SingleFAN Pro: The Solution You Need for Gigabit-Ready Networks

Network development has entered the gigabit era, with both wireless and fixed access networks having evolved to the fifth generation. Building on previous generations of fixed networks and supported by 10G PON and Wi-Fi 6, the fifth-generation fixed network (F5G) has three major features:

• Full-Fiber Connection (FFC): supports ubiquitous connections to homes, machines, rooms, and even desktops. It supports extended vertical industry applications, provides over 10 times more service scenarios and 100 times more connections, and is leading us into the era of fiber connectivity.
• Enhanced Fixed Broadband (eFBB): provides symmetric upstream and downstream gigabit bandwidth capabilities and functions with Wi-Fi 6 technology to power Gigabit connections, offering a one-touch connection experience in the cloud era.
• Guaranteed Reliable Experience (GRE): transitions from traffic-driven to experience-driven operations, improving user experience. The network side supports “0” packet loss and ms-level latency, with the AI + big data intelligent O&M cloud platform guaranteeing reliability. On the terminal side, the 4K and gaming experience is better due to lower Wi-Fi latency.

F5G networks improve user experience in traditional home access scenarios thanks to these three features and enables fiber networks to be viable in industry scenarios, such as enterprise, transportation, security, and campus, which facilitates digital transformation.

6 Major Challenges to Gigabit Full-Fiber Access

Full-fiber access is now a major industry trend, but F5G has higher requirements on fixed network capabilities, creating various challenges:

• Poor multi-service transmission capability: Traditional chimney-type networks connect separately to homes and other high-value 2B scenarios to ensure differentiated SLA, but multiple networks complicate O&M and increase costs.
• High network costs: High costs are incurred by the ODN infrastructure network, OLTs, and ONTs.
• ODN deployment: The ODN network is essential for full-fiber networks, accounting for more than 70% of the total investment. Traditional ODN deployment requires professional personnel – it’s also time consuming and tasks like fiber removal and splicing are complex. The process is inefficient and it’s difficult to ensure quality.
• 10G PON upgrade: 10G PON is the best solution for gigabit broadband. However, 10G PON boards and external multiplexers need to be added, increasing CO space and power consumption. Fiber connections also need to be reconstructed, which complicates O&M.
• High OPEX caused by poor Wi-Fi experience: Wi-Fi has poor wall penetrating capabilities and cannot provide 100% coverage. Strong interference leads to slower speeds than home access bandwidth. High latency and packet loss rates result in unstable 4K video services, causing a poor Wi-Fi experience that necessitates home visits, increasing OPEX.
• Inefficient O&M: Traditional network construction is equipment-centric, and user experience cannot be guaranteed. The passive O&M mode based on complaints, home visits, and manual experience, leading to low O&M efficiency and customer satisfaction. Network resources and faults on home broadband networks cannot be visualized or sensed, increasing customer churn.

SingleFAN Pro Enables F5G Gigabit Full-Fiber Access

To overcome these challenges, Huawei’s SingleFAN Pro solution delivers three new concepts that enable operators to upgrade their networks to F5G gigabit full-fiber access networks.

1. New Blue Ocean

Access network slicing technology enables unified access for enterprise and home broadband users. Optical fibers extend to rooms, desktops, and machines, expanding connections by 100 times, enabling multiple services to be carried on one network, and ensuring differentiated SLAs. Operators can improve business outcomes by expanding services and shortening ROI periods.

Home scenarios

A complete end-to-end industry ecosystem has readied cloud VR – and its 360-degree immersive experience – for large-scale deployment, with network slicing technology able to ensure low latency and low jitter for gamers.

Enterprise scenarios

Reusing existing ODN resources to develop PON private line services can provide 10G symmetric bandwidth and high reliability for enterprise cloudification, campus networks, and video backhaul. Flexible product packages enable mobile operators to quickly develop home broadband services at low cost to achieve fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) by using existing base station space, power distribution, and optical fiber resources.

