Nokia, SK Broadband combine PON technologies to support 52.5-Gbps FTTB

SK Broadband has deployed a next-generation PON platform from Nokia that supports three different PON approaches over the same fiber. The use of the three technologies simultaneously enables delivery of a total of 52.5 Gbps per fiber. The South Korean service provider has begun to use the approach in a fiber to the building (FTTB) architecture to connect apartment buildings in Seoul.

Nokia has taken advantage of the fact that such next-generation PON approaches as XGS-PON and NG-PON2 (based on TWDM-PON technology) were specified to be backwards compatible with current GPON architectures. Therefore, it is possible to map wavelengths for all three approaches onto a single fiber. GPON supports 2.5 Gbps downstream, XGS-PON supports symmetrical 10-Gbps rates, and first-generation NG-PON2 delivers four wavelengths each of symmetrical 10 Gbps. Add up the downstream rates and you get 52.5 Gbps, as the combination will allow only one XGS-PON wavelength.

"As a new era looms that demands gigabit internet, ultra-high-definition video, and virtual and augmented reality services, SK Broadband will establish a network infrastructure that provides the best customer value," asserts Yoo Ji-chang, head of SK Broadband's Network Division. "Following the world's first commercialization of an ADSL service and the two-pair LAN cable 500-Mbps service, we will establish a top-class optical internet platform to create the best gigabit broadband service environment for our customers."

Nokia says it developed the MDU technology SK Broadband is using with HFR Inc., a Korean vendor of wired and wireless network equipment.

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