Nokia and Chunghwa Telecom validate 25G PON for 5G fronthaul

18. 05. 2023 | Michal Krcmar

Espoo, Finland – Nokia today announced a trial with Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories (CHT-TL) which verified 25G PON’s capability for small cell fronthaul. In 5G, transport networks that carry mobile traffic from small cell sites to the core are typically split into fronthaul and backhaul transport. Operators are already using fiber broadband networks to carry backhaul traffic. This industry-first trial demonstrates that these same networks using 25G PON technology can support stringent capacity and low latency demands needed for fronthaul.

When operators switch to 5G, the signal propagation limitations inherent in the higher frequencies mean they need to deploy more antenna to ensure capacity and coverage. Fronthaul transmission plays an important role in connecting these new small cell antennae to the core network. In most cases, small cells and fiber broadband networks have a matching footprint, making fiber networks readily available to be used for 5G transport. The CHT-TL trial shows that 25G PON broadband meets the needs for mobile fronthaul, providing the opportunity for significant gains in total cost of ownership (TCO) by converging their networks instead of building costly new transport routes.

Erik Keith, Senior Research Analyst, S&P Global, said: “Using PON for mobile fronthaul is a breakthrough solution for network convergence. 25G PON provides the additional capacity that makes this possible. Leveraging the existing access networks to support mobile transport also means operators can do a lot more with less capital investment, which is good news for the bottom line.”

Nokia’s 25G PON uses the Quillion chipset to efficiently boost capacity of the existing fiber nodes to 25Gb/s, enabling operators to offer additional services, like mobile transport or enterprise connectivity, delivering new revenues and TCO savings. In addition, PON based transport has low energy consumption, further reducing operating costs and helping meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Dr. Rong-Shy Lin, CTO & Executive Vice President of the Chunghwa Telecom Company and President of the Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories, said: “A stable optical network aligned with a focus on reduced total cost of ownership are key for a successful transport solution providing coverage for a mobile network. We have verified that 25G PON can co-exist with our high-speed broadband network, leveraging the outside plant, which is the cornerstone to the success of fixed-mobile convergence.”

Jason Liu, President of Nokia Solutions & Networks Taiwan, said: “This is a fantastic new use-case for 25G PON that is already being adopted for consumer and business services. Chunghwa Telecom joins a global list including giants like AT&T, Google Fiber, cities like Chattanooga in the U.S., and challenger brands like Ogi in the UK, who are trialing and introducing 25G PON. We are pleased to support Chunghwa Telecom to achieve its goal of converging fixed and mobile networks and at the same time fulfill its green commitments towards a sustainable environment.”

About Nokia

At Nokia, we create technology that helps the world act together.

As a B2B technology innovation leader, we are pioneering networks that sense, think and act by leveraging our work across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. In addition, we create value with intellectual property and long-term research, led by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs.

Service providers, enterprises and partners worldwide trust Nokia to deliver secure, reliable and sustainable networks today – and work with us to create the digital services and applications of the future.

Author of this article

Michal Krcmar

Michal Krčmář is a man behind the idea of JustFreeTools who came with a vision to create one of the world’s top free tools providers to help individuals to learn programming, marketing, and make calculations easier than ever.

WAS THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL?

Support us to keep up the good work and to provide you even better content. Your donations will be used to help students get access to quality content for free and pay our contributors’ salaries, who work hard to create this website content! Thank you for all your support!

Write a comment