Vodafone announced the trial of a new Passive Optical Network (PON) technology capable of delivering speeds up to 100 gigabits per second on a single wavelength 10 times faster than the most advanced networks available today.

This marks the latest industry-first in fiber access for Nokia, following breakthroughs in 10G PON, TWDM-PON, universal PON and 25G PON.

The trial took place in Vodafone’s Eschborn lab in Germany last week will accelerate the potential of fiber broadband.

Nokia Bell Labs leveraged cost-effective 25G optics in combination with digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to deliver 100 Gb/s on a single wavelength. 25G class optics are based on mature eco-system and available today.

Going beyond 25G requires advanced DSP capabilities demonstrated in this trial. Once this DSP is adopted, the steps to 50G and 100G are straightforward and could be commercially available in the second half of the decade.

The Nokia Bell Labs 100G PON prototype is the world’s first application of flexible rate transmission in a PON network. Flexible rate transmission works by grouping fiber modems (ONUs) that exhibit similar physical network characteristics and makes data transmission more efficient.

Using flexible rate transmission results in lower latency on a PON and cuts power consumption in half — two essential characteristics for fiber networks that have a rapidly growing role in the massive delivery of fixed and mobile broadband services.

Vodafone has the largest next-generation access network capability in Europe, covering 140 million homes. Vodafone’s strategy is to push fiber deeper to customers and evolve to a unified fiber-based network for access, aggregation, backhaul of cable nodes and mobile transport.

Vodafone see 100G PON as a potential way to create highly flexible and scalable PON networks that will mitigate the risk of future peak-hour congestion and enable densification of cable and mobile networks, says Gavin Young, Vodafone’s Head of Fixed Access Centre of Excellence.

Stefaan Vanhastel, chief technology officer, Fixed Networks Division, Nokia, said: “In 2020, we launched the first commercial 25G PON solution. Now, we’re delighted to show 100G technology together with Vodafone.”