At a meeting November 14-18 in Hangzhou, China, member of the FSAN (Full Service Access Network) Group developed and have now released a roadmap for future PON standards. The roadmap considers what comes after XGS-PON and NG-PON2, technologies studied within FSAN and recently standardized by the ITU-T in Study Group 15, Question 2 (see "ITU-T approves XGS-PON, amends NG-PON2 specifications").
FSAN is a forum through which telecommunications services providers, independent test labs, and equipment suppliers can collaborate to promote the development of fiber-optic broadband specifications. It has been extremely influential in the development of the BPON and GPON families of PON fiber to the premises (FTTP) technologies. It also collaborates with other groups to forward optical fiber access networks (see, for example, "FSAN, Broadband Forum to collaborate on GPON interoperability").
"After much consideration and discussion, the network operators in FSAN have identified their priorities and timelines for the evolution of fiber access systems. These have been encapsulated in the latest roadmap and this will be used to guide the work of FSAN over the coming years," said Peter Dawes, the chair of the Next Generation PON Task Group in the FSAN Optical Access Network Working Group.
As has been the case with previous PON standards, future specifications will have to support reuse of existing fiber infrastructure, the FSAN members state. Future enhancements covered in the roadmap treat such parameters as:
- increased capacity
- longer reach
- improved availability (reliability)
- enhanced flexibility
- peak service rates beyond 10 Gbps.
The roadmap also calls out service provider technology and trends likely to affect future PON infrastructures, such as software defined networking and network function virtualization (SDN/NFV), 5G mobile, the Internet of Things, and the convergence of networks and services. FSAN membership also believes that optical distribution networks could leverage splitting approaches other than common current technologies based on power splitting. Such alternative approaches could include wavelength-based splitters, for example.
The new PON Standards Roadmap is available from the FSAN website.
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