. This thereby increasing the overall service typical scenarios. Massive MIMO solution will be able throughput in the region. With a unified AI platform, to enhance Singtel’s 4G user speed Bai Yanmin, VP of ZTE, GM ZTE’s AI solution can provide experience in time for Singapore’s of ZTE’s 5G&TDD products, said: diverse applications, for cloud National Day celebrations held in the “Although the 5G standard has not service, intelligent network, Marina Bay area. yet been determined, the 5G user and chip and terminal. AI- Pre5G Massive MIMO will play experience requirement and key 5G based cloud service application 4 an important role in guaranteeing technologies have been relatively can provide voice and video OCT 2017 service quality in the case of high clear. We are devoting our efforts to services that are based on face data traffic resulting from the vast promote the product development and ZTE recognition, human and vehicle crowd gathered during Singapore commercial use of Pre5G, aiming to identification, speech recognition National Day. Following the site bring a 5G-like user experience to and natural language processing commissioning, the Pre5G Massive existing end users through Massive technologies. AI-based MIMO cell witnessed a sharp MIMO.” intelligent network application based on precision algorithms can provide intelligent network O&M, intelligent network optimization, and intelligent ZTE Participates in the ONF SDN Test with its network operations. In chip and intelligent terminal perspective, 5G-Oriented Microwave Product the solution can provide self- research AI chip, self-research 10 August 2017, Shenzhen, robot module, and self-research China ― ZTE announced that it has intelligent terminals. successfully participated in the radio Complemented with high backhaul SDN proof of concept (PoC) computing power, precision test held by the Open Networking algorithm and data analytics Foundation (ONF) for multiple vendors. capability, AI technology ZTE used the NR8120A in this test. will lead to the evolution of Being part of the NR8000 product highly intelligent autonomous, family, the NR8120A is a brand new automatic, self-optimizing and 5G-oriented platform device. self-healing networks. IP Voices
57 OCTSEP 2017 2016 ZTEZTE
Telenet: To See the Beauty Coming out of Convergence
Reporter: Liu Yang
Micha Berger, CTO of Telenet IP Voices
elenet Group is the largest provider of end user experience. Because we own both networks, cable broadband services in Belgium. financially it is also much easier for us to build To better compete in the mobile market, quad-play products, which include voice, internet, the company took over Base from KPN television, and mobile services. We combine the in 2015. Telenet is now modernizing services and meet the customer’s demand of offering Tthe mobile network with ZTE, which will help to simple and reliable service in and outside the home. profile itself as a leading converged operator in Customers do not want to choose a different TV Belgium and Europe, against the background of a provider, internet provider, or mobile provider. They telecommunications and entertainment market that is want a simple solution that will serve their daily needs. undergoing massive changes. Micha Berger, CTO of We are in the perfect place to provide this solution. Telenet, and Luk Bruynseels, VP of Mobile and Voice We created a fixed & mobile converged product called Technology, discuss the challenges in the network WIGO almost a year ago. It has been very successful modernization project and the transformation from an and has attracted hundreds of thousands of customers MVNO to owning its own network. because it is a family package. It is easy to understand and use and serve the daily basic needs of customers and families these days. What are you seeing in the convergence 6 space in Belgium and Europe? OCT 2017 What’s your overall strategy to develop your Micha Berger: If you take a look at the markets success further? ZTE today, not only in Europe but all around the world, the convergence and consolidation of companies Luk Bruynseels: Our strategy is that we want to give is something you see happening more often. The pleasure to people in their life and work. We underpin traditional mobile-only companies understand that it with two things. One factor is supreme connectivity they are missing the fixed business and the fixed-only that is built on fixed and mobile networks. The other operators in many cases are missing out on the mobile is to inspire entertainment. That is what we are doing business. So bringing them together is almost a natural on video and television. We want to make it easier for thing. In Belgium,we acquired the mobile operator people to use new technologies in their life. We want Base which made us a genuine converged fixed-mobile to achieve this not only for residential customers but operator today. You can see this happening more and also for business customers. more around the world. A good example is Liberty Global’s operation in Holland where Vodafone and Micha Berger: We have a very strong connectivity Ziggo are a nice combination of a very strong mobile foundation for residential and B2B customers. On provider and a very strong fixed operator. top of that, we provide very strong services, such as internet, voice, and TV while we continue to invest In the convergence battle, how do you achieve in our own entertainment strategy. It is what we call success? the “love effect”. Customers don’t necessarily love their infrastructure but they love the service and the Micha Berger: First, you need a solid business model brand. We package them altogether under a strong to start with. Telenet has a very unique situation brand and under great customer centricity. We provide where we have both a very good performing fixed a great layer of services and care to our customers. It’s network and a good performing mobile network, about how you package the service and what you can which provide us the foundation to provide very good provide to your customers so they can relate to.
Micha Berger, CTO of Telenet IP Voices
77 OCTSEP 2017 2016 ZTEZTE Luk Bruynseels , VP of Mobile and Voice Technology
How important is mobility to your overall what Telenet focuses on. strategy? Telenet is now cooperating with ZTE on the Luk Bruynseels: Customers want to be connected network modernization project. What major all the time and everywhere. And it does not matter challenges do you face? whether it is at home or on the move. You have to be able to serve your customers in all those Micha Berger: We see ZTE as a partner, as somebody circumstances. Customers are spending a lot of time that is taking on the challenge with us to meet our using their cell phone connected at home to Wi- ambitions to be the best mobile operator in Belgium. Fi and outside connected to LTE. They don’t want We choose ZTE because of their attitude, ambitions, to see or feel the difference. We want to offer the and the way they approach the project with us. We are whole journey to them. The mobile part is one of modernizing all our sites with a Uni-RAN solution the foundations. Next to that, we have to see that provided by ZTE. ZTE provides us with a solution services are interconnected and blended. for 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE. We are actually expanding our network and building additional new sites. We are Micha Berger: We are investing heavily in mobile growing in terms of the number of base stations in networks. We are going through a transformation Belgium because we want to build the best coverage phase now, looking at fixed and mobile as one and connectivity. It is a challenging logistical exercise overall netwrok. The one network can be connected that we are executing together with ZTE. via coax, fiber, licensed radio, Wi-Fi, at home and outside the home. Customers should always get the Luk Bruynseels: There are a couple of challenges. best services from the service providers. That is It’s a big project. The first challenge is timing. The IP Voices
timing is very strict because we want to migrate all They are very dependant on their smartphones and our customers that we had as an MVNO to our own we are making sure that we can meet their demands. mobile network. Next to that, we win a lot of extra We are also carrying out initiatives with ZTE on customers, including wholesale customers. The second multiple fronts. For example, we maximize the return point is that Belgium regulations on mobile networks on investment because we invest a lot and we have to are challenging because they are complicated. We have make sure that we get the most out of the equipment. three different regions with different rules, guidelines, Another important thing about customer experience is and procedures. Last but not least, we have a lot of voice quality. It is basic and fundamental. You have to work to do, but we want to maintain a good service make sure that you have no call drops. quality. For the end-users, the network upgrade should be transparent. They should soon feel the positive Micha Berger: Our best measure of quality and effects of network modernization. success are the customers themselves. I mean, you can add all the accurate tools you want, but if the What is the time required for such a project? customers are not satisfied, it is useless. We measure our customer satisfaction very frequently. Every month Luk Bruynseels: We set the target to finish in 18 we have a survey. Customers continue to come to us months. There are several aspects that define this and buy more services. With the investment in our goal. It is the combination of selecting the right network, we hope to make customers happier in the partners, keeping the logistic chain under control, and future, so that they come to us for additional services. implementing the procedures for environmental health 8 and safety to see that we do it with the right quality. How do you drive innovation at Telenet? OCT 2017 I think 18 months is a positive stretch. We took on ZTE the challenge together with ZTE and are currently on Micha Berger: Liberty Global is now becoming schedule to make it happen. very innovative in many ways compared with other traditional cable operators. We at Liberty and Telenet What kind of customer experience would you are climbing the innovation ladder seriously. I think like to create on your mobile network? we have a lot to learn from the young kids that just finished school or university. They organize start- Luk Bruynseels: In Belgium we see that people ups and they have something that we don’t have. We have high demands on the mobile network nowadays. can learn from them and they can learn from us. We are trying to become more agile and to do things that we didn’t do in the past. If we want to do something, we will bring in young graduates to work with us. They will see the way we work is more solid compared to the hectic and agile way. We will profit from their agility and combine the two worlds together.
