NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES, WHOLESALE ACCESS PRODUCTS AND INVESTMENT Florian DAMAS Director, Public Affairs & Government Relations 8 July 2015 1
Questions 1. How network technologies will evolve? 2. How this may affect wholesale access products in the future? 3. Which role wholesale access may play in enabling content and other service providers to directly tailor services for consumers and businesses? 2
FTTx technologies: fibre first and copper in the last meters if required FTTH COST +1Gb/s FTTdp SINGLE USER (G.fast) FTTdp MULTI-USER (G.fast) ~1Gb/s @ 50m (aggregate) ~ 500Mb/s @ 100m (aggregate) FTTx Vplus ~ >200Mb/s+ @ 400m (aggregate) FTTx VDSL2 Vectoring (17a) ~ 100Mb/s @ 700m (aggregate) (x2 with bonding) 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 DISTANCE of copper [m] 700 800 900 1000 1 INVESTMENT From FTTN (4x) to FTTH (15x) The closer to the subscriber, the closer the cost to FTTH 2 TIME TO MARKET Deploying FTTH is time consuming Re-using existing copper can speed up deployment 3 BANDWIDTH FTTH: 1G and more FTTx: 100M (VDSL2 Vectoring today), G.fast evolution to 100s 4 OTHER FACTORS (-) Aerial fiber, existing ducts (+) difficulty to enter the home 3
Access Network Evolution - Which unbundlings are adapted to FTTx? Physical line unbundling has effectively opened access to multiple providers Legacy Bitstreaming has effectively allowed choosing Internet Service Provider No longer applicable for FTTx: Vectoring across nodes problematic in multi-provider context Bad scalability of points of interconnect for deep FTTx Cabinet spacing constraints, space constraints for DPs No longer sufficient for FTTx: Need for SLAs for 3play Convergence of services Convergence of Mobile-Fixed Fully independent of access context: brownfield or greenfield, DSL or optical flavour, density, Scalable Points of interconnect: any concentration point is allowed As alternative to physical unbundling when: * infrastructure-based competition is not economically viable * physical unbundling hampers performance (DSL vectoring) * focus is on service-based competition Next-Generation Bitstreaming CO-based Legacy ADSL2+, VDSL2 FTTx vectoring, VDSL2 FTTdp, V+ FTTdp, G.fast FTTdp FTTH/B 4
Active unbundling - NG Bitstreaming Link access Access Seeker L2 Bitstream - Virtual Unbundling case Supports any service, incl. SLAs Access equipment of Access Provider L2 equipment (switch) of Access Provider (optional) Contention happens (Access Provider + Access Seeker networks), Access Seeker buys committed and excess capacity per user National POP Regional POP Metro POP Local Exchange Cabinet Customer Premises Optional non-blocking switch at LEX to reduce interconnections Access Provider Link access Access Seeker L2 Bitstream - Generic case L3 Bitstream (= IPstream) Supports any service, incl. SLAs L2 equipment (switch) of Access Provider L3 equipment (Router) of Access Provider National POP Regional POP Metro POP Access Provider Local Exchange Cabinet Customer Premises Contention happens (Access Provider + Access Seeker networks), Access Seeker buys committed and excess capacity per user Improved scalability in terms of interconnections 5
Access Network Evolution - which unbundlings are adapted to FTTH/B? Physical fiber unbundling (Point-point, PON) Point-Point infrastructure: mono-fiber or multi-fiber approaches PON infrastructure: mono-fiber or multi-fiber approaches FTTH/B: Wavelength unbundling with TWDM-PON TWDM approach: 1+ channel per Access Seeker WDM approach: 1 channel per user, directed to any Access Seeker Access Seeker A Access Seeker A channel per SP Access Provider Future Access Seekers CO Flexibility Point Feeder Termination SFU or small MDU Access Provider Future Access Seekers CO Feeder Termination NOW Requires extra investment in fibre infrastructure For FTTB; requires flexibility point at Building Independent of active technology (P2P speeds, PON flavour) Full separation of active networks NEW Re-uses common fibre PON infrastructure For FTTB: requires flexibility point at Building Different flavours (10G/10G or 10G/2.5G speeds), can be mixed Full separation of active networks (note; coordination of ONU migrations has protocol interaction) Note: Bitstream is also still alternative for FTTH/B NOW 6
