Nokia, Vodafone Demonstrate 100 Gbps PON on a Single Wavelength
Nokia and Vodafone announced they had a successful trial of a new Passive Optical Network (PON) technology capable of delivering speeds up to 100 Gbps over a single wavelength. According to the companies, the ability to deliver single-wavelength 100 Gbps PON confirms the capability of fiber access and aggregation networks to deliver ultra-high speeds.
The trial itself took place in Vodafone’s Eschborn lab in Germany last week. For the demonstration, Nokia Bell Labs used 25G optics combined with digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. The 25G optics, available today, are part of a mature eco-system, Nokia said. Advancing the speed beyond 25G needed the advanced DSP capabilities.
Nokia Bell Labs said the 100G PON prototype is the first to use flexible rate transmission in a PON network. Flexible rate transmission groups fiber modems (ONUs) with similar physical network characteristics to enhance data transmission efficiency, lower latency and reduce power consumption.
“100G PON has 40 times the capacity of today’s GPON networks, and 10 times the capacity of XGS-GPON, so it will help us keep ahead of the demand curve,” said Gavin Young, Vodafone’s head of Fixed Access Center of Excellence, in a prepared statement. “100G PON enables flexible rates, and works by grouping modems using a technique similar to the one we already use in our cable networks, so this experience can help us to better evaluate and exploit this new PON technology.”
If the telecom industry adopts DSP, PON speeds of 50G and 100G PON could be available in the second half of the decade, according to the companies.