Luk Bruynseels: We are making some specific investments in start- up funding. We are investing specifically in start-ups ourselves. Within our company, we are creating An interview an environment for young graduates IP Voices
to join us. We just launched a campaign to recruit Games, Asia is a bit more advanced than all of us in 97 university graduates. It has been very successful. We terms of network and the way services are used. We OCTSEP 2017 2016 try to see that we can blend the innovation DNA into are eager to learn what is happening in China and ZTEZTE our company. other parts of Asia. We will try to build additional innovations on top of the infrastructure once the Micha Berger: Together with ZTE, we are looking at standards are out there. We are following ZTE and new frontiers as well. We are looking at how we can other vendors developing in this domain. use ZTE’s technologies to help our innovation and to open up our networks and platforms to be able to offer How do you envisage your future cooperation new services and to allow this generation to be more with ZTE? innovative on our platforms. Luk Bruynseels: We invest very significantly in our What’s your strategy towards the evolving 5G network with ZTE. We will work more with them on standard? joint innovations. We count on vendors like ZTE to take us on a journey to see what the future will bring. Micha Berger: Everybody is working on 5G. We We are glad that we’ve chosen ZTE until now because are also working on 5G. We will be there when 5G is it’s proven that we have made a very big step forward. ready. The challenge we all have is that 5G is not yet fully defined in terms of specifications and standards. Micha Berger: The 1.3 Gbps showcase we did in The standards are not yet complete and the equipment Belgium is the first in Europe. It just shows what we is not yet working according to standards. We are can do from a technology perspective. We believe doing all kinds of interesting trials on Pre5G. We that’s only the beginning. It’s going to grow and the expect 5G to be a very different animal compared investments we are doing exactly serve this purpose. to the LTE network we have today. It is supposed to It’s not only about the speed. It’s about what you provide large throughput but also to be able to have can provide on top of the speed. The innovations low latency and to provide services that you can’t are really about the services we’re going to build provide today. I assume that thanks to the Olympic and provide to our customers that are leaning on the IP Voices
strong network foundations. paying off our mortgage. The assets are ours and we can do much more—renovate the house and furnish What new opportunities do you foresee for it any way we wish. The power of bringing mobile Telenet? and fixed together in terms of services is the beauty we are going to see coming out of the convergence Micha Berger: We have room to grow in mobile for of both companies, services and networks. sure. Also within the Liberty family, we are mainly MVNO-driven in many countries. We have strong Is it a big change for you? ambitions to grow in our MNVO countries. Another area that we have ambitions to grow is B2B. Small Micha Berger: For me, it is a big change. I am businesses need to be much more digitized and need responsible for mobile at both Telenet and Liberty to digitize their processes in order to become more Europe. I don’t originally come from the world of successful and drive the economy. You see that mobile. I came from the world of cable, broadband, especially in Belgium. So we are there to support the and video. That’s the world I’m very familiar with. I small and medium enterprises, to digitize their way of stepped into the mobile world almost four years ago. working and to enhance their economic value. I’m learning a lot. My personal skills have improved For new services, I believe in IoT. It is going to be quite dramatically and it’s a big challenge for me. a significant player and we are going to be a player in Building a new mobile network is not something 10 that area as well. IoT is very broad you need to first I’ve done in the past so I rely on people like Luk OCT 2017 narrow down to zoom into services that are relevant and his team who are experts in this field. I am ZTE for businesses or customers. That’s the challenge. always challenging from a different aspect, maybe asking obvious questions, which are sometimes good From an MVNO to owning your mobile questions. I think it is a good combination to both network, how would you describe the learn and challenge. process? Luk Bruynseels: For a fixed operator, it is also not Micha Berger: There is a very solid business case easy and straightforward to get on the mobile road. for MVNOs. For example, in some of the countries There are some things that are different and it takes of Liberty, we operate as an MVNO because some time before you change your mindset. So it is a financially this way of approaching the market is big change in our company. But it is a change that is better than owning your mobile network. It gives needed and you see that everybody is positive about you flexibility and capability for negotiating pricing. the change and wants to make it a success. It serves your business almost the same way. This is true until the scale turns around. At Telenet, we Micha Berger: You see the commercial part of the operated as an MVNO for many years. We became company is also very excited about the converged very successful and we grew out of proportions to world. A mobile service is a fast-moving product operate as an MVNO. We understood that if we compared to a fixed service. People can change their wanted to continue to grow at the same pace, we subscriptions from one day to another, be exposed actually could only do this if we owned our own to new services or business models. Mobile is much network. My boss always says, “Think about the more dynamic we need to act fast and think fast. We example of renting your house. After a couple of need to cater to a faster and more complex-moving years it’s better off if you buy the house and pay world around us. This is what is making this industry your mortgage.” That’s what we are doing now. nowadays exciting and exposing new business Instead of renting, we actually bought it and are opportunities. IP Voices
117 OCTSEP 20172016 ZTEZTE
ZTE CTO Xu Huijun Talks 5G at MWC Shanghai
Source: GSMA’s Mobile World Live
Xu Huijun, CTO of ZTE IP Voices
head of Mobile World Congress In Phase 1 of China’s national 5G tests in 2016, Shanghai, Mobile World Live spoke ZTE was the first company to complete testing and to Xu Huijun, CTO of ZTE, about we also achieved the best results of all vendors. ZTE how the company is working with is now participating in Phase 2 5G tests and we are operators to exploit new opportunities the first to conduct field tests at 26 GHz, achieving aroundA 5G, IoT and video. The executive also gave an excellent performance. update on the company’s plans for the show, including In the test for massive connection scenarios, ZTE’s the products and technologies on display. 5G technologies increase connectivity by 600 per cent, capable of connecting tens of millions of terminals. How is Pre5G technology enabling ZTE’s ZTE has established global partnerships with the customers to prepare for the evolution world’s leading operators on 5G. Apart from the joint to 5G? field test with China Mobile, ZTE recently announced 5G field tests with SoftBank at 4.5 GHz in downtown Ahead of 5G standardization, ZTE’s Pre5G areas in Tokyo. ZTE is also working with other solutions support operators in upgrading their operators including China Telecom China Unicom, networks for optimized performance, giving Telefonica, Telenet, KT, and U Mobile. Meanwhile, subscribers a 5G level of user experience on existing ZTE has deployed more than 240 commercial network 12 devices and terminals. In terms of economics, virtualization projects around the world. OCT 2017 Pre5G supports smooth evolution to full 5G, helping ZTE is an active participant in standard ZTE operators achieve excellent returns on investment. organizations including ITU, 3GPP, and IEEE. Since ZTE is a leader in space division multiple access January 2016, ZTE has submitted around 3,500 (SDMA) technology including Massive MIMO. proposals on 3GPP 5G NR and gained two editor seats Since launching in 2015, ZTE’s Pre5G solutions for essential 5G standards. In the RAN section, ZTE is including Massive MIMO are now deployed by leading the research project for NOMA. more than 60 operators in over 40 countries, and ZTE is launching a full range of 5G base stations have won numerous international awards including for higher and lower frequencies from 700 MHz to the GSMA’s Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough 39 GHz. In addition, ZTE is developing chipsets for 5G Award in 2016. base stations and DPDIC chipsets, enhancing our core In 2016, ZTE built on our industry-leadership in technological competency. TDD-based Massive MIMO technology and became ZTE is partnering with Qualcomm and China Mobile the first company to launch an FDD-based Massive to conduct the first low-frequency IoDT test in compliance MIMO solution. We are working with operators with 3GPP standards. ZTE and the GSMA will be co- around the world to deploy these 5G technologies on hosting a 5G summit, where we will be sharing insights existing 4G LTE networks, laying the best foundations into 5G with leading organizations, operators, chipset ZTE CTO Xu Huijun for successful full-5G deployment in the future. manufacturers, and partners in the industry, advancing 5G commercialization for win-win cooperation. Can ZTE share more insights on 5G Talks 5G at MWC Shanghai development? Can you provide some updates Compared with earlier technologies, what are on China’s national 5G tests, and your the new possibilities of 5G networks in terms collaboration with your customers globally? of service innovations?
