Nokia demos new 100G PON technology with Vodafone

The 100G PON trial took place in Vodafone's Eschborn lab in Germany last week. For this trial, Nokia Bell Labs, the industrial research arm of Nokia, leveraged 25G optics along with state-of-the-art digital signal processing (DSP) techniques.

Nokia, together with Vodafone, has successfully demonstrated a new Passive Optical Network (PON) technology that is claimed to deliver speeds up to 100Gb/s on a single wavelength, marking the latest industry-first in fiber access for the Finnish telecom giant, following breakthroughs in 10G PON, TWDM-PON, universal PON and 25G PON.

In a press release on Tuesday, Nokia said that the trial is the world's first application of flexible rate transmission in a PON network, confirming the capability of fiber access networks to deliver ultra-high speeds in access and aggregation and serve as a unifying infrastructure for all telecommunication services.

"100G PON has 40 times the capacity of today's GPON networks and 10 times the capacity of XGS-GPON, so it will help us keep ahead of the demand curve. In addition to ultra-high speeds, the technology supports our vision of highly efficient and adaptable next-generation networks," said Gavin Young, Vodafone's Head of Fixed Access Centre of Excellence.

The 100G PON trial took place in Vodafone's Eschborn lab in Germany last week. For this trial, Nokia Bell Labs, the industrial research arm of Nokia, leveraged 25G optics along with state-of-the-art digital signal processing (DSP) techniques.

According to Nokia, leveraging flexible rate transmission results in lower latency on a PON and cuts power consumption in half, two essential characteristics for fiber networks that have a rapidly growing role in the massive delivery of fixed and mobile broadband services.

With this 100G PON trial, Vodafone has become the first major operator in the world to demo the technology. The company sees 100G PON as a potential way to create highly flexible and scalable PON networks that will mitigate the risk of future peak-hour congestion and enable densification of cable and mobile networks.

Commenting on the achievement, Peter Vetter, Head of Access and Devices Research, Nokia Bell Labs, said, "For the first time, we show a unique flexible rate capability that allows optimizing capacity depending on the link losses and low-cost optical component capabilities in an optical network termination. We believe fiber will play a key role in 5G and 6G, and that is why we are truly excited about the 100G PON demo, and its potential in creating the future of fibre broadband."