Nokia has laid claim to being the first vendor in the world to launch a commercial end-to-end 25 Gbps symmetrical PON broadband solution.
The 25G solution works on Nokia’s existing next-generation PON hardware, including line cards and access nodes. Nokia billed the 25G PON technology as the next step up the PON evolutionary ladder as it enables the convergence of high-end services on a single fiber infrastructure.
By leveraging a mature ecosystem of optical technologies that are already used in data centers, Nokia said it was also cost-efficient. It’s based on Nokia’s Quillion chipset, which it launched a little over a year ago. The purpose build Quillion chipset family can support both 5G mobile transport and 10G services for enterprises.
Current Nokia customers with 10 Gbps Quillion boards will also have 25 Gbps capabilities in their network. Nokia 25G PON can co-exist with GPON and XGS-PON on the same infrastructure, allowing CSPs to add 25 Gbps as an overlay without disrupting existing customers’ services. The 25G PON overlay allows customers to deploy it where it’s needed the most in order to capitalize on new growth opportunities.
Nokia said 25G PON would enable fiber to become the single infrastructure that underpins the entire telecom industry in order to deliver any service to any end point. As opposed to 50G PON, 25G is the best next step for PON because it leverages the high volumes and mature eco-system of data center optical technologies to achieve the improved cost points, more capacity and quicker time-to-market, according to Nokia
Operators and industry vendors have seen the need to advance PON networks beyond the current 10Gbs speeds to meet the demand for 5G mobile transport and enterprise services. In order to spur 25G forward, the 25GS-PON MSA Group was formed.
The group is a coalition of CSPs, system vendors, and chipset and optical component manufacturers that are working together on the standardization and availability of 25G PON. In addition to Nokia, other members include Ciena, CommScope, Chungwa Telecom, and MaxLinear.
“25G PON is important technology to support 5G cross-haul and we aim to enhance our fiber broadband network beyond 10 Gbps to meet increasing demand and grasp new business opportunities in mobile transport and premium enterprise services,” said Chi-Min Lo, managing director for network planning at Chunghwa Telecom, in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with Nokia and ready to test their 25G PON solution and look forward to getting it into the field.”
Several operators from different regions have been trialing the prototype version that Nokia launched last year. A spokesperson for Nokia said early deployments would start in the second half of next year.