Broadband Forum News - March 2025

The Headlines

CEO’s note

PON was a key theme in many of Broadband Forum’s activities last month, which included product interoperability testing and a number of educational webinars!

We brought our members together for a successful PON Plugfest at AT&T Labs, part of our interoperability testing series. We also hosted a vBASe webinar, offering insights into the current state of PON technologies and the critical requirements—such as bandwidth and latency—needed to support effective service delivery across diverse market segments.

We look forward to seeing you in Hong Kong for our Spring Member Meeting next week. This will mark the official launch of our newly structured work areas, including the brand-new Service Requirements Work Area. Our Town Hall Innovation Series will focus on what the future residential and business end-to‑end service requirements are and how network operators and broadband service providers can guarantee the appropriate Quality of Experience (QoE).

We will also be holding a special open Service Provider Action Council session on ‘Wholesale Access Services’. The session is open to all BBF members and to non-BBF members as invited guests.

Craig Thomas, CEO at Broadband Forum

Contribute to the future of broadband and work with the Broadband Forum!

Broadband Forum’s upcoming Spring Member Meeting 2025 and Town Hall Innovation Series focusing on End-to-End Quality of Experience will take place in Hong Kong, from March 11-14. There’s still time to secure your spot! Complete the registration for the Spring Meeting here, and for the Town Hall Innovation Series, here.
Network operators and ISPs are invited to discuss standardization gaps needed to support ‘Open Access’ and wholesale markets at special open Service Provider Action Council (SPAC) session during the Spring Member Meeting. Register today.
The BASe Technical Summit 2025 is taking place right after the BBF Summer Member meeting on June 26^th & 27th. Save the dates for this unique face-to-face event that will examine the future of technology innovation and current industry challenges. You can also submit your speaking proposal here or contact Tiffany Groves for more information.
The next edition of Fiberdays features an agenda packed with expert-led seminars and panels over the course of two days in Frankfurt, Germany, from 2-3 April. Learn more about the event and get your ticket here.

News and updates

Broadband Forum recently announced its work areas to ensure every new project and specification focuses on enabling services-led and intelligent broadband that provides the applications and services most demanded by users. Read the full announcement featured in The Fast Mode.
Broadband Forum’s Service Requirements Work Area Director Manuel Paul discussed the role of the work area in bridging the gap between user needs and technical innovation for services-led broadband, in a recent blog. You can read the blog, and watch the introductory webinar recording here.
Broadband Forum has launched three new open broadband projects to provide blueprints for application providers and BSPs to deliver an improved user experience, including reduced latency, and a wider choice of in-home applications. Read more about the new OB-CAS, OB-STAMP and OB-STEER projects here.
OB-STEER will deliver greater efficiencies and traffic optimization within the network to help preserve the end-user’s experience. You can read a blog on the project from OB-STEER project lead Hagen Woesner here.
Broadband Forum Access Work Area Co-Director Marta Seda highlighted that the industry must prioritize interoperability, co-existence, and industry collaboration to pave the way for easier PON network upgrades. You can read the full blog to learn more about the important role of open standards and testing in the next generation of PON technologies, here.
There is still time to register your virtual attendance for the QoE-focused Town Hall Innovation Series in Hong Kong! You can read a preview of the upcoming presentations, as well as a reflection on the sessions from the Fall 2024 Meeting in a blog by Broadband Forum Director of Marketing, Ken Pyle, here.

Technology Spotlight: PON

The debate over fiber broadband, particularly regarding PON versus point-to-point fiber, has largely been settled in modern networks. The Broadband Forum’s current and future standards work will focus on expanding PON use cases beyond residential connectivity, enabling faster services and more application intelligent PON.

Future PON standards from the ITU and other standards development organizations will shape co-existence and interoperability needs, influencing operators’ investment decisions beyond 50G-PON. While today’s PON technologies can share the same fiber, long-term planning requires careful consideration of which technologies to deploy or decommission.

Today we are already running interoperability plugfests and co-existence trials for XGS-PON, 25GS-PON, and 50G-PON. Future PON and coherent PON solutions will have to planned for and the added complexities they bring. Broadband Forum’s open standards and testing programs ensure that the industry prioritizes interoperability, co-existence, and collaboration to help BSPs excel with the next generation of PON technologies. To learn more about the current state of PON, check out last week’s popular vBASe webinar on the topic.

Upcoming events

Get involved in our most recent projects!

BUS: Conformance Test Plan for USP Agents Amendment 4 (DTP-469): the new amendment adds new test cases based on the changes and updates in USP 1.4.

FAN: TP-255 Issue 3: G-PON & XG-PON & XGS-PON & 25GS-PON & 50G-PON Interoperability Test Plan: the project describes a series of test cases that may be used to verify the interoperability of an OLT and ONU pairing according to the functional requirements of BBF TR-156 Issue 4, ITU-T G.988 (2022), and BBF TR-280 Issue 2.

ATA: Public Wi-Fi user authentication and data local forwarding technical requirements (WT-497 Issue 2): the project will develop a third-party authentication mechanism for WLAN networks used by service providers like airports, stations, and hotels. The authentication mechanism will authenticate users via external and communicate the results to the network operator. This will ensure network operators can manage end users on the network, enhancing network security user experience.

Our latest certifications

BFF 247 GPON ONU Products (testing services provided by approved laboratory, LANPARK)

Vantiva - FGA232APTN and FGA228B
TP-Link - XX532v

Welcome new BBF members

Infosys, Windstream

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