Key messages on wholesale products Wholesale products can address requirements from access seekers to service providers (cloud/application/content) and act as remedies on different markets though they are very similar when it comes to the features they have to support for forwarding digital services. Wholesale products can cover multiple segments of a network to reach end-users: access, backhaul, aggregation, core and beyond. They are technology agnostic. Some scenarios show that fixed wholesaling may be the best solution to promote competition and address customers choice. Technology is not anymore based on circuit-switching: it is a mix of guaranteed and non-guaranteed traffic rates, and relies on QoS awareness to enforce SLAs. Standardisation should focus on interfaces: User-Network Interface (UNI) at customer premise and Network-Network Interface (NNI) available at the Points of Interconnection (PoIs). Seekers and providers should be able to choose for their services the overbooking factor (or contention ratio) they want as all operators do statistical multiplexing in different parts of their networks: for example, the ratio (sum of UNI bandwidths) / (NNI bandwidth) should be able to vary from 1 (no overbooking, high-end business subscribers), to 20 (for a regular residential offering) or more. Wholesaling has to include nomadicity (off-net connection). 7
State of the art networks today DIFFERENTIATED SERVICES - IP television - IP telephony - High-speed Internet LIMITS OF SERVICE CONFIGURATION - Automation dependent on network capabilities: - per-user service provisioning - global traffic capacity provisioning - Fixed mapping of services to resources - No differentiation over the top - Network open to wholesaling but single ownership and configuration STATICALLY DEFINED SERVICES AND SEMI-STATIC PROVISIONING 8
Access programmability and control INTRODUCTION OF PROGRAMMABILITY - Leverage network programmability to reach service flexibility and agility - to roll out / upgrade services - dynamically allocate resources to demand and congestions - Software-defined networking + Network function virtualization - Dynamically convert service policy into hardware configuration End-to-end-intelligence - Use network resources efficiently CHALLENGES TO REACH PROGRAMMABILITY - Network operations segmented to teams and tools - Limited support of standard open interfaces to control hardware - Lack of flexibility to change and move network functions VIRTUALIZATION OF ACCESS NETWORK COMES FROM PROGRAMMABILITY OF ITS RESOURCES 9
Access network virtualization - slicing Traditional slicing with VLAN SDN new slicing paradigm - A network hypervisor splits and controls a virtual network. VNO-1 VNO-N - Each slice is isolated from other slices (e.g. different wavelengths) FlowVisor Some example applications: - Multiple Virtual Network Operators (VNO) an Open Access solution - Enterprises with slices for different classes of service CDN+ (CDN with DMS) Access Node Simple RGW 10
Access network unbundling with SDN Open access beyond bitstream unbundling Use SDN to enable: - Level of control similar to physical unbundling - Flexibility of deployment similar to bitstream unbundling Infrastructure provider (InP) Requires access network resource virtualization and separation - Changes in hardware and software practice - Separate capacities (memory, process, firmware) Requires new management paradigm and mechanisms 11
Key messages on SDN and NFV BENEFITS - SDN enables control of network and programmability. - Network virtualization opens network to multiple players/services. - NFV dynamic scaling and mobility of network appliances. - SDN+NFV transform network to IT-like agile platform for services, promotes network openness NFV and SDN transformation today occur at non regulated network segments (core and aggregation). On a medium term perspective, SDN could be extended to access networks and provide a level of control similar to physical unbundling combined with a flexibility similar to bitstream. It would allow more competition over a single open ultra broadband network shared at logical level instead of physical. 12
A New Ladder of investment for any service provider Investment National Regional Metropolitan Local central office Market could be open to any service provider (and not only Telcos) to give equal opportunity to deliver services directly to users with proper SLAs National Regional Metropolitan Metropolitan Beneficial to increasing uptake and fostering digital service competition IPstream Bitstream Wavelength Time Outpace the net neutrality debate Each access network should be backhauled to regional IXPs 13
NETWORK EVOLUTIONS Virtual access From access remedies to supporting future services with assured QoS and end-toend SLA (e-health, smart cities, IoT, Industry 4.0 ) Over wireline and wireless networks (technology-agnostic) Providing also mobile backhaul and leased lines Physical access 8 wavelength pairs with TWDM-PON: per operator, per customer type, per addressable market, load balancing, power saving, increased symmetrical bitrates Lower outside plant costs: single fibre access plant and reduction of Points of Interconnection (PoIs) Investment Access is key to service providers which have more buying power Service take-ups drive innovation and network investment Requirement for a cross industry level-playing field ladder of investment for increased investment 14
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