Nokia’s g.Fast Connect Streamlines Gigabit Deployment

CSPs Seek To Enhance and Expand Networks, Powered By g.Fast Connect

Local and national governments understand the profound socio-economic advantages of improved broadband accessibility. Employment opportunities, education, healthcare services, economic growth, and urban development all experience positive enhancements with expanding broadband coverage and bandwidth. For consumers, the focus is more straightforward – is there a connection, and is it fast enough?

In today’s context, when families embark on vacations, the primary concern is no longer about finding a good place for a drink but rather, “How can we access the internet?” Complaints from children swiftly follow this if the connection is insufficient to download the latest version of their favorite video game rapidly.

Consequently, there is a race among Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to enhance and expand their networks. CSPs already in the space face added pressure due to emerging fixed wireless access technologies like 5GTTH, allowing new entrants to establish a presence in unserved or underserved parts of the incumbent’s coverage.

The ultimate objective is to connect all homes with fiber. While this is relatively straightforward, albeit costly, in greenfield sites or areas with existing infrastructure, it presents a significant challenge in multiple dwelling units (MDUs). The expense, impracticality, or even impossibility of adding new cable infrastructure or pulling in additional cables often hinders progress. Neglecting to address these challenges in MDUs could prove detrimental in a competitive or highly regulated market.

The Nokia G.fast portfolio offers a solution by enabling providers to serve MDUs and other challenging-to-access residences. This approach completes FTTH coverage and safeguards the existing installed base. MDU residents can enjoy fiber-like services using their existing cabling with a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) change. This ensures that even in complex scenarios, a high-quality broadband experience is extended to every home.

The Need for g.Fast

A recent study has highlighted a global surge in next-generation access coverage, projecting a 27% growth in connected premises by 2026. This expansion is propelled by the increasing demand for higher bandwidth from customers and regulatory bodies, coupled with operators vying for enhanced customer loyalty. Many operators strategically plan a shift from FTTN to FTTP architectures to achieve the desired bandwidth boost. The resulting fully fiberized access network promises limitless growth potential and brings substantial operational expenditure (OPEX) savings.

However, MDUs present a significant hurdle in this progress. In the United States alone, MDUs house approximately 44 million households, with 83% of them constructed before 2000 and over half before 1980. Most of these units rely on legacy twisted pairs or coaxial cables, with limited or no fiber or Cat 5/6 cabling. Deploying new fiber to individual living units in MDUs is a complex undertaking due to the diverse sizes, constructions, and fiberization options of MDUs, necessitating a unique approach for each.

Beyond the physical and practical challenges of fiber deployment, building owners often resist the disruption associated with installing new cabling. Legal obstacles, including space restrictions and aesthetic obligations or constraints, further complicate obtaining permission for such installations.
Current connectivity in MDUs, utilizing technologies like Fast Ethernet and VDSL2, limits the service offering to around 100 Mb/s. This leaves residents in MDUs with inferior services compared to those in areas benefiting from a fiber rollout, creating a distinct category of underserved customers. Underserved customers are particularly susceptible to competitors, making time-to-market (TTM) for new services a critical factor in any network upgrade.

While connecting fiber to an MDU is generally quicker and more cost-effective than to an individual residence with a driveway or front yard, the challenge lies in connecting each apartment with fiber, which can significantly increase costs and TTM.

Additionally, the FTTH Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) connection often requires multiple technician visits, introducing additional costs and delays. To address these challenges of cost, complexity, and competitive threats, operators require additional options in MDUs to facilitate a seamless fiber rollout and quickly offer services to any customer.

G.Fast Completes Fiber Deployments

G.fast technology is purpose-built to deliver fiber services efficiently and rapidly in FTTB and FTTdp deployment models. Its primary advantage lies in providing Gigabit bandwidth for both download and upload over existing twisted-pair or coaxial cabling, enabling operators to achieve 100% coverage in any FTTH deployment without the need to extend fiber to every individual home.

The heart of the G.fast solution is the DPU, serving as the G.fast access node. This DPU terminates the fiber network and extends broadband services over legacy cabling. Deployable within a few hundred meters of the G.fast Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), the DPU connects to homes via a Gigabit Ethernet interface. G.fast DPUs are designed with diverse form factors to suit various deployment sites, including handholes, manholes, poles, walls, or cabinets.

G.fast proves particularly effective in MDUs, where common deployment locations include basements or external walls. In scenarios where fiber is already available or can be reasonably installed in cabling risers, G.fast can be deployed on each floor of an MDU.

The G.fast DPU typically features Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) or XGS-PON uplinks, connecting subscriber terminals through twisted copper pairs or coaxial cables. Various uplink technologies, such as point-to-point fiber, GigE, or 10GE, are also supported. The number of subscribers connected to a DPU depends on the premises within its reach. Nokia’s G.fast DPUs offer a range of options, accommodating 4 to 96 subscriber ports and can be deployed in both outdoor and indoor locations.

