Broadband Forum forges ahead with holistic approach to broadband network development

ATHENS, Greece, March 26, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new conception of broadband is on target to be achieved as the industry experiences an era of unparalleled change and challenge, and networks transform to meet the opportunities of 5G, 'cloudification,' the Internet of Things (IoT), gigabit access, open source solutions and the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

That was the message delivered at the Broadband Forum's sell-out BASE Athens event which brought together operators, service providers, system integrators, vendors, academia and industry bodies to discuss the entire broadband ecosystem and the technology developments needed to deliver future broadband networks.

"Like all the countries across Europe, my members are facing multiple challenges and opportunities as we look forward to 5G and IoT possibilities, allied to how they will interwork with new technologies such as Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and even AI," said George Stefanopoulos, General Manager of Greek Mobile Operators Association (EEKT). "Whatever the technologies, the choice is always going to be finding the right balance between investment capability, generating demand for services and supporting this with a friendly regulatory and licensing environment."

"BASE gave Greece the chance to host this truly international gathering and share our thoughts, ideas and experiences with colleagues from across the entire ecosystem. I was delighted to give our views and listen to what others had to say – I'm sure we have all learnt a lot during the two days of the event," added Stefanopoulos.

Stefanopoulos was joined on the stage by a host of operators and vendors, with subjects covered including virtualized broadband, cloud services, the managed home, 5G, wireless/wireline convergence, Wi-Fi performance and high-speed access, including NG-PON2, XGS-PON, MoCA and Gfast.

Details of the latest Broadband Forum projects were also revealed. Tim Carey, of Nokia, gave an update on the Broadband Forum's Broadband Access Abstraction (BAA) project which aims to drive the adoption of software-defined access networks via open source software development.

"As more operators look to agile, software-based network models, uniting vendors and operators to ensure they are aligned with industry specifications to meet the needs of operators globally is incredibly important for long-term success," said Carey. "By defining a software reference implementation for an open BAA layer through standardized interfaces, software can be decoupled from the underlying hardware to isolate the core functionality from specific device implementations and limit the number of different interfaces that are needed to be supported by service providers and vendors."  

BAA is part of the Broadband Forum's Open Broadband initiative, a collaborative space for the integration and testing of new open source, standards-based and vendor provided implementations.

This is just one example of the recent innovation being carried out by the Forum, as it continues to deliver on its Broadband 20/20 vision. Last year also saw the publication of its 'Fixed Access Network Sharing – Architecture and Nodal Requirements' Technical Report (TR-370), which standardizes Fixed Access Network Sharing (FANS).

At the BASE event in Athens Vodafone's Fixed Access Manager, Bruno Cornaglia, set out his vision for this technology.

"To create a unified access architecture, it is essential to integrate all technologies – from FTTC to FTTH and Cable – in a single approach," said Cornaglia. "In urban areas, NG-PON2 represents the suitable solution for backhauling all other technologies, such as GPON in remote nodes, micro-nodes with VDSL2 and Gfast, DOCSIS remote devices, and mobile, but in rural areas operators face additional difficulties when deploying next-generation access. Here, introducing FANS on top of the unified access platform can facilitate the development of Next-Generation Access networks by giving full control to different service providers, or different divisions within the same company, enabling them to independently manage their own customers, even if there is only one physical network."

During the BASE workshop, Cornaglia also highlighted why good network monitoring is important and how the new ?Q metric can improve network performance and Quality of Service. According to Cornaglia, the ?Q data can then be used by machine learning to enhance network operation.

The full line-up of operators, service providers and vendors taking part in the event was as follows:

"This latest BASE event brought together a vast array of speakers, covering an unparalleled range of topics, from NG-PON2 and Gfast to virtualization and converged networks for 5G," said Bernd Hesse, Chairman of BASE and the Broadband Forum's NG-PON2 Council, and Sen. Director Technology Development at Calix. "This ongoing discussion and collaboration, looked holistically at the broadband access network and this is absolutely vital if we are to deliver the ubiquitous next-generation access for many consumers who are already seeing broadband as the fourth utility. We couldn't have achieved such a successful event without our sponsors – Huawei, Intracom Telecom, Go Foton, Lightron, Hisense Broadband and Calix – thank you."

For more information, visit: https://www.broadband-forum.org/what-s-happening/meetings-events-webinars/base-2018-athens

About the Broadband Forum
Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and faster broadband networks. The Forum's flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has now exceeded 350 million installations worldwide.

Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device, service & development management tools, in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models interoperability and certification in the Broadband market.

Our free technical reports and white papers can be found at www.broadband-forum.org. Twitter @Broadband_Forum.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to http://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or [email protected] or Jayne Brooks on +44 (0) 1636 704 888 or [email protected].    

About BASE
Run by the Broadband Forum, BASE is an all-new series of public workshops which aim to provide attendees with a whole new perspective on what is being created for broadband providers and users alike. Delivered by the leaders in the industry, many of whom are active participants in the Forum's work, the workshops cover a wide range of subjects including virtualized Broadband, cloud services, the managed home, 5G wireless/wireline convergence, and the latest in high speed access technology, enabling providers to deliver a new generation of differentiated services.

For more information, please go to https://www.broadband-forum.org/.

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