Several communications operators and vendors have joined the board of directors of the NG-PON2 Forum, the non-profit organization announced yesterday.Operators joining the board include Verizon, NTT and Vodafone. Vendors joining the board include Ericsson, Calix, Altice Labs and Adtran.
Established in April, NG-PON2 Forum promotes the adoption of NG-PON2 passive optical broadband networking technology, which in lab trials has transported digital data at 10 Gbps bi-directionally.
Verizon was testing next-generation PON technology in the field as far back as 2010. On July 21, Verizon announced it would test NG-PON2 technology from Adtran and Calix with an eye towards upgrading to the new technology.
ITU-T recently approved the multi-wavelength aspect of the TWDM portion of NG-PON2 (ITU-T G.989 series), the industry association notes.
NG-PON2 Forum Goals
NG-PON2 Forum said in its press release that it aims to reduce costs and boost deployments by:
- Driving a converged optical access network architecture and FTTP market development;
- Supporting all existing and upcoming broadband service offerings and the ever-increasing bandwidth demand;
- Supporting and promoting new applications;
- Supporting and promoting innovative technology advances in the broadband access market;
- Driving NG-PON2 enhancements such as Channel Bonding and higher rate options through the standards;
- Fostering evolution of NG-PON2 to meet the continued needs of consumers and businesses.
Following is a list of NG-PON2 Forum board members:
- Bernd Hesse, President and Founder of NG-PON2 Forum, is also Team Lead Engagement Practices for Access, Mobile Backhaul and Transport Networks in Ericsson
- Michael Horn, Co-founder of NG-PON2 Forum, is also vice president of strategic alliances for Calix
- Vincent O’Byrne, Director of Technology at Verizon
- Bruno Cornaglia: Fixed Access Senior Manager, Vodafone Group
- Jun-ichi Kani, Senior Research Engineer, Supervisor, and Distinguished Researcher in NTT Access Network Service Systems Laboratories, NTT Corporation.
- Paulo Mão-Cheia: head of Unit GPON, FTTx and QoS Probing at Altice Labs.
- Robert Conger: Adtran AVP of Cloud and Portfolio Strategy
