Verizon will issue a tender later this year to purchase hardware and software for the new NG-PON2 or next-generation passive optical network platform.

The proposed NG-PON2 platform can provide businesses and consumers with upload and download Internet speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), and will have the potential to increase this speed.

In fact, Verizon has completed a test of the technology on its fiber-to-the-premises network from its central office in Framingham, Mass., to a FiOS customer’s home 3 miles away as well as to a nearby business location. Verizon has also conducted extensive testing in its laboratories in Waltham, Mass.

Verizon will upgrade the FTTP network when commercial equipment is available to support business services such as switched Ethernet services.

Verizon said the technology will have the system capacity to grow to 40-80 Gbps as the market demands.

Lee Hicks, vice president of network technology for Verizon, said that this is possible by adding new colors of light onto the existing fiber, each augmenting the capacity by up to 10 Gbps.

The trial, according to Vincent O’Byrne, director of access technology for Verizon, consisted of a new optical line terminal (OLT) installed in the Verizon central office, generating four wavelengths, or colors of light, each capable of operating at 10G/2.5G.

Later versions support the same download and upload speeds of 10G/10G per color. One test transmitted the NG-PON2 signals over a fiber serving live GPON customers proving that the network can simultaneously deliver GPON and NG-PON2 on the same fiber.

Verizon has simulated a fault in the central office equipment and the customer’s ONT tuned to another wavelength, restoring its own 10G service in seconds.

The wireless service provider conducted the trial with a NG-PON2 equipment system from Cisco and PT Inovacao.

Baburajan K
[email protected]