Pushing ahead on next-gen FTTP technology, Calix said it Verizon has tapped its AXOS platform to start a “large-scale” deployment of NG-PON2 in the first quarter of 2018.

The initial rollout, based on Calix’s AXOS E9-2 Intelligent Edge System, includes the AXOS RPm (Routing Protocol module for Layer 3) and the AXOS SMm (Subscriber Management module for disaggregated Broadband Network Gateway).

In 2016, Verizon selected equipment from Ericsson (in partnership with Calix) and Adtran for NG-PON2 technology testing from the telco’s Innovation Lab in Waltham, Mass. That followed earlier tests by Verizon, which determined then that NG-PON2 cold “easily provide” symmetrical speeds of 10 Gbps to businesses and residential customers.

RELATED: Verizon Sets NG-PON2 Lab Tests

“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,” Vincent O’Byrne, director of technology planning at Verizon, said in a statement. “We saw that the single wavelength systems (e.g., 10G EPON and XGS-PON) were only possible interim solutions and that we needed a longer term solution. 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.” 

Offering a way for cable operators to migrate to a more efficient, virtualized platform, Calix has introduced a product that can plug into their legacy access networks and utilize software-defined capabilities.

Calix said that product, the AXOS DPx Connector, is a DOCSIS Virtualized Network Function (VNF) that can be woven into existing OSS (operational support systems) for HFC and PON networks deployed by MSOs.

Cable operators are eager to shift to software-defined networking and virtualized apps and systems, but they are challenged with how to develop a framework that can fit that into those legacy OSS environments, Shane Eleniak, vice president of product line leadership at Calix, said.

Calix has already done some work with DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON and DOCSIS Provisioning of GPON, which enable operators to utilize their DOCSIS backoffice systems for PON deployments, but want to move away from a classic, monolithic software approach, he said.

MSOs, Eleniak added, “want to invest in something that is SDN-aware…The tricky part for an operator, is how do I bridge?”

Calix claims that the AXOS DPx Connector can be plugged into the existing architecture and virtualize the applications without altering the underlying backoffice systems. MSOs would also use the same servers, but the new connector would add scale and tie it back to a data center or network operation center (NOC).

To aid the effort, Calix has teamed up with Momentum Telecom, a company that supplies DOCSIS management/provisioning products and hosted voice services to cable operators.

Eleniak said the primary, early targets for the new product are cable operators that have been deploying PON or have it on their roadmap for certain scenarios in a way that complements the HFC side of their business. He said it will also fit in as operators deploy DOCSIS 3.1 and starting to pursue “virtual” Converged Cable Access Platforms (CCAPs) and distributed access architectures.

Calix said it has field trials underway. It will be using a two-pronged approach for trials and deployments – working with Momentum and its base of MSOs as well as direct engagements with the operators, according to Doug Blue, Calix's solutions marketing director for cable. 

 “As an industry, we know that SDN is the way of the future of service providers and this partnership between Calix and Momentum Telecom will allow our customers to more easily move to an SDN architecture as soon as they are ready,” Scott Helms, senior vice president of advanced services at Momentum Telecom, said in a statement. “The service agility enabled by SDN has become a key strategic goal for cable operators, and the combined solution allows our joint customers to immediately begin to reap the benefits of an SDA architecture without the complexity of high costs of integration.“  

Windstream has emerged as an early adopter of G.fast, as it will use the emerging advanced DSL platform to bring faster speeds to multiple dwelling units in Lincoln, Neb., using gear from Calix.

Windstream, they said, will target multiple MDUs in the market with Calix’s AXOS G.fast nodes and GigaFamily products in Lincoln. Windstream plans to extend the deployment of G.fast to deliver speeds of up to 1 Gbps over copper there and other markets.

"In a growing community like Lincoln with a large number of college students and young professionals, MDUs are both an opportunity and a challenge for service providers looking to enable a robust subscriber experience," Art Nichols, Windstream’s vice president of network architecture and technology, said in a statement.

