WIOF2019: The Future of PON Networks Still Bright

Introduction: 10G PON is already modern, so what is the next generation of PON? Why not 25G PON but 50G PON? Dr. Wang Li said that in the past, the standard speed of PON was increased by 4-10 times, and the improvement of 25G PON was not obvious compared with 10G PON. Most foreign operators advocate 25G PON.

In 2019, the Wuhan International Optics Valley Forum focused on the development of PON networks again. Many guests expressed their wonderful views on the development of Gigabit broadband and PON networks. As one of the regular guests of this forum, Dr. Wang Li, a Broadband Network Engineer of China Information Technology, this year ’s lecture is entitled “evolution and challenges of 50G PON technology”. From the initial EPON and GPON, to the next 50G PON, it only took more than a decade. How to view the PON network`s current and future ? After Dr. Wang’s speech, the editor made a simple communication with her.

The deployment of 10G PON is of great concern to the current optical communications industry. On WIOF a few years ago, Mr. Bei of ZTE’s optical access network business once answered the editor’s question of when the 10G PON deployment in China would be launched, saying that the 10G PON deployment in China has begun.

Since then, a few years have passed and the editor has raised this issue with Dr. Wang Li. Dr. Wang told the editor that, in fact, Mr. Pei is right, and the deployment of 10G PON has already begun. Especially in the past year, with Shanghai telecom and other companies vigorously promoting the construction of the Gigabit optical network, the deployment scale of 10G PON has become larger. It can be seen from the shipment of Xinke’s 10G PON equipment. However, maybe the current 10G PON device is deployed in the early stage after the deployment of the PON equipment, there may not be many optical modules installed on the device. So the upstream module manufacturers do not feel it. Dr. Wang Li said that the current 10G PON deployment is increasing, on the one hand, due to the country’s promotion of gigabit broadband services. And on the other hand, the increased speed and efficiency caused by competition among operators. Compared with the situation in China, foreign countries are more interested in 25GPON, because China is currently in the forefront of broadband construction. Compared with China, they prefer a better scheme like 25G TDM PON. Compared with 25G PON, 50G PON requires the superposition of two wavelengths, or relies on the single-wave 50G scheme, which presents more technical challenges.

Despite the many challenges, people’s desire for width and speed is still the biggest driver of PON development. Dr. Wang said VR, online education, smart homes and even the industrial Internet may be the major applications for the next generation of broadband development. Compared with mobile broadband, fixed-line broadband should have more advantageous and more promising. 5G slicing and low-latency applications in the mobile broadband area that are now the focus. Internet of things applications based on PON networks can also be implemented. PON networks have lower latency and higher bandwidth.The end point of future fiber optic deployment is not only to the home, but also to the machine and the terminal. This will also involve changes to wiring standards in the construction industry.

Prior to Dr. Li wang, Du Zhe – from Shanghai Telecom Research Institute, shared the concept of industrial PON3.0 with the audience and introduced some practices of Shanghai telecom in this area. Du said that despite the lack of very successful cases of industrial PON applications, operators’ interest has always been high, and industrial PON will definitely have big plays in the future.

Like the whole communication network, PON network is also undergoing network function reconstruction and equipment configuration that reconstruction brought by new business, new applications, new technologies and new requirements. But no matter how it changes, the fixed-line broadband and PON network paths will surely wider. This is undoubtedly good news for optical operators.

Leave a Comment

Scroll to Top