Verizon will begin its large-scale NG-PON2 deployments during the first quarter of this year, for which the US operator has confirmed Calix as a main supplier partner.
Starting the transformation in Tampa, Florida – with plans to expand into other markets – Verizon will deploy a single access network for residential, business, and mobile services in what it says is an ‘industry-first’ use of NG-PON2 technology.
The AXOS E9-2 Intelligent Edge System from Calix was chosen by the provider, including AXOS RPm (Routing Protocol module for Layer 3) and AXOS SMm (Subscriber Management module for disaggregated Broadband Network Gateway). By consolidating the subscriber management, aggregation, and optical line terminal (OLT) functions into a single point in the network that is closer to the subscriber, Verizon aims to reduce costs and improve automation ability.
‘Several years ago, we determined that we were going to need a better network to meet our growing customers’ demands for bandwidth and higher throughput,’ explained Vincent O’Byrne, director of technology planning at Verizon. ‘NG-PON2 is a platform that will meet the customers’ envisioned needs for the next decade or more given its many evolution paths as well as bringing many operational benefits to simplify the network. It represents a paradigm shift in the design of access networks.’
‘We also need to drastically shorten the time it takes to deploy new services,’ added Lee Hicks, Verixon’s vice-president of technology. ‘The best way to achieve these goals is through leveraging breakthrough technologies like NG-PON2 and the automation of manual functions across the network. Innovative partners like Calix are enabling us to leapfrog the competition and consolidate multiple network elements into one platform and automate many of our most critical network functions.’
The partnership follows a tender process spanning more than two years, which saw Calix reach the final two, and then ultimately win the supply contract. Fibre Systems spoke to Carl Russo, president and CEO at Calix, who said: ‘We have been delivering products to market since late 2002/early 2003 and we have been pursuing unified access for a decade. When service providers have one single network, they need that network to remain operational. AXOS provides the flexibility to move intelligence deep into the access network, close to the subscriber where it makes architectural and financial sense. It enables our customers to change things without impacting their subscribers.
‘Over the last decade, we have made a significant investment in software development and built the world’s only software defined access network (see Calix unveils AXOS for access network virtualization). Verizon is acknowledged by its peers as a pathfinder for new technologies. Culturally, our teams are a perfect match, and we are very excited to partner with Verizon as AXOS-enabled NG-PON2 enters production and reshapes how service providers architect their networks forever.’
Verizon also recently revealed that it had deployed Sedona Systems’ NetFusion system across its network in order to facilitate a more complete understanding of the relationships and dependencies between the IP and optical network layers (see Verizon deploys Sedona’s NetFusion multilayer applications platform).
