NGON & DCI Europe 2018

Andrew Lord, optical network research leader, BT, UK and Metro-Haul project leader, presents for ‘Service Provider Keynote’ session (Tuesday, 26 June 2018 08:55 – 09:10) in the ‘5G & Optical Transport’ breakfast workshop.

Andrew Lord is also one of the advisory board members for NGON & DCI 2018.

Event Overview
The breakfast workshop is designed to provide an overview of the biggest architectural and technology options network operators face as they update and build new transport networks to support 5G.

Scale and performance requirements dictated by the 5G radio network are forcing a radical re-think of the fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul networks that support 5G. There is strong industry consensus that the physical medium for 5G “xhaul” will be fiber. However, beyond this consensus point, there are many options being put forward and much debate – including choice of transport protocols and even basic physical layer decisions for fiber.

This workshop focuses on 5G infrastructure – from the wireline/transport side, and specifically optical access, aggregation and metro core networks – and will explore the range of 5G xhaul transport options with the goal of mapping each to the specific requirements of the 5G RAN and anticipated applications.

Topics
– How do capacity, performance and applications requirements of 5G radio map to access/aggregation/core transport networks?
– Attributes and drivers for distributed RAN vs. centralized RAN access for 5G
– Overview of various fiber-based options for 5G access including dark fiber, passive CWDM, active DWDM, NGPON2 and XGS PON
– Overview of eCPRI and how it affects the RAN
– Benefits of new technologies such as FlexE and FlexO for 5G