FEBRUARY 11, 2009 -- LG-Nortel (search for LG-Nortel) and Nortel (search for Nortel) announced during the FTTH Council Europe Conference 2009 that it is achieving positive market momentum with its recently launched WDM-PON Ethernet Access technology.
LG-Nortel and Nortel say they are currently conducting more than ten trials with service providers in Europe, Asia, and North America, where the system is being evaluated for high-performance business, residential, and wireless backhaul applications. The service providers performing the trials plan to announce commercial deployments within twelve months. These new trials join the growing list of Nortel Ethernet Access adopters that includes among others UNET (The Netherlands) and INS in Norway, confirm Nortel representatives.
Netherlands-based service provider UNET has tested WDM-PON in its own labs and is currently rolling out WDM-PON-based FTTB in its live network, enabling several business parks to carry mission-critical corporate information between hundreds of employees.
"Nortel's WDM-PON solution allows us to optimize the use of the fiber, by carrying multiple wavelengths, while delivering unmatched levels of capacity and security," explains Ger Bakker, CTO and technology director for UNET. "It gives us a clear competitive edge for high-performance business services that will help UNET expand our business customer base."
In Norway, INS has sealed a channel partner agreement with LG-Nortel and has already signed up its first end customer. "We believe that WDM-PON is a disruptive solution that can add real value for our service provider customers over the currently available alternatives," reports Johan Henæs, chief technology officer of INS Communications. "It can provide connectivity to a new base of end customers while also reducing service provider costs and simplifying fibre deployment models."
In North America, LG-Nortel and Nortel say they are actively conducting multiple trials with major carriers for a variety of applications including business, residential, and mobile backhaul.
"We are witnessing our customers developing applications to deliver the significant network cost reductions that this technology can provide," confirms Peter MacKinnon, chairman and general manager of LG-Nortel Co. Ltd. "Compared to the alternatives, WDM-PON technology represents real value for customers."
Launched in late 2008, the WDM-PON Ethernet access platform, developed by LG-Nortel, a joint venture of LG Electronics and Nortel, helps service providers prevent bandwidth bottlenecks in the critical "first-mile" of their networks. This enables faster and more reliable delivery of data between high-speed core networks and individual user access points.
According to LG-Nortel representatives, this Ethernet access system, based on WDM-PON technology, offers a simple engineering and deployment model that accelerates the deployment of fiber-to-the-home and fiber-to-the-building.
The system combines the best attributes of an Ethernet Point-to-Point system (bi-directional high-bandwidth performance, per-user deployment flexibility for business and residential customers), with the fiber efficiency and OPEX simplicity of a passive optical system, while solving the drawbacks of both. Additionally, it delivers better security, reach, scalability, and simpler engineering while also providing a future-proof foundational infrastructure for services, say company representatives.
"More and more service providers around the globe are looking to get greater utility from their deep-fiber access networks," notes Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. "WDM-PON delivers up to 10 to 20 times the capacity with a dedicated wavelength to each destination, be it to the home, building, or DSLAM. Consumers want a super-fast broadband network that can download music in seconds and movies in minutes, and carriers want backhaul facilities to carry residential and business traffic. Point-to-point Ethernet WDM-PON offers a simple way to help meet the ever growing global demand for bandwidth," he contends.
Positive momentum for the LG-Nortel and Nortel system is also reflected in the development of the next software version of the current WDM-PON portfolio, targeted for mid-2009. Many new features and capabilities will further enhance the offering, says the company.
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