Nokia has announced the world’s first Generation 6 broadband platform, designed for a ‘fiber-for-everything’ world where fiber broadband networks evolve to become a single infrastructure for all services. The new Lightspan MF-14 platform extends the upper end of Nokia’s fiber broadband portfolio, bringing unmatched capacity, low latency, intelligence, six nines reliability and the highest power efficiency, enabling operators to address broadband needs for the next decades.
The industry is entering a “fiber-for-everything” era. Once operators have deployed fiber-to-the-home, their networks pass through every other building in the street, as well as the homes, meaning they can connect businesses and other services. Fiber PON will be capable of supporting high bandwidth consumer services, industry 4.0 applications, business connectivity, 5G transport and smart city services. This creates more revenue opportunities, lowers TCO and significantly reduces overall power consumption. This new broadband era, designated Broadband 6 by the World Broadband Association (WBBA), requires a new technical solution.
Geert Heyninck, Nokia’s VP of broadband networks, said: “Fiber-to-the-home is becoming fiber-for-everything. This is enabled by several technology advances, most notably higher speed PON technologies to accommodate all new services and SDN to bring more intelligence in the network. If you think about it, the massive number of connection points on fiber make it a challenge to get an instant view of everything that happens in your network, fully automate network control and perform actions with no service interruption. The MF-14 platform will suit operators who are planning large-scale 25G PON, 50G and even 100G PON within the same environment.”
In his recent report, Erik Keith, senior research analyst for broadband infrastructure at S&P Global, noted: "The PON market is at a pivotal moment in the evolution of networks, where fiber broadband means so much more than residential connectivity. There is a huge opportunity for service providers to connect everything much more efficiently by leveraging their existing fiber broadband networks. This approach eliminates multiple overlay networks, minimizes digging up the streets and lowers energy use substantially. The new Lightspan MF-14 OLT can enable operators to deploy a solution that will last for decades while providing a platform that can increase network performance exponentially compared to most networks in use today."
Based on new, advanced hardware and disaggregated software design, MF-14 is a generational leap in fiber access solutions. It is the highest capacity platform in the industry and the only solution ready for mass delivery of 25G, 50G and 100G PON services. It’s also the industry’s first OLT with the six nines availability and sub-millisecond latency needed for mission-critical industry 4.0 and 5G transport services.