One of the most notable trends in access networks in recent years has been the rapid replacement of copper wire by fiber. The vast majority of these fiber-optic accesses are built using passive optical networks (PON), and more than 700 million customers worldwide now enjoy high-speed broadband through access to PON networks. Gigabit passive optical networks GPON dominated the early PON deployments, providing 100-gigabit broadband access services. As users demand higher broadband access speeds, network operators have worked in recent years to upgrade their networks to 10G PON systems in order to provide gigabit services. By the end of 2021, nearly 10 million 10G PON OLT ports have been deployed globally, providing gigabit access services to tens of millions of subscribers.
Users' pursuit of higher speed broadband services will not stop. After 10G PON, the International Telecommunication Union ITU-T initiated research on PON technologies above 10Gb/s in 2016 and formally launched the development of a high-speed PON standard based on 50Gb/s line rate in 2018. in September 2021, the first version of the 50G PON standard was officially released in ITU-T, including support for asymmetric rates (50G/12.5 In September 2022, ITU-T agreed to the first revision of the 50G PON standard (Amd1), adding technical specifications for symmetric 50G PON (50Gb/s downstream and 50Gb/s upstream) and support for three-generation coexistence (50G PON, 10G PON and GPON coexist simultaneously).
Driven by the industry and ITU-T standards, we believe that after 10G PON, ITU-T 50G PON will be the choice for the evolution of next-generation PON networks. The reasons are as follows:
1) 50G PON meets PON network evolution pace and timing requirements
Generally speaking, the compound annual growth rate of user bandwidth demand is around 20%, growing 4 to 5 times every 8-10 years. Based on the experience of the past 15 years, the cycle time for operators to upgrade to next-generation PONs worldwide is usually 8 to 10 years, and 50G PON can provide 5 times the bandwidth of 10G PON. The choice of 50G-PON as the next generation is in line with the pace and bandwidth requirements of PON network evolution. From an industry perspective, 50G PON products are expected to be commercially available around 2024. Until 2024, the existing 10G PON can fully meet the needs of users.
2) 50G PON is the next generation PON chosen by ITU-T standards
Standardization is an important factor in the successful commercialization of all PON technologies, and ITU-T standards have been leading the evolutionary path of the PON industry. For example, the most widely deployed GPON and 10G PONs are defined by ITU-T. After years of research and discussion, ITU-T finally chose 50Gb/s as the line rate for high-speed PONs above 10Gb/s. Although during this period, ITU-T also proposed and discussed other rates of PON, such as 25G PON and 100G PON, but either because the bandwidth step was too small or the technical complexity was too high, it was not finally agreed in ITU-T. Simply put, 50G PON is the only high-speed PON technology that is currently standardized by ITU-T.
3) 50G PON is the next generation product favored by mainstream operators in the industry
During the development of the ITU-T high-speed PON standard, big T from North America, Europe and Asia actively supported and participated in the 50G PON standard, such as AT&T, Verizon, Orange, Vodafone, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, NTT, etc. Operators deploying around 70% of the world's PON networks (China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom) have chosen 50G PON as the next generation. In addition, more and more mainstream operators in the industry support 50G PON, such as Telefonica, Swisscom, Orange and other major operators have expressed their support for the latest 50G PON standard, indicating that they plan to upgrade to 50G PON as soon as possible.
4) 50G PON is widely supported by the industry supply chain and will mature for commercial use in the near future
Supply chain diversity is one of the most important factors for commercial success, and technologies with strong supply chains are usually more likely to succeed in the market. During the development of the 50G PON standard, it received extensive support from mainstream equipment manufacturers, chip suppliers and equipment vendors around the world. Following the release of the 50G PON standard, a number of mainstream equipment manufacturers have released multiple technology prototypes. In addition, component suppliers have started to develop related chips and optoelectronic devices. With this support, key technologies for 50G PON continue to mature and are expected to start supporting commercial use from 2024 onwards.
5) 50G PON is the most cost effective solution for the next generation
Optical access has always been about delivering the best performance at the lowest cost. 50G PON provides the necessary bandwidth increase. The secret to the cost effectiveness of 50G PON is its use of digital signal processing (DSP). With DSP, the 50G PON system can reduce the optical component requirements and achieve the required optical link budget. In this way, a 50G PON system can provide higher speeds and more economical costs. It is known that such a system will eventually win in the market.
Shaoxing ZKTel provides GPON OLT module, EPON OLT module, 10G EPON OLT module, XGPON OLT module, XGSPON OLT module, XGPON COMBO OLT module, XSGPON COMBO OLT module and other full series of PON modules, and now we have started the development of 50G PON series products.
Shaoxing ZKTel Equipment Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise specializing in high-end optical chips, optical components, optical modules (155M-400Gbps) and intelligent testing equipment. The company has a senior R&D team in the industry mainly with doctoral and master degree, focusing on product R&D and manufacturing in the field of optical communication. With its own brand 'ZKTel ', the products are widely used in data communication networks, transmission networks, metropolitan backbone networks, data centers, 4G/5G mobile base stations, face recognition, auto-driving and other fields.