The ‘Fiber Fingerprint’ trial provides visibility into the passive, ‘dark’ optical distribution network to improve use of resources and troubleshooting
Turkcell has teamed up with ZTE to trial what they claim is Europe’s first so-called Fiber Fingerprint trial. It aims to overcome one of the biggest challenges in Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology – the inability to remotely monitor passive topology, unlike active equipment. Given the unpowered nature of the components, cracking this problem will help operators evolve their optical access networks into intelligent end-to-end infrastructures.
The trial was deployed at Turkcell Kartal Plaza, leveraging ZTE’s Fiber Fingerprint line card, external optical multiplexer with an integrated optical switch and Fiber Fingerprint splitter. Even though this was only a lab trial, Turkcell said that with some enhancements, it believes this product has “tremendous potential.”
Dark pipes
Traditionally, optical access and optical distribution networks (ODNs) have functioned as passive ‘dark’ pipelines, presenting ongoing challenges in resource updates, fault detection and proactive assessment of optical path quality. ZTE’s Fiber Fingerprint solution has intelligent ODN to overcome these limitations, providing accurate status reports of optical splitter port, intelligent restoration of network topology and precise detection and localisation of quality issues and faults in the optical path.
The solution lights up the ‘dark’ ODN with an approach for visualising the ODN’s topology, making better use of splitter port resources, while locating faults, precisely and fast.
Turkcell said during the trials, there were improvements across multiple ODN application scenarios. They included identifying weak-light faults in feeder, distribution and drop segments bto improve the network’s reliability. The network’s topology was automatically refreshed after new optical network terminal (ONT) registrations, streamlining network management.
ONT information and connection relationships were displayed accurately, contirbuting to more efficient network operations. Finally, the system detected and classed the status of splitter ports as occupied, idle, directly connected to ONTs, or virtually occupied.
Next steps
Turkcell and ZTE will continue refining algorithms for better system performance, apply the Fiber Fingerprint solution to more applications and accelerate the integration of digital intelligence into ODN infrastructure.
“The successful trial of the Fiber Fingerprint solution signifies a pivotal advancement in our efforts to transform the…ODN…infrastructure into a more intelligent and reliable system,” said Turkcell’a Chief Network Technologies Officer Prof Dr Vehbi Çağrı Güngör (pictured above). “This innovation addresses longstanding challenges in network management while paving the way for a future characterised by seamless connectivity.”
“Partnering with Turkcell on Europe’s first Fiber Fingerprint trial demonstrates our shared vision of building intelligent and efficient network infrastructures,” said ZTE’s SVP and Chairman, Netaş Peng Aiguang. “This solution brings transformative value by enabling precise fault detection, resource optimisation and proactive maintenance. Together with Turkcell, we are setting a new benchmark for ODN evolution and digital transformation.”
