gfastUltrafast broadband that can enable the Internet of Everything, which includes 4K-video and cloud-based applications, has a growing presence as new statistics prove: For instance, a proportion of total world fixed broadband subscriptions reached a record 700.19 million this week.

Now the big challenge for the emerging ultrafast technologies, such as G.fast, is interoperability. It has therefore been the focus of the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam, where the most advanced showcases of interoperable equipment and solutions ever staged have been presented at its Interoperability Pavilion.

The Broadband Forum’s work and mission is to ensure that broadband enables innovative high-speed applications and cloud based services. However, as the network evolves and even higher speeds can be achieved with more innovative technologies, interoperability remains the key enabler.

“Both standards and their implementation are a collaborative effort, and ITU-T is working closely with the Broadband Forum and others to help deliver both the protocols and the fast deployment of innovative technological developments such as G.fast” said the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, Mr Malcolm Johnson. “Working together, ITU and the Broadband Forum can make sure the framework is in place to move to ultrafast rates.”

In fact, the world’s top vendors, test houses and industry bodies, as well as visitors, could see live examples of the latest G.fast technology, VDSL2 Vectoring, GPON and the Forum’s much-acclaimed TR-069 remote management protocol.

G.fast, however in general certainly gets most attention, since it answers many of the deployment questions around the demand for faster broadband – giving Gigabit speeds without the Outside Plant (OSP) costs. It is essentially a “fiber to the periphery” solution, bringing fiber closer to the customer - typically to within 20-200m depending on the deployment scenario.

It is obvious, that G.fast is set to be very important, particularly as service providers look to provide services such as IPTV at 500 to 1000 Mbps. As G.fast moves forward, the Broadband Forum has also selected the world’s first testing laboratory to certify products designed for G.fast deployment. It has chosen the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), which has more than 25 years’ experience and major testing facilities.

“Interoperability of the G.fast and FTTdp solutions is essential to the rollout of these new technologies, and we’re working diligently with the Broadband Forum to quickly develop the test plans and certification program in step with the broadband industry’s first anticipated wave of G.fast products,” said Lincoln Lavoie, UNH-IOL Senior Engineer, Broadband Technologies. “Our goal is to begin initial testing of G.fast products during the first half of 2015 and to deliver the first certifications during the second half of the year, so service providers can assure the certified CPE and DPU devices selected for their first FTTdp deployment will be interoperable.”

Robin Mersh, CEO, Broadband Forum added: “Operators have told us that interoperability will be key to the success of G.fast, so we are developing test plans based on their requirements, which UNH-IOL will certify based on those plans.”

“But the Pavilion is about much more than G.fast. We have all our approved test labs involved, with Telebyte’s G.Vector test lab coordinating a multi-vendor Fiber To The Node (FTTN) VDSL2 Vectoring demonstration, LAN showcasing our BBF.247 certification program and UNH-IOL showing the BBF.069 program and G.fast. In addition we have many other member companies showcasing compliance to Broadband Forum programs and test plans.”

In addition to the Forum and the ITU-T, companies and organizations taking part include Actelis, ADTRAN, ADB, Alcatel-Lucent, EXFO, Huawei, Ikanos Communications, JDSU, Juniper Networks, Keymile, Lantiq, LAN, MT2, Sagemcom, Sckipio, Telebyte and UNH-IOL.

By MediaBUZZ