Though many telcos are deploying fiber-to-the-premises, G.fast represents an emerging standard that can help them extend the life of DSL networks and position them to deliver 1-Gig speeds in order to compete with cable’s widespread DOCSIS platforms.

Last year, U.K. telecom BT said it was delivering up to 330 Mbps in a G.fast trial.

The ITU awardedfinal approval to the G.fast standard in December 2014.

Setting its sights on a next-gen FTTP platform that can deliver 10 Gbps to the home, Verizon said it has tapped two vendors as it kicks off testing of NG-PON2 technology at its Innovation Lab in Waltham, Mass.

Later this month, Verizon will start to test equipment from Ericsson (in partnership with Calix) and Adtran. The tests will focus on NG-PON2 features such as tuning performance, the ability to carry residential and business services on the same platform, and interoperability and conformance tests against Verizon ONT specs.

The coming lab trials follow Verizon’s tests of NG-PON2 conducted in 2015 and the issuance of an RFP, holding then that the next-gen platform could “easily provide” symmetrical speeds of 10  Gbps to homes and business locations. 

Verizon noted that NG-PON2 supports up to 40-Gig of total capacity and up to 10 Gbps per customer, both up and down, on a single fiber.  Verizon said it plans to deploy NG-PON2 initially for business services in 2017, and then follow with residential rollouts “as the technology matures and the market demands.” The ITU-T approved NG-PON2 specs last year.

Verizon’s current high-end residential tier for Fios delivers 500 Mbps up and downstream; the telco has not announced when it might bump speeds up to 1-Gig to match up with the speeds being offered by AT&T (via GigaPower), Google Fiber, and various MSOs that are using DOCSIS 3.0 to offer downstream burst speeds approaching 1-Gig.

Verizon is also moving ahead with NG-PON2 as it braces for DOCSIS 3.1, a next-gen HFC platform that is capable of delivering multi-gigabit speeds. While the initial D3.1 specs envisioned capcities of 10-Gig down and at least 1-Gig up, a “full-duplex” flavor of D3.1 that can support high-capacity symmetrical speeds is under development at CableLabs.

Among MSOs, Comcast has kicked off advanced consumer trials of DOCSIS 3.1 in two markets – Atlanta and Nashville – and plans to expand the platform to three more markets (Chicago, Miami and Detroit) later this year.

Thanks in part to Google Fiber, 1-Gig residential broadband connections is now the bar. Salisbury, a city in North Carolina, looks to raise it today with the debut of a 10 Gbps service that’s being offered through Fibrant, a municipally-owned provider.

The plan is to offer 10-gig to all premises in the city, thought the service is initially being offered at Catawba College, and being powered by the Calix E5-520 Ethernet Service Access Node (ESAN). The first location to get it at the school is Hoke Hall, with plans to extend it to other campus buildings such as the Cannon Student Center and Ralph W. Ketner Hall. The 10-Gig  service, expected to be of the most use to businesses customers, will be offered to residential customers for about $400 per month, Ars Technica said.

Fibrant, which initially rolled out 1-Gig with Calix last year, said its network can currently delivers up to 10 Gbps using point-to-point Ethernet technology today, but plans to transition to a next-gen PON platform (XGS-PON and NG-PON2) as it becomes available in 2016.

Verizon recently announced it had successfully tested NG-PON2 FTTP technology (with Cisco Systems and  PT Inovação) that could “easily provide” symmetrical speeds of 10 Gbps.Meanwhile, VTel launched a 10-Gig service in June that complements its $35 per month 1 Gbps offering. VTel said it’s 10-Gig residential offering was made possible by a $85 million network award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service. 

DOCSIS 3.1, cable’s emerging next-gen HFC IP platform, is targeting max capacities of 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps upstream.

"In making the leap to multi-gigabit services for key anchor institutions and businesses, Fibrant has set a new bar for communities across America,” said John Colvin, SVP of North American Sales at Calix, in a statement. “As next generation PON technologies come to market in 2016, we are excited to see how smaller businesses, MDU (multiple dwelling unit) owners, and even single family residences take advantage of these impressive speeds and enjoy the next wave of broadband innovation."