Archived Newsroom • Press Release |
|
New ITU broadband standard fast-tracks route to 1Gbit/s
G.fast capitalizes on existing copper to deliver fibre speeds at lower costs
Geneva, 11 December, 2013 – ITU membership has reached
first-stage approval of G.fast, the new ITU broadband standard capable of
achieving access speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s over existing telephone wires. Within
250-metre range of a distribution point, G.fast’s fibre-like speeds give service
providers a tool to supplement and further monetize fibre to the home (FTTH)
strategies with the customer self-installation benefits of ADSL2.
G.fast, within the fibre to the distribution point (FTTdp) architecture,
combines the best aspects of fibre and ADSL2. Consumers will have an
over-the-counter solution, self-installed without a technician’s assistance, but
equipped to support bandwidth-intensive services such as Ultra-HD ‘4K’ or ‘8K’
streaming and IPTV, advanced cloud-based storage, and communication via HD
video.
The physical-layer protocol aspects of G.fast defined by Recommendation ITU-T
G.9701 “Fast Access to Subscriber Terminals - Physical layer specification” have
reached the point of stability required to initiate the standard’s approval
procedure. Chip manufacturers will now scale-up G.fast chip design and testing
efforts, feeding results of this work into
ITU-T
Study Group 15 in the interests of finalizing G.fast as early as
April 2014.
Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, Secretary-General, ITU: “From ADSL in 1999 to G.fast in
2014, ITU-standardized DSL solutions have multiplied access speeds by a factor
of 125 over the past 15 years. It is to the credit of ITU’s membership and the
dedication of engineers working in our study groups that ITU standards continue
to maximize returns on investment in legacy ICT infrastructure.”
ITU-T G.9701 is on track to achieving final approval in conjunction with
ITU-T G.9700, which specifies methods to ensure that G.fast equipment will not
interfere with broadcast services such as FM radio (first-stage approval
reported in an ITU press release
here).
The G.fast project has attracted active participation from a large number of
leading service providers, chip manufacturers, and system vendors. Companies
involved in its development have already confirmed the standard’s
gigabit-per-second capability through lab and field trials using prototype
equipment based on mature drafts of the standard.
Service providers will benefit from ‘zero touch’ operations, administration
and management; easing migrations to G.fast and increasing the speed of
new-service rollouts. G.fast is designed to coexist with VDSL2, enabling service
providers to play to the strengths of each standard in different environments;
switching customers between G.fast and VDSL2 in line with dynamic business
models. The standard will complement FTTH strategies, serving the many scenarios
where G.fast is more cost-efficient than FTTH.
Tom Starr, Chairman of Working Party 1, ITU-T Study Group 15, the expert
group overseeing ITU-T standardization of access solutions: “G.fast’s
development has followed an intensive work plan, meeting ambitious
time-to-market objectives. The standard will enable service providers to deliver
fibre-like performance more quickly and more affordably than with any other
approach.”
Les Brown, Associate Rapporteur of the G.fast Experts Group: “G.fast provides
the speed of fibre with the ease of installation of ADSL2. The solution is as
compelling to consumers as it is to service providers, coexisting with VDSL2 and
complementing FTTH.”
The development of the G.fast standard has been coordinated with
Broadband Forum’s
system architecture project, Fibre to the Distribution Point (FTTdp). Broadband
Forum has begun developing a testing suite for G.fast systems, which will
include test plans for interoperability events, system performance and
functional testing; alongside a framework whitepaper, and possibly also a
certification programme. ITU-T and Broadband Forum have been working in close
collaboration to ensure that G.fast solutions can be quickly placed into FTTdp
deployments.
View a video interview with Frank van der
Putten, Rapporteur, Question 4, ITU-T Study Group 15: http://youtu.be/bXg_vRaFBpg
For more information, please contact:
Paul Conneally
Head, Communications
|
Toby Johnson
Communication Officer
|
|
About ITU...