Keeping pace with 5G: F5G opens a new era of gigabit broadband business prosperity

Knowing 5G is not enough. Have you heard of F5G?At the same time as the era of mobile communication 5G, the fixed network has also developed to the fifth generation (F5G).

The synergy between F5G and 5G will accelerate the opening of a smart world of Internet of Everything.It is predicted that by 2025, the number of global connections will reach 100 billion, the penetration rate of Gigabit household broadband will reach 30%, and the coverage of 5G networks will reach 58%.The number of VR/AR personal users will reach 337 million, and the penetration rate of enterprise VR/AR will reach 10%.100% of enterprises will adopt cloud services, and 85% of enterprise applications will be deployed in the cloud. The annual global data volume will reach 180ZB.Network connectivity is becoming a ubiquitous natural presence, injecting momentum into the digital economy and enabling the ultimate business experience for everyone, every family, and every organization.

What is F5G?

After the era of 1G (AMPS), 2G (GSM/CDMA), 3G (WCDMA/CDMA2000/ td-scdma) and 4G (LTE TDD/LTE FDD), mobile communication has ushered in the 5G era represented by 5G NR technology.The global commercial deployment of 5G has promoted a new round of prosperity of the mobile communication industry and provided key enablers for the digital transformation of various industries.

Compared with the well-known 5G, there may not be many people who know F5G.In fact, the fixed network has also experienced five generations to date, the narrowband era F1G (64Kbps) represented by PSTN/ISDN technology, the broadband era F2G (10Mbps) represented by ADSL technology, and the ultra-wideband represented by VDSL technology. The F3G (30-200 Mbps), the ultra-hundred-megabit era F4G (100-500 Mbps) represented by GPON/EPON technology, is now entering the Gigabit ultra-wide era F5G represented by 10G PON technology.At the same time, the business scene of the fixed network is gradually moving from family to enterprise, transportation, security, industry and other fields, which will also help digital transformation of all walks of life.

Compared with previous generations of fixed access technologies, 10G PON gigabit network has a leapfrog development in connection capacity, bandwidth and user experience, such as upstream and downstream rate up to 10Gbps symmetric, and time delay reduced to less than 100 mics.

Specifically, the first is all-optical connection, using vertical coverage of fiber-optic infrastructure to expand vertical industry applications, supporting business scenarios to expand more than 10 times, and the number of connections has increased by more than 100 times, enabling the era of fiber-optic connections.

Secondly, it is ultra-high bandwidth, network bandwidth capability is increased by more than ten times, and uplink and downlink symmetric broadband capabilities bring a connection experience in the cloud era. Wi-Fi6 technology unlocks the last ten meters of bottlenecks in Gigabit home broadband.

Finally, it is the ultimate experience, supporting 0 packet loss, microsecond delay, and AI intelligent operation and maintenance to meet the extreme business experience requirements of home/enterprise users.The industry-leading OLT platform can support distributed caching, anti-video burst, 4K/8K video fast start and channel switching, and effectively support the video experience intellisense and troubleshooting.

Gigabit broadband business boom is coming

The White Paper on China’s Digital Economy Development and Employment (2019) shows that in 2018, China’s digital economy reached 31.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 20.9%, accounting for 34.8% of GDP.There were 191 million jobs in the digital economy, accounting for 24.6% of the total employment in the year, up 11.5% year-on-year, significantly higher than the growth rate of the country’s total employment in the same period. The rise and explosion of the digital economy made the broadband network a key infrastructure. The importance is becoming increasingly prominent.

In recent years, with the implementation of the “Broadband China” strategy and the continuous advancement of the “speed up and fee reduction” work, China’s fixed network development has made great achievements, and has built a global leading FTTH network.As of the second quarter of 2019, China’s 100M access rate users accounted for 77.1%, fiber access (FTTH / O) users 396 million, fiber-optic broadband users accounted for 91% of broadband users.Under the joint promotion of policies, business, technology and other factors, the Gigabit upgrade has become the focus of current development.