The technology supports reverse power feeding (RPF), providing flexibility in deployment. In locations without access to local power, the DPU can draw power from end-users over the same copper pair or coaxial cable used for data transmission. G.fast, with the latest 212 MHz profile, achieves up to 2 Gb/s aggregate speed on short loops and delivers true Gigabit services on typical loops in MDUs.

G.fast employs time-division duplexing to multiplex upstream and downstream data, allowing for a flexible split of aggregate speed in both directions. Crosstalk cancellation is facilitated by ensuring the same upstream/downstream ratio for all lines connected to the G.fast DPU. This ratio can be configured statically based on the operator’s bandwidth plan or adjusted dynamically in response to instantaneous traffic demand.

Optional coordinated Dynamic Time Assignment (cDTA) enhances G.fast capabilities, enabling Gigabit speeds for both download and upload for loop lengths up to 150 meters. Given the high frequencies used in G.fast, vectoring technology, established with VDSL2, is essential. Nokia has augmented its industry-leading vectoring to ensure stable operation at the highest rates, adapting well-known VDSL2 features for G.fast, including bit swapping, Seamless Rate Adaptation (SRA), and retransmission, while introducing additional features such as Fast Rate Adaptation (FRA).

What Is Gigabit Connect?

By terminating fiber in a central location within the building, G.fast enables the utilization of existing coaxial or twisted pair cables to deliver gigabit speeds to every home.

Nokia’s Gigabit Connect solution simplifies G.fast deployments, leveraging G.fast capabilities while masking complexity. It achieves this by treating a G.fast endpoint equivalently to a fiber endpoint through a unified management interface, streamlining operations. Gigabit Connect operates transparently for fiber operators, allowing the addition of G.fast users without impacting network management or existing FTTH services.

From the customer perspective, Gigabit Connect ensures transparency, providing them identical gigabit speeds and a low-latency experience as full FTTH customers. The seamless deployment offers a consistent and high-quality service for operators and end-users.

Benefits and Features of Gigabit Connect by Nokia

Considerations For Deployment

In deploying G.fast technology, Nokia addresses new network management challenges through highly efficient solutions rooted in software-defined access network (SDAN) applications. An essential consideration for operators is the scale, as a G.fast deployment can significantly increase the number of active access network elements up to ten times compared to VDSL2 from cabinets. Managing and provisioning these elements is critical, and SDAN offers automation for various deployment, provisioning, and updating tasks.

One application developed by Nokia is Zero Touch Provisioning, which is designed to streamline G.fast DPU deployment into a plug-and-play activity. This approach makes installation swift and efficient, eliminating the need for highly skilled technicians onsite. The DPU can be pre-provisioned in the cloud-deployed SDAN access network controller. Once installed, powered up, and connected to the network, the DPU is automatically identified, provisioned, and ready for operation.

Powering multiple DPUs can pose a challenge, especially in outdoor installations (FTTdp), like on poles or in manholes. Here, reverse power feeding (RPF) eliminates the need for local power. Due to installation speed and cost benefits, RPF can also be advantageous for indoor deployments (FTTB). This approach saves the initial cost of connecting the DPU to the power grid and reduces ongoing energy expenses.

However, RPF introduces another challenge as the DPU remains unpowered until the first end-user plugs in the power injector (also known as power source equipment). SDAN addresses this by creating virtual copies of each physical DPU hosted in the cloud, ensuring they are “always on” and can be managed and provisioned at any time. Changes made to virtual copies are automatically applied to the physical DPU once it is powered up.

SDAN brings additional advantages to G.fast deployments. It enables unified management of all access technologies in a deployment, even in a multi-vendor environment. This unified approach simplifies operations and enhances the overall efficiency of G.fast networks.

Future Focused

As of today, G.fast has evolved into a mature technology with widespread commercial deployments in operation. Nokia Bell Labs even demonstrated the feasibility of achieving speeds of 10 Gb/s over twisted pairs using frequencies up to 500 MHz.

The ITU SG15 Q4 workgroup introduced the MGfast specification, a novel access technology that delivers speeds ranging from 4-8 Gb/s over a single twisted pair or coaxial cable. This specification also introduces additional capabilities, such as support for ultra-low latency services and the simultaneous transport of streams with different quality of service requirements.

Despite these advancements, achieving multi-gigabit broadband to every household globally through fiber is a distant prospect, likely never to be fully realized. From a socio-economic standpoint, the broader coverage of broadband to the masses holds more significance than delivering multi-gigabit services to a select few.

Recognizing this, the industry emphasizes the ongoing importance of investing in technologies that optimize existing twisted pair and coaxial infrastructure to extract more bandwidth, thereby preventing the exacerbation of the digital divide. The focus remains on ensuring that advancements in broadband technology benefit a larger and more inclusive population.

