China Telecom Delivers World-First 50G-PON Live Network Coverage, Industry-Leading "Dual-10G City" Initiative Rolling Out in Shanghai

The 6th China Information and Communication Conference (CICC) was jointly held in Shanghai by China Institute of Communications (CIC), Shanghai Communications Administrations, and other institutions in Shanghai. During the "Digital Information Infrastructure & Key Technologies" workshop at the conference, Zhang Jianping, Deputy Chief Engineer of China Telecom Shanghai (Shanghai Telecom for short) delivered a keynote speech entitled "Computing Network Powered by Cloud-Network Convergence and 10G City". In his speech, he shared the innovative practices in building a 10G city using 50G-PON.

Shanghai Telecom is the world's first to cover thousands of live-network users with 50G-PON and tackle the technical challenges in smooth upgrade from 10G-EPON to 50G-PON, providing many best practices for large-scale 50G-PON deployment on the live network. 10G all-optical access based on 50G-PON can provide ultra-large broadband, ultra-low latency, and ultra-high stability, which are required by digital services on next-generation computing networks. China Telecom Research Institute, Shanghai Telecom, and industry ecosystem partners took part in the deployment of 50G-PON, which consolidates China Telecom's leadership in 50G-PON optical access and is essential to the digital transformation of Shanghai into a world-class 10G city.

50G-PON is a next-generation PON technology defined by the ITU-T and supports ubiquitous 10Gbps all-optical access. China Telecom has been exploring PON technologies for years. In 2016, the operator started the pre-research of the next-generation PON technology, jointly initiated the 50G-PON standard with ITU-T, and spearheaded the formulation of requirement standard G.9804.1 as well as the G.9805 standard for multi-generation PON coexistence. China Telecom also proposed the solution for coexistence of 2–3 generations of PONs. In September 2022, led by China Telecom, ITU-T completed the standard revision for coexistence of GPON, XG(S)-PON, and 50G-PON. In September 2023, the standard revision for coexistence of EPON, 10G-EPON, and 50G-PON was also completed, laying a solid foundation for PONs in different generations to evolve to 50G-PON.

In addition to 50G-PON standardization, China Telecom has been promoting relevant solution applications in a number of industries. In 2022, China Telecom worked with industry partners to conduct 50G-PON prototype verification on key features such as power budget, rate, and wavelength. This year, China Telecom continues to promote the 50G-PON solution in a range of scenarios. Shanghai Telecom completed the technical verification for 10G-EPON and 50G-PON coexistence in April, released the 50G-PON All-Optical 10Gbps Development White Paper in May, and demonstrated innovative services enabled by 50G-PON at the Shanghai Mobile World Congress in June. In July, China Telecom Research Institute completed the world's first technical verification for GPON, XG-PON, and 50G-PON coexistence. In November, the institute teamed up with Shanghai Telecom in the innovative practice of 50G-PON coverage for thousands of live-network users. Through such efforts, China Telecom promotes the maturity of the industry chain and expedites 50G-PON deployment and applications.

50G-PON not only increases the bandwidth, but also reduces 10-time latency and improves 10-fold reliability, enabling superior deterministic experience for many industries. With 50G-PON 10Gbps all-optical access, users can enjoy digital services — such as 3D display, free-viewpoint video/live streaming, network attached storage (NAS), and ultra-fast cloud gaming — all from the comfort of their homes. Enterprises can deploy 50G-PON to implement Wi-Fi 7 backhaul, use mixed reality (MR) and other new terminals concurrently, realize smooth terminal collaboration online, and invoke computing services such as cloud rendering at any time. Furthermore, all-optical 10G can enhance the city digital infrastructure, give full play to comprehensive bearing capabilities, provide highly reliable private network services, and support the construction of smart cities.

The 50G-PON deployment by Shanghai Telecom is an industry milestone. In the future, Shanghai Telecom will continue to promote the commercial use of 50G-PON, explore its commercial value for numerous industries, and use 50G-PON to build the all-optical base for dual-10G cities. Moving forward, 50G-PON will support the advancement of computing networks and lead industry development towards ubiquitous 10G and intelligence.