Nokia, Vodafone partner to test viability of L4S technology over PON

Nokia and Vodafone today have joined forces to test the viability of L4S technology - a new IETF Internet standard that enables networks to simultaneously maintain high throughput and low latency - over passive optical networks (PON).

L4S, short for Low Latency, Low Loss, and Scalable, eliminates queuing delays and removes big variations in latency without compromising network speeds. It can be implemented over any access technology, wireless or wireline, and applied to any latency-dependent application.

"These highly encouraging results show L4S will unshackle any real-time application that would normally be constrained by high latency. Videoconferencing, cloud-gaming, augmented reality and even the remote operations of drones would run flawlessly across the internet, without experiencing any significant queuing delays," said Azimeh Sefidcon, Head of Network Systems and Security Research, Bell Labs at Nokia.

Nokia Bell Labs and Vodafone's Fixed Access Center of Excellence carried out the world’s first demonstration of L4S running over PON in the operator's lab in Newbury, U.K. The trial was performed on an end-to-end fixed access network built with Nokia technology, which consisted of a broadband network gateway (BNG), a PON optical line terminal (OLT), multiple PON optical network terminals (ONTs) and WiFi access points.

In the lab tests, Nokia and Vodafone achieved extremely low and consistent end-to-end latencies when travelling across every element of the network.

Commenting on this development, Gavin Young, Head of Fixed Access Centre of Excellence at Vodafone, said, "As a leading broadband provider, Vodafone aims to give customers a faster, more responsive, and reliable service unhindered by lag even during peak hours. L4S is an exciting technology with huge potential to achieve this goal, as well as deliver a more interactive and tactile internet experience for our customers."