With the “Gigabit Optical Network” being written into the government work report for the first time, and consumers’ increasing demands for connection quality, the second optical reform “revolution” in the history of my country’s broadband is being set off.
In the past ten years, Chinese operators have changed over 100 years of home-entry copper wires to optical fiber (FTTH), and on this basis, they have fully realized high-speed information services for families, and completed the first optical transformation. “Revolution” laid the foundation for a network power. In the next ten years, the all-optical fiber (FTTR) of home networking will be a new direction and traction. By bringing gigabit to every room, it will create ultra-high-speed information services centered on people and terminals, and provide high-quality Broadband experience will further accelerate the construction of a network power and digital economy.
The general trend of home gigabit access
As the cornerstone of an increasingly digitized world, broadband’s driving role in the social economy continues to expand. Research by the World Bank shows that every 10% increase in broadband penetration will drive an average GDP growth of 1.38%; the “White Paper on China’s Digital Economy Development and Employment (2019)” shows that China’s 180 million core-kilometer optical fiber cable network supports 31.3 trillion yuan in the digital economy. development of. With the advent of the F5G all-optical era, broadband is also facing new development opportunities.
This year, it is proposed to “increase the construction of 5G networks and gigabit optical networks, and enrich application scenarios”; at the same time, the “14th Five-Year Plan” also mentions “promoting and upgrading gigabit optical fiber networks.” Promoting broadband access networks from 100M to Gigabit has become an important strategy at the national level.
For families, gigabit access is also the general trend. The sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic has promoted the explosive growth of new businesses and new models. The family is no longer just the center of life. At the same time, it also has social attributes such as schools, hospitals, offices, and theaters, and has become a true productivity center. , And home broadband is the core link that promotes the extension of the family’s social attributes.
But at the same time, abundant new interconnection applications have brought many challenges to home broadband. For example, when watching live broadcasts, online classes, and online meetings, I often encounter stuttering, dropped frames, and unsynchronized audio and video. The 100M households are gradually not enough. In order to enhance consumers’ online experience and sense of acquisition, it is urgent to evolve to gigabit bandwidth, and even continue to make breakthroughs in the dimensions of latency, packet loss rate, and number of connections.
In fact, consumers themselves are also “voting with their feet”-with the launch of gigabit broadband services by operators in various provinces, my country’s gigabit subscribers have entered a period of rapid growth in the past year. Statistics show that by the end of 2020, the number of gigabit users in my country is close to 6.4 million, with an annual growth rate of 700%.
FTTR: Leading the second “revolution” of light reform
The proposition of “Each room can achieve Gigabit service experience” seems easy, but it is difficult. The transmission medium is currently the biggest bottleneck restricting home networking technology. At present, the rate limits of mainstream Wi-Fi relays, PLC power modems, and network cables are mostly around 100M. Even the super-category 5 lines can barely reach gigabit. In the future, they will evolve to Category 6 and 7 lines.
Therefore, in recent years, the industry has gradually put the line of sight on the optical fiber. The FTTR gigabit all-optical room networking solution based on the PON technology architecture is the ultimate home networking solution, hoping to serve online education, online office, and live broadcast. New services such as cargo, e-sports entertainment, and whole-house intelligence to achieve high-quality broadband experience. A senior industry expert pointed out to C114, “The key to determining the bandwidth capability is the frequency characteristics of the transmission medium. The frequency characteristics of optical fibers are tens of thousands of times that of network cables. The technical life of network cables is limited, while the technical life of optical fibers is unlimited. We need to look at the problem from a development perspective.”
Specifically, the FTTR solution has four major characteristics: fast speed, low cost, easy modification, and green environmental protection. First of all, optical fiber is recognized as the fastest transmission medium. The current commercial technology can achieve a transmission capacity of hundreds of Gbps. After the fiber is deployed in the whole house, there is no need to change lines for the future upgrade to 10Gbps 10G network, which can be said to be once and for all. Secondly, the optical fiber industry is mature and the market is stable. The average price is lower than 50% of the network cable, and the cost of transformation is also lower.
Third, the optical fiber volume is only about 15% of the ordinary network cable, and it is small in size and easy to rebuild through the pipe. It supports transparent optical fiber, and the open line does not damage the decoration, and the user acceptance is high; there are many layout methods, not restricted by the new and old house types, and the application space Bigger. Finally, the raw material of the optical fiber is sand (silica), which is more environmentally friendly and sustainable than the copper network cable; at the same time, it has a large capacity, corrosion resistance, and a service life of more than 30 years.
For operators, FTTR will be an effective means to achieve differentiated and refined operations of home broadband services, build a home network brand, and increase user ARPU; it will also provide the necessary means for the development of smart homes and a new interconnected economy. support. In addition to the application in home networking scenarios, FTTR is also very suitable for business buildings, parks and other corporate local area networking scenarios, which can help operators extend from wide area networks to local area networks to establish stickiness with corporate users.
FTTR is here
With the rapid development of China’s optical network and the maturity of the industrial chain, FTTR is not far away, it is in sight.
In May 2020, Guangdong Telecom and Huawei jointly launched the world’s first FTTR all-optical home network solution, which has become an important symbol of the second “revolution” of the optical reform and a new starting point for the development of home broadband services. By laying optical fibers to every room and deploying Wi-Fi 6 optical network unit and set top box, it can support 1 to 16 super networking, so that everyone in the family, in every room, and at every moment has super gigabit Broadband experience.
At present, the FTTR solution based on PON technology has been commercially released by operators in 13 provinces and cities including Guangdong, Sichuan, Tianjin, Jilin, Shaanxi, Yunnan, Henan, etc., and operators in more than 30 provinces and cities have completed the pilot program and the next step of planning .
Driven by the “14th Five-Year Plan”, “new infrastructure” and other favorable policies, as well as the market demand for consumer home-wide experience “from good to good” and “from good to better”, it is expected that FTTR will be in the next five years. Will enter 40% of households in China, continue to promote the high-quality development of “Broadband China”, open up the market space of hundreds of billions, and drive the growth of trillions of digital applications and smart home industry.
Shenzhen HUANET Technology CO., Ltd. Also provide GPON OLT, ONU and PLC Splitter to the operators for many projects.
Post time: Apr-10-2021