Recently, China Mobile Guangdong completed the pilot test first in China for Next Generation PON-50G PON features on the live network in Jinhai Building, Tianhe District, Guangzhou. The test result shows that the 50G PON solution can fully meet the requirements of multiple application scenarios such as 8K and XR in the future.

On September 2021, the 50G PON international standard was approved by ITU-T, indicating that 50G PON has become the evolution target of the next generation PON technology. China Mobile has been actively promoting the 50G PON technology and its industry applications, and conducted tests and verification in due time. In September 2022, to further test the technology maturity and demonstrate the application of 50G PON in multiple scenarios, China Mobile Guangdong and China Mobile Group Research Institute set up an E2E “50G PON + SPN” pilot test on the live network in Guangzhou, to test the capabilities of the next-generation intelligent optical access network, such as high bandwidth and low latency.

According to the test results, the 50G PON prototype achieves a full downstream line rate of 50 Gbps, a service transmission rate of about 41 Gbps, and an average upstream latency of about 80us. The service transmission rate is more than four times that of the current XG-PON, and the upstream latency is reduced by more than 50%. The technical specifications of 50G PON set strict requirements on the transmit power, receive sensitivity, and processing performance of optical modules. The 50G PON prototype tested this time uses innovative materials, multi-layer reflection to absorption photons, and high-speed oDSP to make breakthroughs in this technical field. In addition, the 50G PON system can smoothly reuse the existing ODN infrastructure of the GPON/XG-PON network, protecting operators’ investment in fiber infrastructure.

New features such as high bandwidth and low latency verified in the pilot test of China Mobile Guangdong can fully meet the requirements of new service scenarios such as 8K, XR, industrial Internet, and industry digitalization for network access capabilities, and meet the requirements of future network application development, paving the way for 10Gbps home access in the future. China Mobile will continue to work with industry chain partners to promote 50G PON standardization and commercialization, and promote the development and maturity of next-generation optical access networks.