As a leader in 5G innovations, ZTE is focused on 5G will drive service innovations and business accelerating the commercialization of 5G. transformation for different industries and economic IP Voices
137 OCTSEP 20172016 ZTEZTE
sectors, by addressing the three requirements computing, big data, big video and artificial of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra- intelligence to offer comprehensive solutions reliable and low latency communications including chipsets, modules, operating systems, (URLLC), and massive machine type in addition to network gateways, IoT platforms communications (mMTC). and data centers. As an early mover on 5G, ZTE is focused In terms of target applications, ZTE is focused on network innovations that will help our on four areas: smart city, industrial internet, smart customers address the three requirements of homes and the internet of vehicles. 5G—for example, ZTE’s proprietary Pre5G ZTE is committed to an open strategy solutions, powered by new technologies on IoT to foster increased collaboration with including Massive MIMO, helps carriers fulfill ecosystem partners, ensuring robust and seamless the requirements for eMBB, supporting the connectivity, as well as driving faster service transition to commercialized 5G services. innovations for users and businesses. More than 30 operators and 140 IoT How is ZTE positioning itself in the technology developers are now members of field of IoT, and what progress has ZTE’s Global IoT Alliance. ZTE’s IoT services been made? are now deployed in more than 140 cities in over 40 countries. Through ZTE’s IoT PaaS platform, we are In addition, more than 70 experts from able to harness our capabilities in IoT, cloud ZTE are driving IoT development through their IP Voices
positions at industry organizations including will ZTE showcase at MWC Shanghai? the GSMA NB-IoT Forum and 3GPP. ZTE has been granted more than 400 patents on IoT After releasing a full range of pre-commercial technologies, the third-highest total among 5G products at Mobile World Congress in companies globally, according to data compiled Barcelona this year, here at MWC Shanghai, ZTE by industry consultant LexInnova. showcases its integrated 5G solutions, including the latest innovations in wireless technologies, Video will be a big opportunity for bearer networks, and service applications. operators in the 5G era. How is ZTE Visitors will gain insights into how ZTE’s working with its partners to make the advanced 5G technologies are bringing them most of this market? closer to 5G commercialization. At this year’s MWC Shanghai, ZTE is In the 5G era, video services based on running 5G demonstrations with China’s three big broadband will be an important part of major operators. ZTE is live streaming the joint 14 operators’ “pipe” services. ZTE’s industry- 5G test with China Mobile, deploying ZTE’s OCT 2017 leading Big Video technologies will enable low frequency 5G AAU, the smallest and ZTE operators to offer richer video services with lightest in the industry, achieving a 2Gb/s UE excellent user experiences, driving their digital peak data rate. transformation. ZTE will also showcase its Network 2020 ZTE provides industry’s first integrated CDN solution based on ElasticNet architecture, solution for IPTV/OTT services on wireline and with network slicing and network on demand mobile networks. capabilities. With technologies like Pre5G, 5G, MEC, ZTE has launched the world’s first carrier- fog computing, CDN and AI, ZTE is driving grade DevOps platform for commercial use. innovations in video optimization solutions and This platform quickly customizes networks high-performance networks for operators. For for different industries and scenarios, helping example, ZTE is the first company to develop operators build agile and more powerful networks an end-to-end solution for VR live broadcasting based on virtualization and cloud infrastructure. in China. ZTE is an industry-leader in CDN technology, ZTE is also working closely with advertisers, helping operators optimize networks for video content and service providers to help operators in services. Here at MWC Shanghai, ZTE will offering enhanced video services. be showcasing the end-to-end Big Video 3.0 Globally, ZTE’s Big Video solutions are solution. ZTE’s Big Video 3.0 solution helps deployed in more than 90 commercial projects, operators deliver enhanced video services for with a combined capacity of 80 million users. smart homes, with new tools for more intelligent ZTE has over 100 CDN commercial deployments network management and service operations. Big and we are the world’s leading provider of IPTV Video 3.0 solution will support operators in their set-top-boxes. transformation to new internet-based business models, and create more value in new video What new products and technologies services to subscribers. IP Voices
IV Tier National Data Center: Heart of Digital Bangladesh 2021
Reporter: Liu Yang
157 he Government of Bangladesh is at the Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), ICT OCTSEP 20172016 installing an IV Tier National Data Division. We have set up many high-tech parks and ZTEZTE Center, one of the largest data centers in software parks. To improve governance, we have Asia, as the country is moving towards completed Infra-Sakar Phase 1 and Phase 2, which is digitalization. The new data center to set up the optical network throughout the country isT being built by ZTE based in Shenzhen, China. for government connectivity. Nowadays, most of our Recently, ZTE Technologies interviewed Abu Sayeed government employees use e-services such as e-filing Chowdhury, Project Director of the IV Tier National and e-mail. We have in total 52 ministries and four Data Center, Bangladesh Computer Council, ICT independent governing bodies. We have set up the Division. Abu Sayeed Chowdhury is responsible for network for them, but we don’t have a very strong coordinating and implementing the project on time and secure data center for them. We need a high- while ensuring its quality. He shared with us details on end, world-class data center in Bangladesh for better the new National Data Center, including its reliability service. Besides, the private sector has high demands and energy efficiency. for data. Banks and many international companies need a high reliability data center for lease. What is the background of the IV Tier The new National Data Center is very important National Data Center in Bangladesh? for preserving, securing and sharing data. It will be at the heart of building Digital Bangladesh. That’s why Bangladesh is a country with huge potential in we are going to develop the data center, which is being ICT development. The government has the vision built by ZTE. of building Digital Bangladesh by 2021. It is being monitored by our honorable ICT advisor Sajeeb What are the advantages of the National Wazed Joy, who is an expert in IT and also a scientist. Data Center? He is a young and dynamic leader and the architect for building Digital Bangladesh. So people in Bangladesh We have many big databases, for example, the are very lucky. election commission database and the passport Digital Bangladesh is the main target for us here database. We have many big applications, like e-filing. IP Voices
Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, Project Director of the IV Tier National Data Center in Bangladesh
16 OCT 2017 ZTE
We need to preserve them and make them secure as center reliability? well as user friendly. By establishing and furnishing the data center, data security will be ensured. The The data center uses the 2N structure, and is second advantage is data sharing. There are now designed according to IV Tier standards, providing many databases in the country but they are used by 99.995% reliability. The entire system is fault different stake holders. The data center will help us tolerant, which means that the data center can share data among the important stake holders. sustain failures and planned or even unplanned events without impacting the core business. How will the National Data Center We are also going to establish two accelerate the digital transformation of connections to the data center. One would be the Bangladesh? main line; the other would be the redundant line. So from Dhaka to Kaliakoir there will be two The National Data Center will provide many hyper connections. Each connection also has its services in the future, such as cloud computing, own redundancy. When one is disconnected for cloud desk and cloud storage. Those services some reason, the other will be in service. That’s will help people and the government easily take the way we design. advantage of e-services when they demand them. I have seen in China that people are using mobile How do you ensure that the data center is terminals for office work, shopping and chatting. compliant with IV Tier standards? I think we are going to witness the same digital transformation. All the design has been carried out by ZTE and China HP. As I know, ZTE has a good position What’s your approach to the data in the data center market worldwide. China HP IP Voices
Group photo of experts from Bangladesh Computer Council, Uptime Institute and ZTE 177 OCTSEP 2017 2016 ZTEZTE cooperated in the design of the IV Tier data center. work on some challenges. When I face some During the design phase, we also set up a technique challenges, for example, if I overcome them, I committee made up of professional and experienced feel very happy myself. members. We had many sessions with the Uptime Institute, ZTE and China HP. Most of problems Data centers are energy intensive. What’s were solved in time. Under the guidance of China your approach on energy consumption HP and Uptime Institute, I believe we will get all and environmental protection? the Uptime certifications. How do you feel about working on the To address these two issues, Bangladesh’s data center project? government was happy to select ZTE because they’ve secured these two components, service I’m happy to work here. Every day I start from prediction and energy consumption. Apart from 6 a.m. and finish work at 9 p.m. I have to start that, when we finalized the specifications of the early in the morning because the construction site equipment, we selected the equipment which is far away and the road is clear at that time. Our has less electricity consumption and is also office is in Dhaka whereas the data center is being environment-friendly. We worked with ZTE and built at the Kaliakoir High-Tech Park, 70 km away BCC to choose the right equipment. from Dhaka. I need to go there to oversee the The data center also has an improved design. We construction and implementation. I really enjoy it use a high-density modularized data center solution because it is promoting Digital Bangladesh and is with highly efficient modular UPS, chilled water also a milestone for the country. in-row air conditioners and enclosed cold aisles. Every mega project also has some Based on these advanced technologies, the data challenges. We are addressing the problems center will operate at a power usage effectiveness and solving the challenges. It’s interesting to (PUE) value of less than 1.8. Considering the hot IP Voices
weather in Bangladesh, the data center is energy- engineers from different sectors, including IT, saving and environment-friendly. electricity, power and civil engineers. They are On site, there is an area of greenery. The High- actually responsible for operating the data center. Tech Park is located on a spacious piece of land We are now enhancing their technical capabilities (nearly 350 acres). Within that area, we have seven so that they can operate the center easily. We have acres of land for the data center. The data center three types of training for them. The first is local has some space available and we made it green training in Bangladesh. The second is overseas with foliage. training at ZTE University in China. The third is on-site training. When equipment is installed, they How will the National Data Center meet will go on-site and get hand-to-hand training. the trend of big data and IoT? What are your thoughts on the future data The Internet of Things (IoT) will create a center industry? large amount of data every second. With the rapid development of the IoT, we have entered the era I think data centers are very important in of big data. To meet the demands of the big data digitization. For education, a library is very 18 era, we have designed a capacity of more than 600 important. You put all the books in the library. OCT 2017 racks for the data center. Besides this, there are a You take a book, read it and share it with others. ZTE lot of expandable areas. When we expand in the Similarly, we could preserve data in one place like future, we have facilities for this. a library. People can then use and share the data. This is the ultimate objective for keeping the data. What do you think of ZTE’s project team? Information needs to be preserved in data centers in a secure way. For example, when you They are working very well. I would like want to apply for a passport, you need to get the to refer to the friendly relationship between form. If you get a fake one, it would be of no use. Bangladesh and China. China is one of the biggest Now cyber attacks are crucial issue around the development partners for Bangladesh. I would world. There could be different data centers. The like to thank the Government of Bangladesh private sector could have one; and the government that they have chosen the right development sector could have one. If data centers are deployed partner—China and more particularly ZTE. We in different places, it would be difficult to hack are progressing well. Also, we are lucky that these data centers. If everything is in one place, we’ve got such good leadership, for example our it is easy to hack. We need more data centers to ICT advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy as I told you. I minimize cyber risks. We also need the data center am optimistic that we will be achieving Digital recovery system. Bangladesh before 2021. With the development of cloud computing, high-density data centers have become a trend. What’s the plan for operations & Emerging technologies are breaking the limits maintenance? of density and power source. For example, data centers that traditionally support less than 5 kW In a data center, there are three parts, the per rack can now get up to 8 to 9 kW per rack. We civic part (construction), the power and electric believe data centers will be able to reduce physical part and the IT part. In the project, we have 30 space by 30% in the next five years. pecial Topic: NG-PON
TITAN: A Flagship
Optical Access Platform for the Next Decade
By Wang Xinsheng, Han Jing
197 OCTSEP 20172016 ZTEZTE
elecom operators network traffic in the future, and worldwide are higher requirements will be placed on working on bandwidth network architecture and bearer mode. promotion. New Accordingly, alternations have to be businesses and trends made on network devices to adapt to are continually changing situations. springingT up, and booming OTT Based on its deep understanding services are greatly affecting on the ICT industry, ZTE, as leader Wang Xinsheng telecom operation. It is becoming in FTTx, has released its TITAN, Chief Engineer of FN increasingly obvious that the the industry’s first flagship full- Product Planning, ZTE competition is among different scenario optical access platform industries and that services and oriented to 100G PON and network networks tend to be converged. re-architecture. TITAN boasts the Video has become a basic most advanced architecture, the broadband service and will gradually largest capacity, and the strongest burst out its potentials. In the next access capability, fully meeting the decade, traffic growth will accelerate application needs in the next decade. greatly; there will be an explosion of service demands, increasingly Largest Capacity, Highest diverse services and application Integration, and Strongest Han Jing scenarios; and video traffic will Access Capability Director of FN Product become dominant. Big video service Planning, ZTE will account for above 80% of total ● Largest capacity: TITAN has a pecial Topic: NG-PON
PON commercial deployment.
