AT&T (NYSE:T) plans to conduct a 10 Gbps XGS-PON field trial in late 2017. The company intends to virtualize access functions within the last-mile network.
The PON trial is intended to give consumer and business customers multi-gigabit per second Internet speeds, with the goal of supporting the merging of all services on a single network, including 5G wireless infrastructure.
"Software-defined networks and XGS-PON are a natural step along the evolutionary path of PON technology," said Eddy Barker, assistant vice president, Access Architecture and Design, AT&T. "This is another way we're enhancing our network and staying ahead of changing consumer and business needs."
XGS-PON is a fixed wavelength symmetrical 10 Gbps passive fiber-optic network technology. It's designed to coexist with current GPON technology and to provide four times the existing downstream bandwidth at the same cost as GPON.
AT&T plans to put some of XGS-PON in the cloud with software to save time needed to manage, deliver, monitor, troubleshoot and provide care services.
The company worked with ON.Lab to develop and test ONOS (Open Network Operating System) and VOLTHA (Virtual Optical Line Terminator Hardware Abstraction) software.