Why the development of optical communications is not as good as 5G, experts say: each is fighting for its own

At the 2021 China Optical Network Conference which opened yesterday, Wei Leping, a leader in the optical communications industry and a well-known expert, delivered a keynote speech and talked about this year's hot "F5G".

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F5G, or "fifth-generation fixed-line communications", corresponds to 5G (fifth-generation mobile communications). According to data, in the second half of 2019, 10 companies including China Telecom, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Huawei, Telecom Italia, and Portugal Telecom jointly initiated the establishment of the F5G working group. At the end of February 2020, ETSI announced the establishment of the fifth-generation fixed network working group (ETSI ISG F5G) to develop the definition of F5G and promote the intergenerational evolution of fixed networks.

Previously, there were 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G, but no F1G, F2G, F3G and F4G. F5G can be said to be a made-up standard. Wei Leping pointed out that the standardized and unified F5G is a necessary condition for creating a huge economic scale in the mobile communications industry.

Wei Leping believes that from now on, the direction of optical communications is getting further and further away. Each field has at least three standards, and some even have seven or eight. It is impossible to compete with the unified norms and standards of the mobile communications industry. Especially in the Chinese market, each one is fighting for itself, and the situation is very pessimistic. We need to learn from the mobile communications industry.

What is the relationship between optical communication and 5G? Wei Leping believes that the all-optical network is the best carrier for 5G and 6G, and its access part competes with 5G and 6G. The two can only be coordinated and coordinated, and each can take its own strengths without neglecting either. 5G cannot solve all problems, and optical communication will also play an important role.

In fact, as early as the 3G and 4G era, the communications industry had the slogan of "fixed-mobile convergence". But for so many years, fixed-mobile convergence has remained just a slogan, and no one has listened to anyone else's command. In the 5G era, 5G is very powerful and it is possible to unify wireless networks and fixed networks to form a brain and truly achieve convergence. Especially for industrial Internet scenarios, Wei Leping suggested that we should focus on mobile and fixed scenarios respectively, and not fight in a chaotic way.

In terms of the most critical business applications, 5G and 6G focus on small and medium screens, medium bandwidth and quality data services and short videos, while optical access focuses on large screens, high bandwidth and high quality data services and videos. This reminds me of a manufacturer demonstrating watching 4K high-definition TV over a 5G network last year...

In some business scenarios, optical fiber has been deployed and can solve the connection problem well. Why use 5G? This is a question that many industry customers are confused about under the 5G wave. Wei Leping's speech can be regarded as lifting the black cloth that 5G has covered the head of optical communication.

Wei Leping also mentioned that the all-optical network is upgrading from FTTH fiber to the home to FTTD fiber to the desktop and even FTTT fiber to the terminal. "The long-term goal of the all-optical network is to make optical sockets as ubiquitous as electrical sockets. This goal will take at least ten years or even longer to achieve in large cities."