Industry’s First to Release Symmetrical 100G PON Prototype Largest Strongest Capacity Access TITAN provides 12-mode on-demand Capability access on the same platform, supporting three TITAN generations of PON technologies (EPON/ GPON, 10G PON, and 100G PON) as well as three technical systems (GPON, EPON, and PtP), which meets the requirements of smooth Highest evolution from GPON to 10G PON and then to Integration 100G PON, and allows optical terminals to be deployed on-demand. Large-scale 100G PON deployment will be supported in the future by 20 adding cards and upgrading software. This can OCT 2017 switching capacity of 28.8T, four times greatly extend equipment lifecycle and reduce ZTE that of other vendors’ highest level in network evolution and upgrade costs. the industry. In January 2017, ZTE launched the ● Highest integration: TITAN is the industry’s industry’s first symmetrical 100G PON first to support 16-port 10G PON and prototype, and verified symmetrical single- Combo PON access, and is the first to be wavelength 25G and four-wavelength tested and applied. It is also the industry’s 100G PON systems in a NG-PON first to support 16-port 25G PON and 4-port demonstration network. 100G PON high-density accesses. ● Strongest access capability: TITAN Industry’s First to Support 16-Port High- provides up to 36 service slots. Under the Density 10G PON and Combo PON same bandwidth condition, it provides four times as much as user access capacity Combo PON innovatively integrates (or the number of access users). TITAN GPON optical module, 10G PON optical is used to significantly reduce the number module, and WDM1r in the same PON port. of device types and NEs, and hence it can This allows a single board to be compatible simplify networking and lower TCO. with two-generation PON technologies and to support on-demand configuration for Industry’s Highest 400G Backplane smooth evolution. Slot Bandwidth ZTE’s all-in-one Combo PON enables a single board to be compatible with both GPON TITAN provides a slot bandwidth of 400G, and 10G PON technologies. It supports smooth which is twice that of other vendors’ highest technology upgrade, on-demand optical level. It supports 100G/25G PON non-blocking terminal deployment, and flexible bandwidth access, meeting the need of large-scale 100G provision. It also extends equipment lifecycle, Cloudization and Cloud Native: An pecial Topic: NG-PON Inevitable Road to Deepening Telecom Transformation
PtP Combo PON
GPON TITAN 10G PON TWDM-PON 100G PON 25G PON
217 OCTSEP 20172016 ZTEZTE
reduces the cost and complexity of network utilized without any change to existing upgrade, and facilitates fast network management and maintenance mode. This deployment and service provisioning. protects operator investment and increases ZTE’s Combo PON solution has the network value. following advantages: The Combo PON solution is not only ● No need to deploy new 10G PON OLT, suitable for the upgrade from GPON to 10G rack, WDM1r combiner and ODF, and PON, but also applicable in newly-built lots of cost savings in equipment room PON scenarios to quickly attract new users. and deployment It requires no prior planning, and optical ● No additional insertion loss that is terminals with different technologies can introduced and no change on the be deployed and accessed as desired. Users existing ODN network can be upgraded without any change to OLT. ● Its output optical power is the same as Also, there is no adjustment to ODN when it that of GPON. The upgrade of OLT line is deployed. cards and bandwidth has no impact on In an upgrade scenario, Combo PON can normal operation of existing ONUs. The save 60% of the site space, 50% of the line card existing GPON terminals can be fully types/spare parts, and 26% of Capex. In a new pecial Topic: NG-PON
deployment scenario, Combo PON can save 40% plane are completely separated and do not affect of Capex as compared to newly-built GPON and each other. TITAN supports end-to-end flexible XG-PON. network slicing. Each network slice has its independent control plane, forwarding plane and Industry’s First OAN and OTN resources to ensure high security and reliability, Convergence and ensure that services do not affect each other. In this way, different service requirements can be The traditional optical network has multiple met at a most appropriate cost, without slowing layers with many intermediate nodes. Its service down equipment performance. transport involves many hops and multi-layer TITAN uses one-level access to replace convergence, which may lead to packet loss the original two-level (BNG and OLT) access and network latency, and thus seriously affect control to achieve convergence of the access user experience especially in big video and 5G layer and the BNG forwarding plane. This bearing scenarios. simplifies network layers and structure. TITAN TITAN supports OTN. OTN sinks down to provides a large-capacity virtual resource pool 22 the access equipment room at a very small cost, to meet the need of DC-centralized network OCT 2017 so that the transport layer can be converged with re-architecture, so that different application ZTE the access layer. OLT only needs one uplink hop scenarios can access the same platform. TITAN to connect with the data center (DC) without can serve as the leaf node under EDC spine-tree going through too many intermediate devices and architecture to enable cloudized optical access network layers. This reduces the number of IP resources. Moreover, TITAN supports VXLAN routing hops at the package layer, lowers network and Netconf/YANG, and can be controlled by delay, and increases transmission efficiency. a SDN controller. TITAN implements unified TITAN supports built-in OTN uplink, so it service control, unified service distribution, and needs less intermediate links on the network. automatic service configuration under the control This saves network resources such as uplink of the SDN controller. interfaces, optical interfaces, and pipes. TITAN To adapt to the trends of ultrafast, cloudized, also enables unified and flexible management and and convergent access networks, ZTE’s TITAN maintenance of the transmission and access parts, platform provides the industry’s most advanced which significantly reduces Opex. Compared to architecture, the highest capability, the largest a stand-alone OTN device, TITAN reduces 25% capacity, and the most complete applications. It of the footprint, 30% of the power consumption, is a flagship innovative optical access platform and 50% of Capex. designed to meet the access network development and evolution in the next decade. Since its release, Oriented to DC-Centralized Network Re- TITAN has drawn great attention in the industry Architecture for Smooth Migration to SDN and has led the industry to think more about technical development and network deployment TITAN adopts a fully-distributed non- at the access layer. Based on the TITAN platform, blocking architecture to ensure the reliability ZTE offers a complete range of FTTx products of service resources, service processes and and solutions to help operators select flexibly and systems. The control plane and forwarding deploy them on-demand. pecial Topic: NG-PON
The Evolutionary Path of NG-PON
By Yuan Liquan
237 OCTSEP 20172016 urrently, the next- launching new PON technology at ZTEZTE generation PON (NG- the expected time can be worked PON) refers to the out to support the development of new-generation PON broadband services. that is expected to emerge after 2017. The Basic Requirements evolutionC of PONs from different generations based on bit rates on a Application Scenarios fiber is defined in both IEEE and ITU-T. ITU-T SG15 defines A/B NG-PON has basically the same PON, GPON, XG/S PON and NG- applications as FTTx and can also PON2, while IEEE defines EPON offer 5G fronthaul and backhaul and 10G-EPON (Fig. 1). as a potential service. When PON Advances in broadband is used to carry mobile services, technology are driven by an its requirements for fronthaul and increasing number of smart backhaul are different. Fronthaul connected devices, the emergence of requires high bandwidth (more than video streaming services including 25G for 5G bearer network), so 4K/8K and AR/VR, 4G/5G mobile using WDM-PON to support point- fronthaul/backhaul services, and to-point link has become a major industrial internet services. It is concern. As for the backhaul with Yuan Liquan therefore necessary to start with small data traffic, TDM-PON can be the service requirements to discuss used, but the delay requirement must Chief Standardization Engineer NG-PON. By analyzing core still be satisfied. This paper focuses of FN Product Team, ZTE service requirements, solutions for on the evolutionary path of NG-PON pecial Topic: NG-PON
100’s Mbps 2.5G 10G N*10G N*25G
XG-PON1 TWDM-PON A/BPON GPON 25G/50G/100G PON XGS-PON PtP WDM PON
EPON 10G-EPON 100G PON
Figure 1. The evolutionary path of PON systems.