On June 26th, China Broadband Development Alliance officially released the “White Paper on Gigabit Broadband Network Business Application Scenario”, which summarizes the top ten business application scenarios of 10G PON Gigabit network, including Cloud VR, smart home, games, social networks, Cloud desktop, enterprise cloud, online education, telemedicine and intelligent manufacturing, etc., and put forward the market space, business model and network requirements of relevant business application scenarios.

These scenarios can provide users with a better experience, industrial ecology and commercial applications are relatively mature, and the demand for network bandwidth is high, which will become a typical business application in the Gigabit era.For example, the typical application scenarios of Cloud VR can be divided into Cloud VR giant screen theater, live broadcast, 360° video, games, music, fitness, K song, social, shopping, education, education, games, marketing, medical, tourism, engineering, etc. It will bring revolutionary changes to people’s lives and production methods.Different VR business experience also has different requirements for network, among which bandwidth and delay are key indicators. Strong interactive VR business needs 100Mbps bandwidth and 20ms delay support in the basic initial stage, and 500mbps-1gbps bandwidth and 10ms delay support in the future.

For example, smart homes integrate technologies such as the Internet, computing processing, network communication, sensing and control, and are considered to be the next blue ocean market.Its main application scenarios include 4K HD video, home Wi-Fi networking, home storage, various sensors and appliance control.For example, if a typical home is opened for 5 services, at least 370 Mbps bandwidth is required, and the access delay is guaranteed to be within 20 ms to 40 ms.

For example, through the application of cloud desktop, it not only reduces the burden of carrying laptops when business people are on a business trip, but also ensures the security of enterprise information assets.The cloud desktop supports the SOHO office through the cloud virtual PC host. The high-definition, smooth, and low-latency network transmission can guarantee the same operating experience as the local PC. This requires a network bandwidth of more than 100 Mbps and a delay of less than 10 ms.

Institute of China academy of information and communication technology and standard, broadband development league deputy secretary-general AoLi pointed out that as the business model, industry ecology, network based three pillars ready, gigabit networks will create more application scenarios, by exploring the commercial application scenarios, drive build bigger gigabit ecological system platform, can better promote the sustained and healthy development of the industry of gigabit.

Operator in action

In the F5G era, China’s fixed network industry continues to be at the forefront of the world. At present, the three basic telecommunications companies are actively promoting the deployment of 10G PON Gigabit networks and exploring Gigabit applications.Statistics show that as of the end of July 2019, nearly 37 province operators in China have issued Gigabit commercial packages, and together with industrial partners, a large number of business innovations based on Gigabit broadband.As the world’s first operator Cloud VR business, Fujian Mobile “He· cloud VR” has been trial commercial, focusing on fun scenes such as giant screen theater, VR scene, VR fun, VR education, VR games, user monthly survival rate reached 62.9%.

On the occasion of “5·17”, Guangdong Telecom launched “Telecom Smart Broadband” heavily. In addition to the Gigabit fiber broadband widely promoted for family customers, it also launched three major broadband products for the segmented population – game broadband, let the game Players get low latency, low jitter internet speed experience.The anchor broadband enables the live broadcast group to obtain low latency, high uplink, and high-definition video upload experience. The Dawan District special line allows the government and enterprise customers in the Bay Area to obtain a VIP experience with ultra-low latency, stable and reliable, and star-rated service guarantee.

Shandong unicom has also released gigabit smart broadband based on 5G, gigabit broadband and gigabit home WiFi, realizing Cloud VR, multi-channel extreme 4K and 8K IPTV, ultra-hd home camera, extreme speed backup of home data, home Cloud and other services.

5G has come, and F5G will keep pace with it.It is foreseeable that F5G and 5G will make full use of the massive bandwidth of optical networks and the mobility of wireless networks, and combine the advantages of both of them to promote the prosperity of the Gigabit broadband industry and build a multitude of industries. Connect the cornerstone and enable the intelligent world of building the Internet of Everything. In this process, the exploration of China’s ICT industry in the dual Gigabit field will also provide reference for global Gigabit business innovation.