Song Shijie of ZTE: Developing all-optical networks for quality gigabit service

20 October 2022, Shenzhen, China - ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a global leading provider of information and communication technology solutions, today announced that Song Shijie, General Manager of International Marketing for Fixed-network and Multimedia Products at ZTE Corporation, has shared ZTE's technological perspectives and business practices in the optical broadband field at the Network X industry event staged by Informa. Mr. Song made analyses from national policies and investment cycles to the competition landscape and industry development, remarking that 10G PON has entered the large-scale deployment stage.

“Global 10G PON deployment is accelerating and gigabit optical networks as an infrastructure for national economy and people's lives are gaining increasing importance. The U.S., China, Japan, South Korea, and countries in Europe and Latin America have launched national gigabit broadband initiatives,” said Mr. Song. “In addition to national policies, investment being diverted from 5G to optical broadband, increasing demand for bandwidth, and fierce competition in the industry are also the core drivers of 10G PON construction.”

The 10G PON industry chain has matured. The entire 10G PON ecosystem, from standards, chips and optical modules to stakeholders including vendors and operators, is ready for large-scale commercial deployments.

A rich variety of mature and flexible 10G PON solutions and products that support multi-scenario deployment and on-demand customization are already available to meet operators' requirements for advanced technologies, easy rollouts, investment savings, and efficient maintenance. Solutions such as Combo PON and Any-PON can help operators smoothly upgrade GPON networks to 10G PON without changing their existing Optical Distribution Networks (ODNs). End-to-end gigabit solutions incorporating 10G PON technology include those for building gigabit home networks, such as solutions integrating Wi-Fi 6 mesh and cloud Wi-Fi technologies and solutions implementing Fiber to the Room (FTTR) deployment.

How to take advantage of 10G PON networks to develop gigabit services is a concern for many operators. Mr. Song thought that quality should lie at the heart of our understanding and definition of gigabit services. That is, gigabit service should feature high quality in all its components including applications, content, and customer services.

To achieve that objective, operators should fully take advantage of 10G PON. For instance, 10G PON can ensure consistency in service quality and user experience during peak traffic hours. Experience of leading operators shows that to succeed in gigabit broadband operations, they not only need to offer connectivity services, but also have to explore diverse application scenarios and provide numerous value-added services. Innovations in gigabit broadband service operation, from Business-to-Home (B2H) business models to Business-to-Business (B2B) services for small and micro enterprises to content services with enhanced video quality, are increasingly important for boosting customer loyalty and enhancing brand images.

10G PON has been deployed on a large scale and is rapidly developing towards the peak of its lifecycle. It is becoming the primary optical broadband access technology and will work with 50G PON to open up more broadband possibilities.

“ZTE envisages a rapid and sustained growth of gigabit optical networks in the future. This vision will drive ZTE to work with industry partners to contribute to global broadband access development,” noted Mr. Song.