based on TDM-PON. Operators in China started a large-scale deployment of 10G EPON and XG/S-PON in 2017, while European Deployment Time operators are still deploying GPON and MSOs in North America have begun to deploy 10G EPON. So EPON and GPON have been widely deployed far, it is unlikely that operators will upgrade directly 24 around the world since 2010. After years of fiber- from 1G EPON to NG-PON without going through OCT 2017 optic infrastructure construction, many countries 10G EPON. Therefore, the evolutionary path will ZTE are actively involved in FTTH deployment. Optical most probably be from 10G EPON and XG/S-PON access is now basically provided via TDM in the or GPON to NG-PON. uplink and broadcasting in the downlink. With the Different operators may choose different paths for service expansion and user’s growing demands for evolution. Their choices are affected by wavelength bandwidths, 10G EPON and 10G GPON have also planning and the selection of next-hop rates. When been deployed on a large scale since 2016. designing a NG-PON system, it is necessary to Conventionally, each generation of PON consider operator needs to give a unified solution. technology has 7-8 years life. For operators who have deployed 10G PON, their NG-PON may be deployed Evolutionary Path in around 2025. Operators who are deploying GPON and may not have been prepared for 10G PON may In terms of cost and technical maturity, single- consider deploying their NG-PON in 2-3 years. wavelength 25G PON will be a feasible option for Therefore, considering the demands of NG-PON post-10G PON in around 2022. When combined with deployment in 2-3 or 7-8 years, it is necessary to form high-order modulation techniques such as PAM4, two generations of PON subsystems based on the duobinary and DMT, 25G PON can support single- same optical-layer rates. wavelength 50Gbit/s data rates. Data rates on a single fiber can be improved by two Compatibility with Legacy Networks schemes: single-wavelength rate boosting and multi- wavelength overlapping. The two schemes have their Legacy networks in this paper refer to the deployed own advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost optical access networks that include EPON, GPON, and technical feasibility. The evolutional path to NG- 10G EPON and 10G GPON (XG/S-PON). A general PON is determined by a number of factors, including consideration in network upgrade is the compatibility the comparison of two schemes and the coexistence with at least one generation of legacy PON systems. with legacy networks. pecial Topic: NG-PON
Single-Wavelength Rate Boosting Scheme according to evaluations by operators. If upgrading the deployed 10G PON, operators have to consider more Now 25G optoelectronic devices used in data about its 7-8 years of lifecycle and that by around centers are increasingly maturing, and 25G is 2025, the next hop to 50G will be an appropriate rate. becoming a standard rate for NG-PON. In January If the upgrade is from GPON and starts in about 2021, 2016, the IEEE P802.3ca Task Force was set up to operators can skip 10G and directly choose 25G, develop the standard for NG-PON (25G/50G/100G because there is no clear conclusion about the use of PON), with the target of finalizing it in about 2018. 50G in 2-3 years in terms of cost technical feasibility. ITU-T also started research into single-wavelength The research shows single-wavelength 100G within 10G+ PON in Q2 2016. These standards and 7-8 years may not meet application requirements of researches will make broadband access evolve toward TDM-PON in terms of technology and cost (Fig. 2). higher bandwidth, allowing users to enjoy an average bandwidth of over 1G. Multi-Wavelength Overlapping Scheme Considering the data rate, cost and technical difficulty for single-wavelength PON, non-return In some cases, boosting single-wavelength to zero (NRZ) is a simple coding solution for 10G+ rates may involve great technical difficulties and PON, but it is not suitable for data rates above 25G (e.g. high implementation costs. To meet near-term high 50G). To address this issue, high-order modulation bandwidth requirements, operators can adopt the 257 techniques such as PAM4, duobinary and DMT are multi-wavelength technology that can achieve high OCTSEP 2017 2016 being extensively researched. It is commonly agreed speed access with relatively low line rates. NG- ZTEZTE that NRZ can basically meet the requirements of most PON2 defined by ITU-T SG15 uses more than four optical power budget for 25G PON for it is simple to wavelengths. When each wavelength supports a implement and has high receive sensitivity. However, rate of 10G, the rate of a single fiber can reach 40G more analysis needs to be made on 50G PON, as there or beyond. The IEEE P802.3ca Task Force is also is still no clear conclusion about whether NRZ or discussing a 100G EPON solution based on the multi- high-order modulation is used. wavelength technology. The difference between In the single-wavelength rate boosting scheme, 100G EPON and NG-PON2 is that no tunable optical NG-PON can coexist with legacy networks in WDM modules but multi-wavelength bonding is used in mode. The single-wavelength PON system is simple 100G EPON to achieve a rate of 100G with a single to implement, but its data rates shall be boosted fiber. However, the following needs to be considered
GPON 10G EPON/XG/S-PON
25G PON 50G PON NG-PON
50G PON 100G PON?
Figure 2. Upgrade path for single-wavelength rates. pecial Topic: NG-PON
25G 25G 25G 25G 25G 25G OLT MAC PMD PMD MAC ONU
25G 25G PMD PMD 25G 25G 100G 100G PMD W W PMD 100G 100G ONU OLT MAC 25G M M 25G MAC PMD PMD 25G 25G PMD PMD
Figure 3. A multi-wavelength 100G PON architecture. for 100G EPON: tight optical power budget. To achieve 50G, two ● Wavelength plan is difficult for multiple 25G wavelengths are needed, but there is still debate wavelengths, especially for compatibility with over whether one single-wavelength 50G or two legacy networks as available optical spectrum 25G wavelengths are used. It would therefore be a 26 resources are limited. high risk to use the multi-wavelength PON system in OCT 2017 ● The multi-wavelength system can use tunable TDM mode. ZTE optical technology to make the ONU colorless, but the cost is high. The system can also use Summary multi-wavelength bonding to boost rates, which, however, involves complex technology and Advances in PON technology have gradually boost optical power budget issues caused by insertion fiber-optic bandwidth, making it possible to provide loss because of wavelength multiplexing and flexible bandwidth solutions over shared fibers. NG- demultiplexing. PON will continue to serve as an economical, high- Since there is no specific commercial multi- speed optical access technology for broadband wavelength PON system to verify its availability and network construction. economy, multi-wavelength overlapping technology is Single-wavelength 25G PON is an important still cautiously deployed. Tunable optical technology technology for evolution to NG-PON. 25G optical would be a feasible choice for NG-PON if it can modules can reuse the optical industry chain for significantly reduce the cost. data center networks with 25G baud rate interfaces. A multi-wavelength 100G PON architecture is Low cost and technical maturity are core drivers for illustrated in Fig.3. Based on the architecture, the evolution to NG-PON. 100G EPON solution adopts single-wavelength 25G The single-wavelength rate boosting scheme is a and can achieve a maximum access rate of 100G over preferred choice, but with the contradiction among a single ONU by using the multi-wavelength bonding bandwidth need, technical fulfillment, and cost technology. The solution can also support gradual reduction, multi-wavelength technology can also be a upgrade from 25G to 100G. Four 25G wavelengths solution in a certain period of time. The evolution to are bound to support 100G. As a result, a wavelength NG-PON needs to further balance bandwidth need, multiplexer (WM) must be added for multiplexing technology and cost. The continued research in this and demultiplexing. This will cause significant loss area will offer effective support for the choice of NG- (6dB) and thus pose a severe challenge to already PON technology. pecial Topic: NG-PON
An Analysis of 100G PON Application Prospects
By Guo Yong
