European telecommunications company BT announced Tuesday it has successfully completed a test using G.fast technology to deliver Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN) cellular network service over copper and said it is also testing G.fast as an access technology for broadband.
According to BT, researchers at its Adastral Park Labs in Ipswich, England, teamed up with U.S. semiconductor company Cavium to demonstrate the use of G.fast technology to transport cellular data over copper lines at speeds of 150-200 mbps.
BT said the experiment is believed to be the first of its kind.
Where a traditional approach to C-RAN requires a dedicated fiber link to connect transmitters at the top of a cell tower to signal-processing equipment deeper in the network, BT said the new technology allows for a more economic “fronthaul” connection the base station and the mobile operators’ core network, thus eliminating the need for costly investments in backhaul links.
BT said the new technology will help wireless carriers more quickly accommodate growing demand for data and will pave the way to 5G services.
“Using G.fast to deliver a cellular network is an exciting breakthrough for C-RAN and yet another world first for our team of researchers at Adastral Park,” said BT’s Managing Director for Research and Innovation Tim Whitley. “These technologies will play a key role in 4G networks and will be fundamental to 5G architectures. The trials are another step towards a fixed and mobile network which will support customers’ increasing demands for data.”
BT said Tuesday its local access network division is also exploring the use of G.fast as an access technology.
The company said trials are currently under way in Huntingdon and Gosforth, England, and Swansea in Wales. BT said the trials are significant because using G.fast on top of the current Fiber-to-the-Cabinet technology will allow the company’s Openreach broadband division to bring ultra-fast speeds to a broad footprint more quickly and cheaply.
Should the trials prove successful, BT has pledged to provide ultra-fast broadband speeds to 10 million homes by 2020 and to the majority of the United Kingdom within a decade.
