Broadband Forum says it has begun to certify XGS-PON optical network units (ONUs) under its BBF.247 ONU Certification Program. Eight such products have received such certification so far, which confirms conformance to relevant ITU-T PON standards.
The Broadband Forum says that XGS-PON ONUs are tested at the official certification program test laboratory, Laboratoire des Applications Numeriques (LAN Laboratory), using MT2’s ONU testing platform. The examinations include recent additions to the technology, including extended OMCI messages format, Enhanced Unicast & Multicast Operations, and Capacity Tests & Performance Monitoring. The additions increase the number of certification test cases by more than 50%, says the organization.
The eight certified XGS-PON ONUs, which include single and multi-user port ONUs/L2 and residential gateways, come from Altice Labs, CommScope, Huawei, Humax, KAONMEDIA, Sagemcom, Sercomm, and ZTE. The XGS-PON capabilities are an extension of the BBF.247 GPON initiative, which Broadband Forum says has certified nearly 100 products since its launch in 2011.
“Our existing GPON certification has made a significant impact on ensuring products meet standards, and this latest expansion of the program will give operators the confidence to roll out mass XGS-PON deployments,” said Robin Mersh, CEO at Broadband Forum. “We now want to instill this same assurance in the industry for upcoming ITU PON technology, including XGS-PON and NG-PON2. XGS-PON is a major step in network evolution, supporting the expansion of 5G and through BBF.247 certification, we can ensure network interoperability.”
“The role of interoperability and standards has only become more important as broadband grows in popularity and operators upgrade their networks to meet consumer demand,” commented Hugues Le Bras, network engineer in fixed access networks at Orange in support of the new capabilities. “Orange already requests BBF.247 certification for each ONU deployed on the field. However, this expansion of Broadband Forum’s certification program will give us confidence when deploying next-generation technology that will enable the future era of connectivity. The latest additions to the certification also bring new features, such as flexibility and monitoring, which are essential for Orange throughout the ONU life.”
“Achieving Broadband Forum certification is the entry ticket for connectivity to our network. We will definitely avoid the painful experience made with xDSL interoperability/complexity – right from the beginning,” added Claudio Mathys, product manager, wireline access networks at Swisscom (Schweiz) AG.
Meanwhile, Broadband Forum has planned an XGS-PON interoperability test event at LAN Laboratory, in Tauxigny, France, from October 5 to 9, 2020. The interoperability exercise will cover optical line terminals (OLTs) as well as optical network terminals (ONTs) and ONUs.
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