Microsemi Corp.,a wholly owned subsidiary of Microchip Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: MCHP), said it will collaborate with China Telecom Beijing Research Institute to define and develop next-generation optical transport networks based on Optical Transport Network (OTN) technology to address strict 5G requirements. The various use cases of 5G will establish new requirements, including network slicing, stringent latency, and timing synchronization on the underlying OTN infrastructure. According to Microsemi, the traffic flow from the radio to the mobile edge will grow significantly with the planning of 25G, 50G, and 100-Gbps port rates for 5G remote radio heads.
China Telecom is leading the Next-Generation Optical Transport Network Forum (NGOF) consortium that was created to stimulate industry collaboration and technological innovations, defining converged optical networks that address 5G deployment demands.
With up to 50 times lower end-to-end latency on the horizon, the enhance optical networks will be essential to enable ultra-reliable low latency communication applications, such as autonomous vehicles, Microsemi says. New architectures that use hard traffic isolation will advance the business opportunities network slicing will bring for mobile operators, the company adds.
In April, Microsemi extended its family of DIGI OTN silicon with the DIGI-G5, designed to meet the requirements described above (see "Microsemi DIGI-G5 supports 1.2 Tbps of combined OTN, client interfaces"). The DIGI-G5 supports new 5G optimized architectures that enables the demands being placed on optical networks to support 5G deployments, including tight synchronization, latency, and network slicing requirements, Microsemi asserts.
"China Telecom plans to be the pioneer in both 5G commercial service and 400G OTN network commercial deployments," said Zhang Chengliang, China Telecom Beijing Research Institute vice president. "A mobile-optimized converged metro, multiservice, and cloud-based OTN transport network is critical to both initiatives. The availability of Microsemi's DIGI-G5 will help the industry deliver a new generation of OTN equipment to enable the 5G era."
The DIGI-G5 is expected to begin sampling in the second calendar quarter of 2018.
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