The Nokia Intelligent Access suite of solutions, announced yesterday, will provide operators with better efficiency for gigabit services, the manufacturer said.
The company points out that operators have challenges in providing broadband service because they have customers with very diverse technologies, including fiber, DSL, cable and fixed wireless access.
In-home wireless has been a particularly thorny issue. According to Nokia, nearly a third (30 percent) of calls to a Communication Service Provider’s help desk are related to poor in-home wireless connectivity.
Nokia Intelligent Access seeks to solve these challenges through a set of solutions:
- A Software-Defined Access Network (SDAN) with a comprehensive set of cloud-native software, open programmable hardware and automated operations.
- A virtualized distributed access architecture and cable solution that Nokia says is the first of its kind. Nokia’s enhanced Unified Cable Access virtualized cable modem termination system gives cable operators a choice for implementing a vDAA and supports R-PHY, R-MACPHY or a combination of both
- Carrier-grade in-home Wi-Fi to deliver gigabit connectivity throughout a home
- A wireless PON solution believed to be the first in the industry, that fully integrates WiGig technology in a Passive Optical Network (PON), enabling operators to wirelessly bring gigabit services to end customers and accelerate fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments
- New fiber and high-speed DSL deployment options, including outdoor and data center fiber nodes, a 212Mhz reverse power G.fast solution and DSL backhaul remote nodes
- Predictive care services that use a set of algorithms to predict and solve issues in the network.
“The technologies, nodes, traffic and services needed to support today’s ultra-broadband requirements are adding significant complexity to the network and those who can master this complexity the fastest will come out ahead,” said Federico Guillén, president of Nokia’s Fixed Networks Business Group in a press release.
With this combination of solutions, Nokia expects network operators to be able to deliver greater bandwidth to their customers more quickly across the entire range of underlying technologies; better automate and scale the network and provide gigabit services to every home with carrier-grade meshed Wi-Fi solutions.
Nokia’s moves highlight an ongoing shift to SDAN from the broadband access gear vendor community. Key competitors including Calix and Adtran have launched their own virtualization and SDAN solutions, as historical broadband access vendors shift their focus to software-based broadband access solutions, from legacy hardware approaches.
Image courtesy of flickr user Sean MacEntee.
