May 25, 2009

ZTE Launches Symmetrical 10G EPON Equipment Prototype

ZTE has launched a prototype of the world's first symmetrical 10G EPON equipment at the China FTTH Summit 2009 as well as OLT equipment that supports symmetrical 10G EPON and a series of ONU products.

Symmetrical 10G EPON technology is a new-generation PON technology withboth upstream and downstream access rates reaching 10Gbps. It is the mainstream next-generation PON technical standard generally recognized by international standard organisations. Since its upstream bandwidth is10 times larger than with asymmetrical 10G EPON technology, it is much more effective in terms of application capabilities and development potential.

Demand for optical access is being accelerated by the global trend towards broadband implementation. The launch of ZTE's symmetrical 10G EPON prototype marks the emergence of 10G EPON technology as the first mature standard ofnext-generation PON technologies.  The IEEE 802.3av 10G EPON standard will be formally published in September this year. Currently the 10G EPON industry chain has entered a rapid development stage, with operators, equipment vendors, chip vendors and optical module manufacturers all actively helping to push the R&D of this technology. It is expected that 10G EPON will enter the large-scale commercial deployment stage within one to two years.

ZTE is a leader in optical access equipment research and has deployed its OLT, MDU, and SFU/HGU series products in many global operators' networks. It is the sole system vendor with more than 12 million commercial PON ports in use.

ZTE has for many years been actively engaged in R&D relating to 10G EPON standards and equipment. With the launch of the world's first asymmetrical 10G EPON equipment prototype at the Beijing International Telecommunications Exhibition in October 2008 and now of the symmetrical 10G EPON equipment prototype, ZTE has drawn a clear FTTX construction blueprint for operators to smoothly evolve from EPON into 10G EPON.

ZTE had the industry's first unified optical access platform supporting EPON, GPON and next-generation PON (10G PON). On the same platform, ZTE has now developed a symmetrical 10G EPON board with a symmetrical 10GEPON port that complies with the IEEE 802.3av standard. This port can support 1G EPON ONU, asymmetrical 10G EPON ONU, and symmetrical 10G EPON ONU on the same ODN, providing the ideal solution for operators to smoothly evolve from EPON to 10G EPON. ZTE has also launched a symmetrical 10G EPON ONU product.

Mr. Xu Ming, Vice President of ZTE Corporation said that it is imperative that the industry promotes the application of symmetrical 10G EPON next-generation optical access products, since the worldwide broadband user base is expected to increase by 10 times every five years. ZTE has invested significant R&D resources to achieve the launch of the 10G EPON equipment prototype, which the company believes is a milestone for the optical access industry.


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