such as 10 GHz APD at a rate of 277 s smart devices, 4K/8K streaming 25 Gbps. The 4-level pulse amplitude OCTSEP 20172016 videos, and 4G/5G modulation (PAM4) maps 2-bit data ZTEZTE mobile fronthaul/ into 4-level signals and transmits backhaul high- 25 Gbps data using only half the bandwidth services are bandwidth of a NRZ system. Another Awidely applied, a passive optical method is to deliver high-speed data network (PON) must provide higher upon low-bandwidth devices using transmission bandwidth to satisfy analog equalizers such as FFE filters the service requirements. Now or DSP such as MLSE. However, the 25 Gbps optoelectronic devices are costs of the above-mentioned methods increasingly maturing, and 25 Gbps are relatively high. is becoming a standard rate for the next-generation PON (NG-PON). In Progress of NG-PON Standards recent years, high-speed transmission technologies have been extensively The evolution trends of PON studied for the PON system, and defined by IEEE and ITU are shown multiple multiple methods of implementation in Fig.1. The international standard have been put forward. NG-PON2 for 40G PON was released In a bandwidth-limited receiver, in 2016, but its commercialization a three-level duobinary (DB) signal process was slowed due to high costs reduces transmission bandwidth by of tunable optical devices and system half compared with a non-return-to- immaturity. The standardization Guo Yong aero (NRZ) signal. In optical and organizations carried out research into electrical domains, the duobinary PON evolution trends. In November Senior Technology transmission system can be applied 2016, IEEE set up a 100G EPON task Preresearch Engineer of to low-bandwidth optical devices force named IEEE 802.3ca to work FN Product Team, ZTE pecial Topic: NG-PON
1G/2.5G 10G N*10G/25G TDM-PON TDM-PON + WDM PON
Single-wavelength 25G EPON 10G-EPON NG-EPON 50G/100G PON
TWDM-PON GPON XG-PON1 XGS-PON Single-wavelength 25G 50G/100G PON PtP WDM PON
Application 2007 2012 2020 2025+
Figure 1. PON evolution trends. on next-generation high-speed EPON standards that existing 10G PON, 100G PON also needs to support are expected to be released in 2018. The 100G EPON 25G, 50G and 100G ONUs. standard defines three MAC-layer rates: 25G, 50G and 100G, among which 25G falls into asymmetric 100G PON Wavelength Plan 10G/25G mode and symmetric 25G/25G mode. ITU-T The factors to be considered in selecting wavelengths Q2/15 started writing a white paper on the next- 28 generation high-speed PON and studies its access for 25G/100G PON include fiber dispersion, fiber OCT 2017 possibilities. From the perspective of bandwidth needs, loss, PON compatibility, costs of optical devices, and 10G PON will provide a bandwidth of 100M to 1G per technical complexity. 25G/100G PON supports three ZTE user by 2020. After 2020, 25G PON, NG-PON2, and rates: 25G, 50G, and 100G. 50G/100G PON will be gradually commercialized to ZTE, in alliance with several companies in the deliver a bandwidth of 1−10G per user. industry, puts forward an all-O-band wavelength plan that has been adopted by standard organizations. The 100G PON Architecture wavelength plan has many advantages such as NRZ modulation, no complex dispersion compensation, The 100G EPON architecture discussed in the reusing the 100G Ethernet industry chain, using direct IEEE p802.3ca supports MAC-layer rates of 25G, modulated lasers (DMLs) and externally modulated 50G, and 100G. It is recommended to first deploy lasers (EMLs), and easy implementation at the physical single-wavelength 25G OLT/ONU and then 50G layer. As C-band and L-band have large dispersion, and 100G OLT/ONU. Due to the performance and complex modulation and equalization technologies are commercialization issues of tunable lasers and filters, needed for dispersion compensation, and its impact 100G EPON uses a fixed wavelength and co-exists on performance and costs still needs to be further with the existing 10G PON in the same ODN through researched. Figure 2 shows an all-O-band wavelength wavelength division. At the OLT side, 100G PON plan option. Currently, the wavelength interval and uses a wavelength division multiplexer to form a PON pass-band width have not yet been determined, and OLT port, with each wavelength supporting a rate of the wavelength plan is still under discussion. In the 25G at both optical and physical layers. The MAC wavelength plan (Fig. 2), the pass-band width for all layer supports multiple rates of 25G, 50G, and 100G. wavelengths is 3 nm, which can achieve a tradeoff A channel bonding technology must be used to bind among optical device yields, burst tolerance, and SOA multiple 25G physical and optical layers to support amplification and costs. The uplink wavelength of 25G higher MAC-layer rates. At the user side, ONUs may PON can coexist with that of 10G-EPON in the WDM or have different rates. In addition to coexisting with the TDM mode. pecial Topic: NG-PON
0 -5 -10 -15 -20 1250 1270 1290 1310 1330 1350 1370
Figure 2. 100G EPON wavelength plan option.
Development of ZTE’s 100G PON Prototype 100G PON can support PR30 (29 dB) power budget. ZTE successfully demonstrated its 100G EPON ZTE has started research into 100G PON for prototype at MWC 2017 in Barcelona. In a NG- some time. It has set up a 100G PON integration test PON demo network established by ZTE and the Key platform that can test key 25G optical devices such as Laboratory of Specialty Fiber Optics and Optical Access 25G EML, DML, APD, TIA, and burst CDR through Networks of Shanghai University in the first half of the high-speed error detector, high-speed arbitrary 2017, ZTE verified symmetric single-wavelength 25G 297 waveform generator (AWG), and high-speed sampling and four-wavelength 100G PON systems, implementing OCTSEP 20162017 oscilloscope. Performance simulation tests for various smooth evolution from 40G PON to 100G PON. The modulation modes such as NRZ, Duobinary, PAM4, NG-PON demo network adopts point-to-multipoint ZTEZTE and DMT and for various DSP algorithms can also tree topology used in PON and supports four rates: be implemented on the platform. A commercial 25G asymmetric single-wavelength uplink 10G/downlink EML with a central wavelength of 1309 nm and an 25G, symmetric single-wavelength uplink/downlink extinction ratio of 8.1 dB is used as the transmitter 25G, asymmetric four-wavelength uplink 40G/downlink (Fig. 3), and its data payloads are produced by pseudo 100G, and symmetric four-wavelength uplink/downlink random bit sequence (PRBS). The result indicates that 100G. The verification shows that symmetric 100G the receiver sensitivity measured in the case of BER PON OLT and ONU prototypes developed on ZTE’s = 10-3 (without FEC) is −28.5 dBm, conforming to commercial product platform are operating stably with the theoretical value. Due to the near-zero-dispersion good performance. wavelength, the dispersion penalty measured in the test at a transmission distance of 20 km is less than 1 dB. Conclusion By adjusting the average transmit power to +7 dBm, the optical power budget can achieve 35 dBm without ZTE has been actively involved in research and amplification. Considering the 5 dB WDM insertion development of 25G/100G PON and has maintained loss and 1 dB transmitter and dispersion penalty (TDP), its leading position in PON technologies and market applications. It is one of the earliest initiators for 100G EPON and has put forward many key technical indicators that have been adopted in the industry. ZTE is also an initiator, editor, and contributor of the next- generation high-speed PON technical whitepaper for ITU-T Q2/15. The company has developed symmetric 100G PON OLT and ONU prototypes based on its product platform, promoting the progress of 100G PON Figure 3. 100G PON integration test platform. research and commercialization. pecial Topic: NG-PON
Key WDM-PON Technologies for 5G Fronthaul
By Yang Bo
