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Huawei says that Gansu Administration of Radio, Film and Television has selected the systems provider to deploy the country’s first network that will combine 100-Gbps coherent technology with Optical Transport Network (OTN) capabilities.

The administration, which oversees radio, film, and television production and provision in Gansu province, will use the Huawei technology to upgrade its current SDH-based provincial backbone fiber-optic network to better support such services as video on demand, high-definition video, and broadband. The administration expects the new network’s use of coherent 100G technology, OTN, and an automatically switched optical network (ASON) architecture, will meet its requirements for the next five years. The network deployment will comply with the specifications of the Next Generation Broadcasting (NGB) project of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), Huawei adds

Huawei says the systems on the new infrastructure will support 8 Tbps per fiber while supporting a mix of 10G/40G/100G wavelengths. The intelligent ASON control plane will support resilient protection against multiple fiber cuts and guarantee high network reliability, the company adds. The control plane also will support a variety of service classes.

Cisco Systems Inc says it has completed a 100G technology test with the North West branch of MegaFon, one of the three largest mobile operators in Russia. Cisco and MegaFon specialists successfully tested data transmission at the rate of 100 Gbps in an existing MegaFon DWDM network.

During the testing Cisco 100G platforms  were successfully incorporated in fiber-optic networks based on other vendors’ technologies. Cisco says the results prove that its 100G products are compatible with different manufacturers’ products, can be effectively used for multiple purposes, feature simplicity of configuration and usage, and prevent the necessity of deploying guard bands.

The project was aimed at testing the effectiveness and interworking of Cisco 100G transponders, Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers and the Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform (MSTP) at the distances of 140 and 384 km (87 and 239 miles). In addition, the 100G equipment was tested over dark fiber at 60 and 120 km (37 and 74 miles).

Cisco ASR 9000 Series routers were used as the network core, as they had been designed as the foundational baseline for next-generation Carrier Ethernet networks.

The 100G services were supported by Cisco DWDM transponders tuned to 192.6 GHz (1556.55 nm). The transponders can operate at a distance well in excess of 2,000 km (1,243 miles) without signal regeneration, and they feature high performance and port density, thus enabling 100G technologies in networks of any complexity, Cisco asserts.

All parameters of the DWDM network were configured automatically by the smart-management subsystem and optical channel power control tools integrated in the Cisco ONS 15454 MSTP. During the test the traffic was transferred at 100 Gbps without failure and degradation of existing 10-Gbps services, showing investment protection on the installed network and existing fiber plant.

"Cisco offers innovative solutions for next-generation DWDM networks, opening new opportunities for service providers,” said Sergey Semenov, CTO, North West Branch, MegaFon. “The testing proved that Cisco products show high performance over DWDM network, as well as over ‘dark fiber,’ providing versatility and flexibility in implementation. Besides, the 100G services are compatible with existing services, avoiding the necessity of guard bands. Thus, the operator can maximize the potentiality of network bandwidth.”

ZTE Corp.  has unveiled what it claims is the world’s first time- and wavelength-division multiplex passive optical network (TWDM-PON) prototype at Broadband World Forum 2012 (BBWF) in Amsterdam.

ZTE also demonstrated how its products could be used to build pay-as-you-grow, flexibly evolving, green broadband networks involving GPON, XG-PON1, NG-PON2, and WDM-PtP (point to point) by TWDM technology. ZTE considers it will be a good idea to deploy an FTTx network using GPON and XGPON1 in the next five years. Overlay other wavelengths by TWDM technology will be a good choice for the higher bandwidth requirements of the future.

In April 2012, the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) Group designated TWDM-PON as the main technology direction for NG-PON2, the next generation of PON technology. ZTE says it started to develop its first TWDM-PON prototype soon after the standards direction was determined.

The central office equipment for the TWDM-PON prototype is the ZXA10 C300, ZTE’s unified access platform, which has been adapted for next-generation PONs. The ZXA10 C300 enables the coexistence and easy upgrade from one standard to another of GPON, XG-PON1, NG-PON2, and WDM-PtP on the same platform. The terminals for the TWDM-PON prototype are colorless optical network units (ONUs) with tunable receiver/ transmitter technology.

“Operators need to be building broadband networks that can evolve flexibly,” said Bei Jinsong, director of ZTE Optical Access Networks. “Taking this approach, current networks that use GPON and XG-PON1 technologies, including FTTP, FTTH, FTTdp, can meet network development requirements for the next 5 to 10 years. Over that period, neither existing XG-PON1 nor the optical network infrastructure needs to be changed. Therefore the XG-PON1 will be deployed inevitably in short coming years”

“By overlaying XG-PONs with new wavelengths, the network can gradually upgrade to the bandwidth of NG-PON2 as needed or enable open access based on wavelength paths,” Bei added. “The concept also supports expanding through WDM-PtP to provide services such as backhaul, fronthaul, business access etc. As a result, it is able to help operators markedly reduce expenditure on network construction and energy consumption, thus effectively protecting their investments.”

ZTE points out that, according to the “Market Share Spreadsheet 2Q12 FTTx, DSL, and CMTS (Units)” report, released by telecoms industry analyst Ovum in August 2012, ZTE ranks No.1 for both overall shipments of central-office PON equipment and market share of ONTs/ONUs (see “Ovum: 2Q12 PON and VDSL2 sales look good”).

Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (ANTEL) has selected ZTE Corp. (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ) to provide equipment for a major GPON fiber to the home (FTTH) deployment in Uruguay.

ZTE will provide its ZXA10 C300 system to ANTEL, which is Uruguay’s largest fixed-line operator and mobile carrier. The new GPON project is a continuation of ANTEL’s initial deployment of ZTE GPON-based FTTx equipment in 2011 (see "ANTEL taps ZTE for GPON in Uruguay").

ANTEL plans to deploy a broadband network to support 100-Mbps services via a variety of architectures, including FTTH, fiber to the building (FTTB), and point-to-point backhaul, to more than 300,000 families and institutions across the country.
 
"We are honored to assist ANTEL with the GPON project deployment,” said ZTE Vice President Jiang Xiangyang. “Our innovative solutions and rich commercial experience will help ANTEL provide enhanced services to its users and maintain its leading position in Uruguay and Latin America.”