Nokia and NBN Co today announced the deployment of Nokia’s next-generation broadband platform and its Altiplano Access Controller to deliver a smarter, faster and greener nbn® network. The deployment is the first for the Lightspan MF-14 in the Southern Hemisphere.
With unmatched capacity, space efficiency, low latency, intelligence, reliability and power efficiency, the MF-14 will help nbn address Australia’s broadband needs well into the future and help the company realise their Toward Zero Carbon Ambition.
Nokia’s Altiplano Access Controller is a software-defined (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) tool used to drive greater automation and virtualization. It enables innovation in the way the network is managed with an open API to automate and program the network.
nbn recently welcomed the Australian Government’s commitment to invest an additional $2.4 billion to roll out more fiber to communities across Australia. The new investment will enable an additional 1.5 million homes and businesses currently served by Fiber to the Node (FTTN) to upgrade to Fiber to the Premises (FTTP). Coupled with the additional homes and businesses connected by fiber, nbn is evolving the FTTP technology platform to enable higher speed services and has recently successfully completed lab evaluations of 25Gbps FTTP technology.
Full fiber connections will help deliver faster broadband speeds, better reliability and energy efficiency , as well as support additional data capacity for the nbn network. These upgrades will help ensure eligible customers can more effectively work from home and operate online businesses, participate in online education, engage in telehealth consultations, stream entertainment and connect with friends and family.
nbn will be the first operator in the Southern Hemisphere to adopt the MF-14 platform following announcements by US and UK operators in October 2022. Deployment will commence in 2023.
Stephen Rue, CEO at nbn, said: “Rapid technological advances will play a critical role in driving the economic prosperity of our nation and in enabling our transition to a smarter, digitally enabled economy. By leading the deployment of this next-generation technology, we can help meet our nation’s data demands now and into the future.
“Together with our network investment that is pushing fibre deeper into communities and extending fixed wireless and satellite coverage and capabilities, we are helping unlock social and economic benefits for households, businesses and communities across Australia.
“More than 8.5 million households and businesses are connected to services over the nbn network – this equates to approximately 20 million people relying on our network every day.”
Ricky Corker, Chief Customer Experience Officer at Nokia, said: “Nokia and nbn have been partners for more than 10 years and we’re excited to continue to support nbn in this next technological evolution, deploying more advanced and energy-efficient networking technology. Using Nokia’s advanced fiber technology coupled with our network optimization and automation capabilities, Nokia and nbn can meet customer demand for a faster, smarter, greener broadband network today and well into the future.”
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Lightspan MF-14, the world’s first Gen 6 optical line terminal (OLT)
The industry is entering a ‘fiber-for-everything’ era. Once operators have deployed fiber-to-the-home, their networks pass every other building in the street, as well as the homes, meaning they can connect businesses and other services. Fiber PON will be capable of supporting high bandwidth consumer services, industry 4.0 applications, business connectivity, 5G transport and smart city services. This creates more revenue opportunities, lowers TCO and significantly reduces overall power consumption.
This new broadband era, designated Broadband 6 by the World Broadband Association (WBBA), requires a new technical solution. Nokia’s pioneering Lightspan MF-14 is the first Gen 6 optical line terminal (OLT) in the world.
Based on new, advanced hardware and disaggregated software design, MF-14 is a generation leap in fiber access solutions and the only solution ready for mass delivery of 25G, 50G and 100G PON services..