o date, research in 5G NG-PON2 standard, which details the 30 networks has boomed and architecture and indicators of WDM-PON OCT 2017 entered the critical stage of (PtP WDM). This standard specifies line ZTE standard development and rates of up to 10 Gbps as well as auxiliary trials. 5G networks have management and control channel significant improvements (AMCC) that transmits wavelength inT throughput, latency and number allocation and assignment information of connections, compared with 4G and OAM data. Considering the higher networks. This also imposes new bandwidth requirements of 5G fronthaul challenges on fronthaul networks, networks, ITU-T has started research on including higher fiber density, higher single-wavelength 25 Gbps WDM-PON transmission bandwidth, and lower applicable to 5G fronthaul networks. latency. The WDM-PON technology combines the WDM technology WDM-PON 5G Fronthaul Network and PON topology structure. It has Architecture unique advantages in 5G fronthaul applications, including high bandwidth, In a 5G C-RAN fronthaul architecture, low latency, fiber savings, easy the BBU is divided into the functional maintenance, and low costs, and has entities of central unit (CU) and distributed attracted great attention nowadays. unit (DU). The CU implements non real- Restricted by standards and time functions of the upper layers of the technology maturity, commercial radio network protocol stack. Part of the WDM-PON networks or WDM-PON network functions in the core can move prototypes have a comparatively low to the edge and application services can Yang Bo rate. A single-wavelength data rate be implemented at the edge. The DU Senior Technology does not exceed 10 Gbps in most implements PHY functions and transport Preresearch Engineer of cases. In 2015, ITU-T developed the layer functions that have stringent real- FN Product Team, ZTE pecial Topic: NG-PON
time requirements. Some PHY functions are moved to bandwidth resources. the RRU side to reduce transport cost and bandwidth ● Implements an integrated fronthaul/midhaul between the DU and RRU. The interface between the (XHaul) transport network with the OLT. The DU and RRU has not been standardized so far. The OLT platform and the DU pool can be deployed available solutions include NGFI, eCPRI, and CPRI. in the same equipment room to reduce the costs Figure 1 shows the architecture of the WDM- and energy consumption associated with auxiliary PON 5G fronthaul network. One DU and a plurality equipment and equipment room construction. of RRUs are connected via a WDM-PON point- ● Uses the colorless technology of ONU, resulting to-multipoint topology. The WDM-PON OLT is in low costs and easy maintenance. connected to the DU while the ONUs are connected ● Supports a unified optical access platform and to the RRUs. The WDM and AMCC technologies OLT sharing, simultaneously satisfying the service are used to enable transparent user data transmission requirements of mobile users and home users. between the DU and RRUs. The OLT carries the fronthaul traffic between the DU and RRUs as well as Low-Cost High-Speed Colorless ONU the midhaul traffic between the DU and CU. The WDM-PON 5G fronthaul network As a key technology of WDM-PON systems, architecture has the following technical features: colorless ONU uses the tunable ONU technology ● Uses a PON topology, which reduces the based on tunable lasers. It is easy to realize high- amount of fiber needed by 5G fronthaul speed transmission by combining tunable lasers and 317 networks with high site densities. The existing modulators. Currently, the commercially available OCTSEP 20172016 fiber infrastructure and equipment room is tunable lasers include distributed Bragg reflector ZTEZTE utilized, saving the network construction and (DBR) laser, digital supermode distributed Bragg maintenance costs. reflector (DS-DBR) laser, external cavity laser (ECL), ● Uses the WDM and AMCC technologies, which and V-cavity laser (VCL). These four solutions differ do not require frame processing or dynamic in tuning mechanism, integration mode, wavelength bandwidth allocation (DBA) scheduling. tuning range, and cost (Table 1). It can be seen that Compared with active bearer equipment and the 25 Gbps tunable laser is not mature enough and TDM PON, this architecture boasts low latency, its applications to 5G fronthaul networks should be low frequency jitter, and flexible configuration of further studied for improved rates and reduced costs. different fronthaul interfaces. The tunable optical module rate can be increased ● Offers a dedicated wavelength to each user, through 10 Gbps tunable lasers together with high- high transmission efficiency, and extensive order modulation technologies, including 4-level
RRU ONU Tunable TRX
Tunable RRU ONU WDM-PON CU CN TRX OLT
Tunable RRU ONU TRX
DU
Figure 1. WDM-PON 5G fronthaul network architecture. pecial Topic: NG-PON
Table 1. Comparison of tunable laser technologies.
Tunable Laser Wavelength Tuning Tuning Modulation Integration Mode Cost Type Mechanism Range Speed
DBR Current, temperature Monolithically integrated DML/EA > 10 nm 2.5/10 Gbps Low
DS-DBR Current Monolithically integrated MZ > 40 nm 10 Gbps/(25 Gbps) Higher
ECL Temperature/micromechanics Hybrid integrated DML > 30 nm 2.5 Gbps Lower
VCL Current, temperature Monolithically integrated DML/EA > 30 nm 2.5/10 Gbps Lower
pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) and optical in two ways: baseband overmodulation and RF pilot duobinary (ODB). When the high-order modulation tone. In baseband overmodulation, low-rate baseband technologies are used for 25 Gbps tunable modules, signals are added to the peak of user data signals. In RF the mature 10 Gbps optical device industrial chain pilot tone, low-rate ASK-modulated or FSK-modulated can be utilized to reduce the optical device costs and signals are added to the peak of user data signals. 32 accelerate the commercialization of 25 Gbps tunable Both solutions have advantages and disadvantages. OCT 2017 optical modules. Moreover, the anti-dispersion Baseband overmodulation is simple with no need for ZTE performance of high-speed tunable lasers can be ADCs and DSPs and can achieve a transmission rate improved to increase the transmission distance of over 100 Kbps, but it requires high optical power supported by tunable optical modules. stability for signal transmission and cannot transmit The costs of tunable optical modules can be multiple signals over AMCC channel via different reduced by decreasing the module encapsulation subcarrier frequencies. RF pilot tone is complex on the costs as well as using low-cost tunable lasers. receiver side and the transmission rate is constrained For example, AMCC can be used together with by signal rate, but it has the advantage of transmitting wavelength monitoring to reduce the wavelength multi-channel signals simultaneously. Both solutions stability requirements for tunable lasers so that the may affect data signal transmission to some extent. In encapsulation process can be simplified and the costs general, the modulation depth of AMCC signals does can be reduced. not exceed 10% when the optical power penalty is 1dB.
AMCC Conclusion
The AMCC technology has been applied to In the 5G era, fronthaul networks are facing new transparent transmission management for 5G challenges due to new network architectures, new fronthaul WDM-PON systems. Without affecting technologies, and new application features. The WDM- data transmission, it manages and controls WDM- PON system has advantages in latency, bandwidth, fiber PON ONUs and tunable optical modules, covering savings, and maintenance, and it has gained superiority wavelength allocation information and OAM data. in 5G fronthaul applications. By implementing efficient In most cases, the transparent AMCC transport is and flexible network architectures, low-cost colorless used, and such operations as encapsulation, coding, ONU and AMCC, low-cost and high-performance and FEC should not be performed on user data. The fronthaul solutions can be developed to drive 5G transparent AMCC transport can be implemented development and commercialization. ech Forum
Broadband Networks in the Next Decade: Trends, Challenges and Evolution
By Heng Yunjun
Broadband Trends in the Next capabilities or carriers that can be called by most Decade: Disappearing Broadband VS information services. There will be ubiquitous, Ubiquitous Videos IP-based, ultra high definition (UHD), and 337 virtual videos. ● OCTSEP 20172016 en years from now, broadband will Ubiquitous video: Video will be greatly disappear from people’s awareness enriched, traditional graphic information ZTEZTE and become a kind of nature will be visualized, and video will become a infrastructure. The word “install basic capability freely called by a variety of broadband” will sound as strange applications. as the word “have electricity” by ● IP video: The current widely-deployed now.T In the next decade, videos will evolve from satellite TV, cable TV and digital terrestrial today’s popular applications to fundamental TV will be gradually replaced by IP videos.
In the next decade, videos will evolve from today’s popular applications to fundamental capabilities or carriers that can be called by most information services. There will be ubiquitous, IP-based, ultra high definition, and virtual videos.
