AT&T wrapped up open-source 10 Gbps XGS-PON field trials, the operator announced Tuesday, advancing its efforts to virtualize access functions over the last mile network.
The trials, first announced in June, took place in Atlanta and Dallas and tested multi-gigabit, high-speed internet traffic, according to AT&T. The tested network used Open Source Access Manager Hardware Abstraction (OSAM-HA) software, formerly known as VOLTHA, which AT&T released in October and called, at the time of the release, the “brain” of XGS-PON access technology.
XGS-PON is a fixed-wavelength symmetrical 10 Gbps passive optic network technology that can reportedly coexist with current GPON technology and provide four times the existing downstream bandwidth. AT&T said field tests showed GPON and XGS wavelengths could both exist across a single fiber interface, and a coexistence element was utilized to allow the technology to work within existing GPON networks.
The XGS-PON system provided trial participants with a “seamless AT&T DirecTV Now video experience,” the carrier said. Subscribers were managed using a virtualized Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) function.
“Our network is constantly evolving. We’ll continue to execute our software-based network strategy to technologies like 5G, virtualized RAN, and G.FAST over time,” Eddy Barker, assistant VP of Access Architecture and Design at AT&T, said in a statement. “Ultimately, instead of deploying islands of technology that have SDN control, we want to orchestrate the entire end-to-end network through ONAP.”
ONAP is a member community working on open-source platforms as part of a virtual access project within the Linux Foundation and spearheaded by AT&T. ONAP’s first platform release, ONAP Amsterdam, was unveiled in November.
AT&T said ONAP will use the first iteration of OSAM-HA technology, which is a vendor-agnostic operational suite aimed at managing consumer and business broadband access network elements and capabilities.
The next-generation PON trials are the next step in reaching AT&T’s goal of supporting “the merging of all services on a single network, including 5G wireless infrastructure,” the operator said when the trials were first announced last June.
Filed Under: Infrastructure