2. New Capabilities

Based on the capabilities of in-house chips, Huawei implements end-to-end OLT/ODN/ONT innovation and supports the large-scale deployment of Gigabit networks. This can meet the next decade of evolution requirements.

OLT

The industry’s first OLT with distributed architecture is oriented towards the next decade of evolution. It supports unified access or upstream transmission by GPON/10G PON/10GE/100GE and 16,000 concurrent FTTH 4K video users, with 4,000 users able to switch channels within 1 second.

Huawei’s board can switch between multiple modes such as GPON, XG(S)-PON, and PON combo, achieving smooth 10G PON evolution and reducing TCO by 33%. With the unique class D optical module, the optical power budget reaches the industry’s highest level of 35 dB, 7 dB higher than the industry average.

A three-fold increase in coverage distance extends the maximum to 40 km.

QuickODN

This is the industry’s first full-scenario pre-connection, and uneven optical splitting solution – it can be pole-, wall-, or aerial-mounted, and installed on manholes and handholes. Plug-and-play ODN deployment doesn’t require manual fiber splicing, simplifies fiber deployment, and shortens TTM by 30%. All outdoor products are rated IP68 for waterproofing and dustproofing, guaranteeing 20 years of highly reliable use.

ONT

Huawei in-house chips support symmetric 10G upstream interfaces. Wi-Fi 6 + omnidirectional antenna and in-house algorithms on the user side provide an optimal 4K/VR experience for home users.

Forwarding performance is 15% better than the industry average, and mesh networks function with 360-degree high-gain smart antennas to improve coverage performance by 15%. Huawei ONT is the first to pass the BBF TR-398 carrier-class Wi-Fi performance test, and Huawei in-house algorithms bind 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands and intelligent service recognition to ensure “0” frame freezing for 4K videos and games.

Power Savings

The solution’s energy consumption satisfies the EU CoC V7.0 standard and is 30% lower than the industry standard. The mean time between failures (MTBF) of core devices exceeds 45 years, ensuring stable network connections over the long-term.

3. New experience

The next-generation cloud-based management platform NCE introduces AI and big data to recalibrate network O&M and user experience, reducing home visits by 30% and slashing OPEX. Two typical scenarios are as follows:

• Accurate identification and intelligent diagnosis of ODN optical path faults: The AI-based NCE platform can identify various faults, such as contaminated connectors, bent fibers, and interruption, as well as fault segments and root causes, significantly increasing O&M efficiency.
• Visualized management and the optimization of home Wi-Fi networks: On NCE, operators can manage home Wi-Fi network topology and real-time connection status in a visualized mode, identify Wi-Fi issues (such as interference and configuration errors) in minutes, and remotely rectify faults. NCE can automatically adjust channels for optimization. This ensures premium user experience, reduces manual intervention, and decreases the fault rate.

Into the Gigabit Era

According to Huawei’s Global Industry Vision (GIV), there will be 100 billion global connections and a 30% gigabit penetration rate by the end of 2025. Ovum reports that 234 operators in 57 countries have launched Gigabit broadband services, paving the way to ubiquitous connectivity.

Huawei SingleFAN Pro is an end-to-end innovative solution for 10G PON Gigabit full-fiber access. It helps operators explore new blue oceans, deliver premium 4K/VR video experience to home users, and provide highly reliable premium private lines for enterprise users.

More than 88 global operators have deployed the Huawei SingleFAN Pro solution. An operator in Egypt used it to accelerate conversion from copper access to fiber access and build 10G PON-ready networks. Operators in developed markets, including Europe, are rapidly upgrading GPON to 10G PON to achieve Gigabit access, and the Huawei QuickODN solution is accelerating the deployment of full-fiber infrastructure networks in Latin America.

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Disclaimer: Any views and/or opinions expressed in this post by individual authors or contributors are their personal views and/or opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of Huawei Technologies.