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Multi-gig broadband spec passes interop test at Verizon

Five vendors help virtualize access network functions

Verizon is ramping up its multi-gigabit optical broadband work with interop tests for its implementation of the OpenOMCI specification.

OpenOMCI is a management specification covering the interaction between optical modems (the Optical Network Terminal, ONT) in the home and the upstream Optical Line Terminal (OLT), and is part of the multi-Gbps NG-PON2 (Next Generation Passive Optical Network 2) standardisation effort.

Announcing the interop test outcomes, Verizon explains OpenOMCI is aligned with the ITU's G.989.3 work.

OpenOMCI's role is to automate OLT-ONT interactions under software control – which puts a premium on interoperability. Verizon's partners in its recent tests were ADTRAN, Broadcom, Cortina Access, Ericsson/Calix and Intel.

The interop test covered ONT provisioning and management, and features of the transmission convergence layer features to distinguish business and residential traffic, and to support wireless transport services.

The specification, available here, explains it extends NG-PON2 to support its multi-wavelength channel architecture, its “physical media dependent” (PMD) layer specification (G.989.2) and its transmission convergence (TC) layer spec (G.989.3).

It “defines the managed entities (MEs), the ME properties (i.e., attributes, attribute values, actions, notifications) and, where necessary, ME relationship diagrams and message sequences related to NG-PON2 OMCI to ensure OMCI interoperability between different vendor’s ONTs and OLTs”, the spec document explains.

As you'd expect, Verizon is also testing management objects specific to its own services, and wants to make sure vendor-specific managed entities and other objects don't break overall interop.

Observers of the Verizon trial included Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom and Vodafone, and got access to the spec, the test plans, and the readouts.

At the end of June, AT&T announced it will be conducting its own OMCI field trials later this year.

Those trials will focus on virtualizing last-mile access network functions for the XGS-PON variant in use in AT&T's network. ®

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