Introduction of high-powered technology will open the door for ultrafast service of up to 80 Gigabits per Second over fiber optic platform.
Verizon, one of the largest telecommunications operator in the USA, with over 110 millions customers, has successfully completed the tests of a new technology in its optical fiber network, which will provide to businesses and consumers Internet access with a speed of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), that could increase up to 80Gbps in the near future, as the marketplace demands.
Field testing of this new technology, known in the industry as next-generation passive optical network, or NG-PON2, was conducted in Framingham, Massachusetts, bringing the service to a customer’s home 3 miles away as well as to a nearby business location, followed by extensive and rigorous testing in Verizon’s laboratories in Waltham, Massachusetts.
The trial, according to Vincent O’Byrne, director of access technology for Verizon, consisted of a new optical line terminal (OLT), generating four wavelengths, or colors of light, each capable of operating at 10Gbps for download speed and 2.5Gbps for upload speed. There are also available other versions to support the same download and upload speeds of 10G/10G per color. One test transmitted the NG-PON2 signals over a fiber serving live GPON customers proving that PT Inovação’s technology can simultaneously deliver GPON, RF Overlay and NG-PON2.
The field trial also validated an important service reliability feature of NG-PON2. In one of the tests, a fault in the Verizon central equipment was simulated and the customer’s ONT autonomously tuned to another wavelength, restoring its own 10G service in seconds. This new feature of NG-PON2 has critical implications for improved customer reliability and performance.
Initially, higher-speed applications would be most attractive for business customers. That’s expected to change as the adoption of 4K video content and the explosion of the Internet of Things, with an estimated 25 billion Internet-connected devices expected by 2020, will create demand for higher symmetrical speeds and lower latency for consumers as well. “The advantage of our network is that it can be upgraded easily by adding electronics onto the fiber network that is already in place. Deploying this exciting new technology sets a new standard for the broadband industry and further validates our strategic choice of fiber-to-the-premises”, says Lee Hicks, vice president of network technology for Verizon.
According to Alcino Lavrador, head of PT Inovação, the investment in this technology puts the company in the forefront and supports the commitment of PT in fiber optic networks. The continuous investment in research and development in these technologies has made possible to PT Inovação being a leader in the technological innovation of NG-PON2 worldwide.