Overview of Telecommunications Industry Development in 2017

The telecommunications industry is a hot field that is currently at the forefront of the industry. In the darkness after the bursting of the Internet bubble, the continuous technological innovations in this field have promoted new developments in the telecommunications industry.

New demands continue to emerge

Most articles describing the inevitable expansion of demand in the network start with video. Video has indeed put pressure on the bandwidth of networks that were originally designed for bandwidth-intensive media. Of course, this is not just streaming video, but also video surveillance cameras connected to the network. Network video surveillance cameras in remote areas usually require bandwidths below 1Mb/s, and as the demand for high-definition video develops, bandwidth requirements will be higher in 2018.

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The focus of non-telecom industries is on the development of next-generation mobile networks. 4G has been widely used around the world and has been upgraded incrementally on a regular basis. But the evolution to 5G is another story. Although bandwidth is an important component of 5G, 5G is more than just increasing bandwidth. 5G will enable new services on mobile networks, including processing-intensive and latency-sensitive applications such as mobile edge computing, augmented reality, and smart transportation. 5G will place demands on other parts of the network, especially the mobile backhaul network, that were not required by previous generations of wireless technology. Latency requirements will push network equipment as close to the edge of the network as possible, and centralized architectures will increase the requirements on mobile front ends, where wireless signals are collected and processed at public points rather than entirely at the base station. Multi-use networks require differentiation, and this differentiation is called network slicing, which will be a major focus of the 5G revolution in 2018.

Figure 1: So the migration of services to 5G is not just about increasing bandwidth

The Internet of Things (IoT) is another important topic of discussion in the networking industry. In 2018, the number of smart devices at the edge of the network will continue to surge, and more access devices will be connected to the network. Although most of these access devices do not require bandwidth, they all need connectivity. A network that can handle tens of thousands of connections, most of which are wireless, is very different from traditional cellular networks. Not only will connectivity become an issue, but with the application of all these new access points, security issues will become more obvious. In 2018, the telecommunications industry will pay more attention to security issues.

Faster and Faster Optical Networks

With the commercialization of 10G, 100G has begun to gradually penetrate existing networks. 100G has a faster transmission rate than 10G and has gradually entered the data center. The breakthrough that allows 100G to operate over long distances can be well extended to other rates, and higher-rate optical devices are being introduced into the network. Many manufacturers have already begun to purchase 200G products, and 400G products have also been launched and are in the trial stage.

Data center personnel don’t always need the distances and tight tolerances of carrier-grade optics, but are driving adoption of higher speed optics in a convenient pluggable format. 2018 will be the year of rapid advancement in high-speed optical networks, both for long-haul connections and for short-haul data center models.

Figure 2: Innovations in modulation formats will mean more bandwidth per wavelength

As high-speed optical networks develop, there are also some technical challenges. The most important issue is the static 50GHz spacing network defined for dense wavelength division multiplexing. DWDM is mainly a metropolitan area technology that allows more bandwidth to be provided on a single fiber and brings revolutionary changes to the way optical networks are designed. Having a standard wavelength spacing grid means interoperability between manufacturers, technology selection, and great innovation in dynamic optical networks. However, when the single wavelength speed exceeds 100G, the 50GHz spacing begins to become a problem. The bandwidth spacing required for high-speed signals will exceed 50GHz, requiring a new system network.

The industry has defined a new “flexgrid” to support scalable groups of 12.5 GHz spectrum per wavelength. If a 400G signal requires 75 GHz spacing, six 12.5 GHz signal blocks can be allocated. 1 Some 200 GHz solutions are suitable for 50 GHz spacing, while others are not, depending on the capabilities of the modulation and receiver. Flexgrid capabilities are almost universal in modern reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) hardware, but programmable flexible multiplexers/demultiplexers are less common, which means that upgrading the entire network to a flexible grid can be very complex and require replacing some passive components. 0G and 100G signals can continue to use 50 GHz (or even less) bandwidth. Some 200 GHz solutions are suitable for 50 GHz spacing, while others are not, depending on the capabilities of the modulation and receiver. Flexgrid functionality is nearly universal in modern reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) hardware, but programmable flexible multiplexers/demultiplexers are less common, meaning upgrading an entire network to a flexible grid can be complex and require replacing some passive components.

In addition, there are challenges in managing flexgrid because block definitions need to be coordinated across multiple coordination scopes. However, as optical network speeds increase, these are issues that optical network vendors need to address. Expect to see several software-defined network-based proposals, demonstrations, and solutions next year.

Improving the versatility of data packages

Packet-based networks have evolved from a variety of competing protocols in the early days to today's ubiquitous Ethernet, IP, and MPLS. However, even within this coherent technology portfolio, new technologies are still needed to improve flexibility, reliability, and security.

Carrier Ethernet technology has become the leading technology for service provider Ethernet, however, Carrier Ethernet is now being applied to a wider range of technologies. The management and service levels provided by Carrier Ethernet will enable Ethernet to begin to take over TDM in more business services. Similarly, the more scalable MPLS layer connection-oriented technology is being widely adopted in the network. MPLS-TP (Transport Protocol) has been standardized for several years and is widely used in Asia, but due to its simplicity, quality assurance and ability to coexist with IP/MPLS networks, it has now begun to increase its application in other markets.

The technology that will have the greatest impact on the communications industry in 2018 is segment routing (SR) technology. In segment routing, the external path calculation engine (PCE) assigns packet labels to the entire path of the source, and these labels are popped up in sequence as the packets traverse the network. At each node, the hardware only needs to know which label is assigned to which port, and there is no complex routing table or discovery protocol maintained locally. Segment routing is very suitable for SDN networks with external control planes and has great potential to reduce the complexity of MPLS network operations and hardware costs.

Figure 3: With SR, routes can be pre-planned via SDN and programmed into packets

Network Intelligence

The real change in the communications industry will be the control and management of telecommunications network services. Although the advantages of SDN and NFV have begun to play a role at some levels, their advantages have not yet been fully realized. In 2018, the network will become more intelligent due to the continuous development of standards and software function innovations.

In 2017, operators have begun to introduce true on-demand service capabilities, building networks that can intelligently respond to service-oriented bandwidth and connection requests. In 2018, as SDN standards continue to consolidate, these initial capabilities will be better applied. Vendors will launch multi-layered, intuitive hardware and software platforms, and interoperability work based on open standards will move from the operator's trial stage to the actual deployment stage.

The benefits of SDN go far beyond rapid service provisioning. Once network intelligence is integrated and programmable interfaces are standardized, technicians will find more ways to take advantage of network programmability.

in conclusion

Overall, 2017 was a year of advancement in telecommunications technology. At every level of the network, technological innovations are improving the functionality and capabilities of telecommunications networks. In 2018, the industry will continue to build on these capabilities and introduce more new technologies.