—Heng Yunjun, Director of FN Product Team, ZTE Corporation ech Forum
The IP videos based on broadband networks years. Each broadband technology will be upgraded will dominate the market. with 4-fold or 10-fold capability enhancement. As ● UHD video: The maturing large-size TV/ the broadband technology accelerates its upgrade projector/virtual imaging technology and pace, it will have a shorter lifecycle. One upgrade the improved user consumability will make every five years will present huge challenges to 4K to 8K/8K+ TV more valuable. Compared technologies, products and networks. with the existing 24p/30p/60p (24/30/60 progressive scanning frames per second), Dominant Video Streaming Leads to 120p is a stunning presentation of the real Changes in Network Architecture and world, as evidenced in a 2016 film of the Traffic Bearing Mode director Ang Lee. 120p will be another major direction of video experience enhancement in A video-dominant broadband network no longer the next decade. has an obvious statistical multiplexing effect. Web ● Virtual video: As virtual reality (VR) traffic such as internet browsing, email and instant and augmented reality (AR) give a new messaging is mainly delivered in bursts, resulting in dimension for people to perceive the world, dozens of times of statistical multiplexing efficiency video forms and contents will be vastly and highly efficient multi-level IP convergence. By 34 expanded and its experience will also contrast, video services require steady bandwidth OCT 2017 undergo profound changes. occupation for a long time span which takes dozens ZTE of seconds to minutes. That makes the statistical Accelerated Traffic Growth Can Hardly multiplexing effect not obvious and IP convergence Meet Future Business Needs less meaningful. Operators can move the content distribution As video is IP-based, the video content is network (CDN) of their self-operated video service decoupled from its medium, and satellite TV, (IPTV) to IP network edges to prevent inefficient cable TV and digital terrestrial TV gradually convergence. However, large amounts of third- converge to broadband TV, broadband video users party video content cannot be moved to edge nodes. are expected to increase by 10-fold. In the next This poses a tough challenge to video bearing in the decade, video quality will evolve to that of two to traditional network architecture. three generations levels, and bandwidth demand is In the future, a metropolitan area network estimated to increase by 20-fold. With ubiquitous (MAN) will be centered on data centers. All the video scenarios and visualized information, it is large-granularity content can be implemented estimated there will be a five-fold growth in video in local data centers, while the vast majority of usage. In summary, there will be a 1,000-fold traffic can be implemented in data centers within increase in the total volume of broadband traffic the MAN. As a result, user traffic routes can be and a 100-fold rise in average traffic per user. drastically simplified and the network architecture The past 20 years have witnessed a compound can be maximally flattened. annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 40% in the bandwidth demand of home broadband users. Diverse Broadband Scenarios Give Rise to This means a 10-fold increase in the bandwidth 5G-like Differentiated Service Features demand every seven years. Driven by strong video consumption, the bandwidth demand will grow at Just like 5G, fixed broadband in the future will a CAGR of 60%, a 10-fold increase in every five spawn diverse application scenarios and generate ech Forum
differentiated service features. Specifically, for the next decade. the service feature for big video that needs Therefore, for upgrading to a new technology, high bandwidth is enhanced fixed broadband only new software and boards need to be 357 (eFBB); that for massive smart home appliances developed. The equipment upgrade is completed access and interconnection is massive machine- by deploying new boards on the existing network OCTSEP 20172016 type communication (mMTC); that for highly and upgrading its software. This avoids tedious ZTEZTE reliable enterprise private line is ultra-reliable work, low efficiency and high costs caused by communications (uRC); that for the delay- installing new equipment, reconnecting wires and sensitive industrial internet scenario is low migrating services. latency communications (LLC); and that for ZTE’s new-generation flagship optical virtual reality that needs both high bandwidth access product, TITAN, is compatible with and low latency is eFBB & LLC. Different three generations of technologies: GPON, 10G application scenarios have different network PON and 100G PON. TITAN adopts a fully features, require different management modes and distributed switching architecture that is four- put in different expenditures. The highly virtual fold the capacity of the industry’s highest level. technology is used to achieve differentiated TITAN aims to meet service requirements for the features on individual devices and networks and next decade in terms of product architecture and to meet different service requirements at the most design capacity. appropriate expenses. Combo PON Offers a General Solution Forward Inter-Generational Compatibility for Smooth Technology Upgrade Reduces the Number of Frequent Equipment Iterations For two generations of technologies that are not fully compatible with each other, technology To achieve inter-generational compatibility and upgrade at a network level is extremely difficult. support future two generations of technologies, The upgrade is made either by very complex new-generation broadband network products need technologies and at high costs to achieve to discard traditional technology and product compatibility of massive user-end devices, or design ideas. The new products have to double by an overlay network to migrate users over a their prime of life to satisfy service requirements long time period. For example, for upgrade from ech Forum
GPON to XG-PON, it is necessary to add new and provides OTN boards to achieve high XG-PON products and combiners in the GPON integration across network layers. With enormous equipment room and reconnect hundreds of optical design capacity, TITAN can be deployed at an fibers. This increases optical line loss that may edge data center (EDC). This reduces the number cause service unavailability to existing users. of network elements by an order of magnitude as ZTE has developed Combo PON that compared to moving the OTN down to the access integrates two generations of PON technologies equipment room. and combiner modules into one optical module. TITAN based on router architecture supports Through physical equipment integration and complete IP functions and acts as the forwarding logical compatibility, Combo PON completely plane of a broadband network gateway (BNG) addresses the issue of incompatible technical to compress two original network layers (OLT- standards on the equipment. The innovative BNG) into one. With cloud optical access, TITAN Combo PON also offers the industry a common enables more efficient sharing at the user level and efficient solution for the compatibility issue that in different application scenarios, which boosts may occur again in the next decade. network resource utilization. It is estimated that by re-architecturing network based on TITAN’s 36 Finding an Optimal Path for Carrying integrated access and transport, compressing the OCT 2017 Large-Granularity Traffic to Reduce access layers and reducing IP dependency, the cost ZTE Invaluable Intermediate Nodes of deploying an end-to-end broadband network can decrease by 50%. Since its statistical multiplexing effect is In the coming decade, as high-speed broadband no longer obvious, and its routes are short prevails, users will be less concerned about and simple (most video traffic is terminated at broadband networks, and yet the industry will face the data centers within a MAN and is chiefly unprecedented challenges. Drawing on its deep concentrated in dozens of data centers), video insights into the industry trends and challenges for traffic is quite suitable for direct transport over IP the next decade, ZTE has made brave explorations to data centers without the need of intermediate in technical innovation, product design, and IP convergence and handling. In terms of video network re-architecture. Its one-generation route, the MAN is fully flattened. Moreover, broadband product that is backward compatible the deployment of SDN technology allows the with two generations of technologies can keep up transport pipe to be flexibly adjusted, enables with the quickening pace of technology upgrade; statistical multiplexing at the service level, and its Combo PON simplifies network upgrade; its thus makes the network more efficient. virtualization technology brings broadband out of To reap these benefits, an optical transport home to offer IoT ubiquitous connectivity; and its network (OTN) has to be moved down to the access deep integration of access, transport and routing equipment room. Though this trend is widely makes the network completely flat. accepted in the industry, it will take time to turn it We call on all partners in the industry to into reality because of considerable investments jointly rise against the incoming traffic tsunami, and great changes to network architecture. enjoy a superior experience brought by ultra- ZTE’s TITAN offers a brand-new approach broadband information services, and create to addressing this issue. In addition to optical limitless business opportunities in the next access, TITAN has embedded OTN functionality decade. uccess Story
Better Tools Makes for Better Work True Uses QRun for a Fast FTTx Roll-out
377 By Guo Wenkui OCTSEP 20172016 ZTEZTE
An Overview of True operator, the second largest mobile operator, and the largest broadband rue was founded in operator in Thailand. 1991. It is backed by the True provides mobile, broadband Chia Tai Group. In its and pay TV services under the ownership structure, the brands TrueMobile, TrueOnline and Chia Tai Group has a 56 TrueVisions respectively. percent shareholding, the True has 25 million mobile publicT 26 percent, and China Mobile subscribers. In 2015, True began to 18 percent. The chairman of the board upgrade its 2G and 3G networks to of True is Mr. Dhanin Chearavanont, 4G, supported by a comprehensive who also serves as president of the frequency portfolio comprising of Chia Tai Group. 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz. True operates fixed line services Its 4G, 3G and 2G networks cover under a build-transfer-operate (BTO) 98% of the Thai population. concession with TOT. In 1995, True True has 3 million broadband launched a pay TV service. In 2002, subscribers. It has a mature optical True launched cellular service. In network in Bangkok. The focus of the 2003, it launched broadband service. next stage is developing subscribers in In 2009, it started to provide 850 MHz other parts of Thailand. Guo Wenkui 3G service. For TV service, True has 4 million Wireline Product Manager, ZTE Now True is the largest full service subscribers, of whom, about 2 million uccess Story
are pay-TV users. by other operators. In this way, True can not only reinforce its position in the fixed market but also True’s New Broadband Plan make full use of existing copper resources to reduce Capex and Opex efficiently. Thailand is a favorite tourist destination in Southeast Asia. Its economy has been growing Fast Service Delivery steadily in recent years and there is a rising demand for bandwidth-hungry services. FTTx has In July 2015, ZTE started to collaborate with greater market potential than copper broadband in True to deploy GPON. ZTE’s rapid logistics system Thailand. offered a favorable condition for large-scale GPON Since AIS started to develop its fixed deployment, and True was more determined to broadband network in July 2014, competition pursue rapid implementation of FTTx. between different operators has become more While the FTTx network was being deployed intense. True’s fixed-line and mobile services rapidly, service provisioning became a huge used to be carried by different networks. Due to challenge for True. The traditional service delivery fierce market competition and lower ARPU, True system can’t meet the growth demands of FTTx needed to integrate its fixed and mobile networks subscribers. True was very concerned about two 38 to reduce TCO and to attract more subscribers at issues. First was the impact on existing broadband OCT 2017 a lower cost. services. Its outlets needed to adapt to the new ZTE In 2015, True decided to use GPON-based broadband and the new services needed to be FTTx to modernize its copper broadband network compatible with the existing ones. Second was after a series of tests and trials. It plans to achieve obtaining more users. True needed a customized an FTTx + VDSL network architecture in three OSS system that supports rapid FTTx deployment years. For commercial and high-end users, True and service promotion and also makes O&M easy. uses the FTTH solution. For ordinary users, due Considering these requirements, ZTE provided a to the limitations of ODN deployment, it uses customized OSS system solution—QRun. the FTTB + VDSL Vectoring solution to compete During the FTTx deployment, ZTE built a with the ADSL/VDSL access method provided powerful OSS system for True that simplifies service provisioning and helps True grow new subscribers nationwide. True outlets have achieved an almost zero error rate on provisioning and maintenance.
Conclusion
As the largest broadband operator in Thailand, True has kept its leading status with the strategic FTTx deployment. By leveraging ZTE’s QRun solution, True has achieved rapid deployment and operation of an urban fiber network, ensuring its growth in the Thai broadband market.