Huawei’s NG-FAST prototype debuts at BBWF 2016

[London, UK, October 19, 2016] Huawei's NG-fast (next-generation G.fast) prototype debuted at the Broadband World Forum (BBWF) 2016. According to the test report from Huawei's FBB Innovation Lab, this prototype provides a bandwidth of 3.8 Gbps @ 50 meters and 2.4Gbps @70 meters over a single twisted pair. This development exemplifies Huawei's capability for continuous innovation in the DSL access field and also helps carriers worldwide further tap into the potential of their copper network resources.

As new services such as 8K and virtual reality (VR) video flourish, carriers require the following from their copper networks: ultra-high bandwidth, low latency, low cost, and ease of deployment. The maturity of G.fast in 2014 prompted Huawei to start researching NG-fast and consider it to be the cutting-edge technologies for the next-generation copper access field. This demonstration of the NG-fast prototype attracted considerable attention in the industry. The prototype extends the frequency band to 500 MHz and adopts full-duplex transmission, achieving a qualitative leap in transmission rate and greatly reducing transmission latency.

With the industry's largest-capacity vectoring system and its extensive experience in commercial application of G.fast, Huawei has accumulated a great number of crosstalk cancellation algorithms and advanced engineering capabilities. Highly concerned with the cost and deployment of NG-fast, Huawei has set up a team dedicated to NG-fast research and produced innovative results in terms of technical architecture.

Such results include the concept of virtual DSLAM. Since the digital signal processing module is moved up the network, a virtual DSLAM requires far less space and can therefore be deployed almost anywhere – for example, on a traditional node such as a cross-connection box or a weak-current well. It is predicted that the virtual DSLAM will be able to effectively support large-scale NG-fast rollout and solve related issues. In addition, moving up the digital signal processing module also simplifies the structure of the virtual DSLAM, removing the need for on-site maintenance and, thereby reduces the cost of maintenance.

"Relying on our technological accumulation in the superfast copper line field, Huawei continues to innovate in this area. The launch of the NG-fast prototype undoubtedly boosts carrier confidence in the reuse of existing copper line resources and quick construction of gigabit ultra-broadband networks," said Jeff Wang, President of the Huawei Access Network Product Line.

Looking back at the evolutional of copper access technologies, the global telecom industry has been concentrating on technology innovation and the creation of network architecture, to maximize potential and achieve accelerated broadband rates on copper networks. Huawei is dedicated to cooperating with carriers all over the world to build NG-fast capabilities and access network architectures of the future and to bring about the fully connected world in the era of gigabit access.