5G is undoubtedly the hottest topic this year. Since 2019, global operators have been rushing to open 5G pre-commercial. All along, 5G related technologies, network construction and development prospects have become the focus of the industry. As the major three telecom operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, have launched large-scale deployment since Oct. 2019, 5G-related industrial enterprises are also embracing the huge business opportunities in the coming 5G commercial time window.
For the application scenarios of 5G, bearer network construction plays a particularly important role. For the construction of 5G bearer network, the 3 major operators in China have introduced different solutions, and different manufacturers have released different products. As one of the leading manufacturers, FiberHome has been at the forefront of the industry in promoting the development of 5G.
● FiberHome actively cooperates with 3 major operators, adapting to 5G bearer demands
The bearer network refers to the basic transmission resources, including machine room, fiber distribution point, optical cable, and pipeline. 5G needs to solve not only the connection problem between people, but also the connection problem between things and things, things and people. Therefore, 5G proposes higher bandwidth, lower latency, stronger dynamic scheduling and network slicing for the bearer network.
In order to meet these requirements, the architecture of FiberHome bearer network has evolved from the D-RAN architecture of the 3G/4G era to the C-RAN (Cloud RAN) architecture, which is divided into the fronthaul of AAU-DU, the midhaul of DU-CU and the backhaul of the CU core network. In terms of bearer technology, in order to achieve higher dynamics and network slicing, FiberHome has introduced new Layer 3 technologies, including SR (Segment Routing) and EVPN. To achieve lower latency, some operators are studying FlexE and simplified ODU mapping. To provide larger bandwidth, new client interfaces such as 25G/50G have emerged.
In recent years, in order to promote the landing of 5G, the 3 three major operators have successively introduced different solutions in the 5G bearer technology. China Mobile mainly promotes SPN solutions, while China Telecom and China Unicom are pushing IP RAN upgrades. Although the 5G bearer solutions promoted by different operators are different, they are essentially the same. All of them adapt enhanced Layer 3 functions (SR, EVPN), and the network bandwidth is improved. The difference is only in the technology selection of the Layer 1, but the common goal is to achieve hard isolation and lower latency requirements of 5G services, and this difference is a normal phenomenon brought about by the different bearer technologies in the 3G/4G era of different operators.
At present, FiberHome actively cooperates with 3 major operators in 5G bearer field for large-scale deployment. With a full range of bearer product solutions, FiberHome fully supports the different technology options of different operators to help China's 5G bearer network construction.
● Different products for fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul
The products provided by FiberHome in the 5G fronthaul can be divided into three categories, which are based on WDM technology (passive, active, semi-active) and can effectively reduce the latency and improve the efficiency of fiber utilization. In the midhaul and backhaul, FiberHome provides two types of technologies based on the new generation IPRAN and SPN, and provides an SDN controller based on IP and optical network cooperation, thereby realizing automatic and rapid deployment of services in the midhaul and backhaul network.
5G bearer network needs to break the barrier between IP and IT, and solve many problems such as different automation processes, disjoint service policies, protocol mismatches, and disconnection between IT cloud and IP networks. Facing the new challenges of telecom cloud transformation, FiberHome has built an open and flexible platform that can help operators build a new network featuring “ubiquitous, ultra-broadband, open and on-demand”.
