Analyst Show Flashes from The 5th annual FTTH Council Europe conference took place in Paris this year. It attracted more the 2,000 visitors who had a chance to listen to 80 speakers, or view the latest products from 60 companies. The FTTH (Fibre-to-the-Home) Council's mission is to promote the development and deployment of fibre-based broadband access networks. Current Analysis Senior Analyst for Broadband Infrastructure, Erik Keith, was there and wrote three intelligence reports on announcements made at the show. Highlights from these reports appear below. Clients with a subscription to our Broadband Infrastructure module can read the full report by clicking the Client Access links. |
Contents
| ► | Alcatel-Lucent Ups the Ante in the GPON Game with 250-Gbps Boost |
| ► | ECI Expands its Fiber Access Portfolio with FTTB ONUs |
| ► | PacketFront Looks to Accelerate IPTV Service Quality with RPM Feature |
Alcatel-Lucent Ups the Ante in the GPON Game with 250-Gbps Boost
| Analyst: Erik Keith | Broadband Infrastructure | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
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February 28, 2008 -- Alcatel-Lucent announced important capacity innovations to its 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU) GPON platform at the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council Europe’s annual conference. The newest release features a 250-Gbps switching capacity per network termination (NT) module and it supports load sharing between the two NTs in a single shelf. New uplink capacity – with two 10-Gbps and two 1-Gbps uplinks per NT – provides non-blocking throughput that enables high-bandwidth, converged triple play services to consumers as well as business customers.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Positive on Alcatel-Lucent’s introduction of the 250 Gbps switching capacity upgrade to its network termination (NT) module and related capacity/throughput increases (i.e., the two 10-Gbps and two 1-Gbps uplinks per NT), as this upgrade will provide operators with the additional bandwidth/processing overhead necessary for supporting large-scale triple play services, especially in terms of supporting bandwidth and QoS/QoE-intensive applications such as multi-stream HDTV and ultra-broadband data connectivity per household.
• Vendor Importance: High to Alcatel-Lucent, which, despite its long-time market leadership in the global DSL access market and its corollary success in the emerging FTTx/FTTP sector, still needed to bolster its “speeds and feeds” proposition for its flagship 7342 FTTU OLT platform, in order to match or beat the throughput and switching capacities of rival platforms that assert higher metrics. This move also ensures that Alcatel-Lucent remains on the leading edge of the FTTP market from a technology and service-delivery standpoint.
• Market Impact: Very high on the fiber access market, because despite the claims of rival vendors as GPON and FTTH market leaders (i.e., in terms of port shipments and/or subscribers supported), the bottom line is that Alcatel-Lucent is still the vendor to beat in the worldwide wireline broadband access market. This is due not only to its pioneering efforts in the telco broadband market, but also its clear long-term commitment to this sector, as shown by its decade-plus leadership in the DSL market (with approximately 160 million DSL ports shipped to date), its ongoing product development, and its opportunities to upgrade its installed base of DSL access customers to FTTx and FTTP networks.
ECI Expands its Fiber Access Portfolio with FTTB ONUs
| Analyst: Erik Keith | Broadband Infrastructure | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
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February 27, 2008 – ECI Telecom announced new optical network units (ONUs), specifically targeting fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) market. The G-PoweRAM 48V, which features GPON network uplink connectivity to the building and VDSL2 within the premises, supports up to 48 subscribers. The MiniCAB 8V supports up to eight subscribers and can be deployed with either a GigE or GPON uplink, along with VDSL2 subscriber interfaces. Both platforms will be available in Q2 2008.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on ECI Telecom’s introduction of the two new FTTB ONU boxes, as the market for FTTB solutions is reaching an inflection point of operator demand for these types of platforms, especially in Europe and Asia, where high-density, multi-dwelling units (MDUs) are pervasive and the vast majority of populations live in MDUs (e.g., in Germany, 70% of the population lives in MDUs).
• Vendor Importance: Very high to ECI, as the company needs to make every effort to broaden its customer presence in the next-generation (FTTx) access market, because despite its success in the DSL market during the last five or six years, ECI is in danger of becoming marginalized as a competitor in this sector due to both: 1) the consolidation of most of its direct rivals, and 2) corollary and continuing revenue erosion/margin compression in the wireline access space. The FTTB sector may be one of ECI’s best bets for remaining competitive in the broadband market moving forward.
• Market Impact: Moderate on the overall fiber access market, because while ECI has generated notable success in the wireline broadband access market with customers including Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Telecom Italia (as well as ChungHwa Telecom in Taiwan), the battle for retaining its market presence will not get any easier. ECI has generated some recent success in the GPON market with announced customers in Norway (Fibra Networks) and in France by Tutor, supporting the city of Nancy (CUGN – “Communauté Urbaine du Grand Nancy”).
PacketFront Looks to Accelerate IPTV Service Quality with RPM Feature
| Analyst: Erik Keith | Broadband Infrastructure | Client Access |
Announcement Summary
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February 21, 2008 -- PacketFront is launching the real-time protocol monitoring (RPM) feature that allows network owners to monitor, in real time, the TV quality in broadband networks, thereby ensuring higher service quality and faster and more efficient trouble shooting of IPTV streams as well as removing the need for investment in external probes and tools and related labor costs. The RPM feature will be available with the ASR 5000 FTTH platform during the spring of 2008.
Analytical Summary
• Current Perspective: Slightly positive on PacketFront’s introduction of its real-time protocol monitoring (RPM) feature, which the company has incorporated into its ASR5000 FTTH platform. This may prove to be a key differentiator for PacketFront vis-à-vis FTTH solutions from rival vendors, since the differentials between access platform hardware are sometimes very difficult to quantify. From the operator/customer perspective, the RPM feature increases the appeal of the ASR5000 solution, and from a competitor standpoint, it serves notice to rival vendors that PacketFront has expanded the scope of its software-centric differentiation efforts in order to remain a solid contender in the fiber-based access market.
• Vendor Importance: High to PacketFront, which needed to improve its advanced services delivery/support proposition in the next-generation (IP/Ethernet) broadband infrastructure market. With the RPM feature, PacketFront now offers operators a high-value test and measurement capability that is integrated into the ASR5000 access router, as opposed to yet another “add-on” tool that requires both incremental capital investment and employee training.
• Market Impact: Moderate on the overall FTTH market, because when the RPM feature becomes generally available this spring – and even with its moderate level of success as a FTTH supplier, primarily in European open access/active Ethernet networks – PacketFront remains one of the smaller contenders in the overall next-generation broadband infrastructure market. The RPM capability, while undoubtedly improving the company’s competitive positioning, will not result in a dramatic gain in customer/market traction by PacketFront.