Gigabit G.fast, with Nokia

Selecting the optimal FTTx (Fiber-to-the-X) technology for any deployment requires careful consideration and expertise, and Nokia stands out as a leader in this field. With over 20 years of market-leading positions in all FTTx and FTTH technologies, Nokia is at the forefront of groundbreaking G.fast projects worldwide. Collaborating with close to a hundred customers on trials and deployments, including notable names such as nbn (Australia), Netcologne, R-com (Germany), and KDDI (Japan), Nokia brings unparalleled experience to the table.

Nokia’s G.fast technology leadership is evident in the diverse installations addressed by their expertise and technology. This success is underpinned by premium vectoring based on Nokia Bell Labs research, a world-class implementation of Reverse Power Feeding (RPF), power efficiency, and an innovative Software-Defined Access Network (SDAN) approach that facilitates rapid and straightforward deployment and commissioning. Embracing open standards and interoperability, Nokia was among the earliest vendors with Broadband Forum-certified G.fast products for both 106 MHz and 212 MHz.

Nokia’s G.fast portfolio is recognized for its scalability, offering comprehensive options to deliver true Gigabit services to customers. The portfolio covers every conceivable deployment scenario with different form factors, port densities, and sealed and non-sealed units, allowing services to be scaled according to demand.

Key features include:

• Ports: Ranging from 4 to 96.
• Form factors: Modular shelf, rack-mountable pizza box, indoor or outdoor sealed units.
• Powering options: Local, remote, and reverse power feeding.
• Line testing capabilities: MELT/SELT.
• G.fast profiles: Supporting both 106 MHz and 212 MHz.

Nokia’s Lightspan G.fast DPUs are SDAN-enabled, and NETCONF/YANG managed. When combined with Nokia’s Altiplano Access Controller, operators gain access to new capabilities that Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) bring, including:

Nokia’s comprehensive approach to FTTx technologies demonstrates its commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions that meet the diverse needs of global operators.

A Case Study on g.Fast

Challenge

The national operator, facing intense competition in key urban areas and urban battlegrounds, where legacy DSL services are challenged by cable providers, is strategizing a move towards a gigabit play. Despite achieving only a 20% market share against cable providers with legacy DSL and around 40% with FTTN services, the operator recognizes the need for a gigabit solution to compete more effectively.

In urban battlegrounds where about 50% of subscribers are connected with FTTP, reaching all subscribers with fiber is deemed impossible. To address this challenge, the operator is exploring a mix of deep-fiber and G.fast 212 MHz technology. While G.fast 106 MHz technology has been introduced, the operator seeks a new, lower-cost solution with easy integration into their Operations Support System (OSS), higher speeds, more flexible deployment options, and faster deployment.

In dense urban areas dominated by MDUs such as apartment complexes, townhouses, and multi-flat houses, significant deployment challenges arise from civil works and permits, building access, saturated underground ducts, scheduling, and cost constraints. Fiber drop, often impractical in these scenarios, is hindered by the prevalence of twisted pairs and coaxial cables in MDUs. Nevertheless, tenants and landlords prioritize ultra-high-speed, reliable broadband as a crucial amenity contributing to the property’s value.

The operator plans to leverage a combination of technologies to succeed in this market, deploying fiber as deep as possible and reusing existing cables inside buildings. The key is to provide a seamless broadband experience without substantial OSS integration efforts. Past experiences with a vendor-proprietary G.fast solution led to challenges, including delays, high installation costs, the need for licensed electricians for local powering of the Distribution Point Unit (DPU), and interworking issues with the dedicated management system.

To overcome these challenges and meet a tight deployment schedule of 6 months between lab entry and field deployment, the operator is considering Nokia’s proven solutions. Nokia offers flexible integration without problematic delays and proprietary deviations. Their solutions accommodate the operator’s schedule, allowing for easier hardware or technology switches during any stage of the project. This strategic shift aims to position the operator competitively in the gigabit market and address the unique challenges that dense urban areas and MDUs pose.

Solution

The main components of the proposed solution include:

The key features and benefits of the solution include:

Benefits

The Nokia SDAN (Software-Defined Access Network) advantage encompasses several key benefits:

About Nokia Altiplano Cloud Platform

Nokia Altiplano Cloud Platform leverages cloud, IT, and DevOps technologies to create scalable, dynamic, cost-effective networks. Key features include programmability, user plane separation, abstraction, central control, and adherence to open standards and open APIs, enabling innovation and differentiation by operators. The platform simplifies provisioning, troubleshooting, and adaptation to different technologies while providing a global view of the network for rapid changes and service rollout.

About Infinity Technology Solutions

Infinity Technology Solutions specializes in broadband and critical communications infrastructure development. We help our channel partners create and deploy private wireless, microwave backhaul, IP/MPLS, and optical networking technologies.

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