The vendor’s suite of fixed access and IP network products plus professional services will help the German altnet design an optimised, “highly automated network”
Deutsche Glasfaser says it has partnered Nokia to further its ambition of tripling its installed base of 2 million homes passed. Deutsche Glasfaser is funded to the time of €7 billion investment by its owners EQT and Omers.
The two plan to build a country-wide fibre broadband network in Germany, using Nokia’s suite of fixed access and IP network products. This includes supporting Gigabit passive optical networks (GPON), 10Gbps Symmetrical PON (XGS-PON) and 25G PON on the same fibre, along with its Broadband Network Gateways (BNG).
Nokia’s kit will replace two competitors’ installed basis of IP core, BNG and edge routers including related services.
Design and validate
The vendor will lead the design and validation of Deutsche Glasfaser’s new network architecture, customise its IP domain controller (or Network Service Platform) and the fixed access domain controller (Altiplano Access Controller). Nokia will also deploy services for the installation and the commissioning of its own systems.
Pascal Koster, COO at Deutsche Glasfaser, commented, “10 Gbps XGS-PON access technology will be deployed as standard across our network from April 2024 onwards in partnership with Nokia. The first XGS-PON customer connections are already live in the area of Neuwied…[introducing] symmetrical broadband services up to 10 Gbps for homes and business.”
The picture shows Linz am Rhein in the district of Neuwald, in the Rheinland Palatinate.
Looking to the future
He said that Nokia’s Internet Protocol Multi-Protocol Label Switching (IP MPLS) systems are ready to carry traffic are 800Gbps when the appropriate time comes. Also, that its optical line terminal and Quillion chipset will “future proof our fibre network”. The Altiplano and NSP controller support the operator’s plans “to ease and highly automate network operations across the entire region”.
Matthieu Bourguignon, SVP and Head of Europe Business, Network Infrastructure at Nokia, added, “Deutsche Glasfaser has been a customer of our FTTH access equipment since 2017, so this is a valuable seal of approval to extend our partnership to the IP domain.”