Lincoln Lavoie, Principal Engineer, UNH Interoperability Labs (UNH-IOL) and Technical Chair at the Broadband Forum
The relationship between UNH Interoperability Labs (UNH-IOL) and the Broadband Forum (BBF) proves that collaborative partnerships are the foundation of exceptional progress. Over the past 25 years, our labs have supported the BBF during technological advances from ADSL (G.992.1) to the 50-gigabit PON technologies being developed today. Through these innovations, BBF’s leadership in developing network standards and promoting best practices has been a keystone in the success of our broadband community around the globe.
Mission Forward
A core tenet of the BBF mission is facilitating interoperability for broadband system components used by service providers worldwide. Throughout our partnership, our combined focus on developing industry-adopted test plans and specifications has enabled our organizations to build on each other’s strengths and provide the broadband industry with the tools needed to deliver broadband services to millions of people globally.
Since 1994 and the very beginning of BBF, connection speeds have increased from ADSL (1 Mbps) to ADSL2/2 plus (25 Mbps), VDSL2 (100+ Mbps), G.fast (1 Gbps), GPON (2.5 Gbps), and XGS-PON (10 Gbps). Other innovations include the TR-069 (CPE WAN Management) and USP (User Services Platform) management protocols. Through years of industry innovation, the BBF and UNH-IOL have worked together to develop network standards, best practices, and to provide opportunities for the broadband community to work together to ensure the interoperability of their components.
125 Plugfests in 25 Years
In collaboration with the BBF, UNH-IOL has hosted more than 125 plugfests over the past 25 years to support interoperability in the broadband community. These plugfests have helped BBF members improve their product’s interoperability with new and existing industry components while addressing the latest industry standards. In each plugfest, we brought together Broadband Forum members, along with their technologies and devices, to promote interoperability between those systems and network interfaces.
Our lab has contributed to the development of test plans, reviewed participant’s measurements, documented outcomes, provided recommendations from plugfest results, and published those outcomes to BBF members as guidelines for continued development. BBF members have used plugfest test plans and recommendations to shape their organization’s product development, leading to the wide adoption of peer-accepted standards and our community's collective success in broadband connectivity.
Driving Wi-Fi Excellence with BBF Standards
Global broadband operating communities also often require more formal testing and product certification programs. Our lab has supported the BBF community by developing testing programs and contributing to technical and program operation documentation, which later became part of the program materials used today for the BBF.369 USP Certification and BBF.398 Carrier Grade Wi-Fi programs. The BBF.398 program broke ground as the industry’s first, and still only, testing program focused exclusively on Wi-Fi performance.
Broadband operators have utilized the BBF.398 program to improve the quality of their Wi-Fi service offerings. This is especially true when experiencing increased customer support requests for Wi-Fi connectivity to meet the high-speed expectations of the service packages that customers purchased. The suppliers, in turn, have benefited from a unified approach to testing adopted by service providers worldwide. The UNH-IOL recently completed a case study on this matter with Calix, a long-time UNH-IOL participant and BBF member.
BBF.247 PON Certification Program
All of us at UNH-IOL are excited to join the BBF.247 PON certification program as an authorized testing laboratory for the BBF community and work closely with BBF's other esteemed partners. UNH-IOL anticipates running the first certification tests for ONU devices in early 2025. The availability of BBF.247 testing will augment the UNH-IOL current focus on interoperability testing according to the TR-255 PON test plan and the upcoming 25G and HSP (high-speed PON) plugfest tentatively scheduled for October 2025.
Continuing Innovation
We look forward to seeing you again at the Network X 2025 event in Paris and having you join us for BBF Innovation Demos. The forum is currently seeking use cases for the coming year’s demos. Or, if you have a testing topic you’d like to see brought into the Broadband Forum, we would love to hear from you.
Here’s to wishing BBF a happy 30th anniversary and to your continued success!
About Lincoln Lavoie
Lincoln Lavoie is a principal engineer and executive team member at UNH-IOL, where he leads the strategic and technical management of the broadband and Open-Source technology groups in the lab, including 5G/6G, Open RAN, Linux Foundation collaborations, Wi-Fi, DSL, Gfast, PON, and PoE. Lincoln is an active participant and leader in several industry organizations, such as the Broadband Forum, Linux Foundation projects, and O-RAN ALLIANCE, where he helps the communities build testing and certification programs that provide high-quality results and products to the telecommunications industry.
About UNH Interoperability Labs
The University of New Hampshire Interoperability Labs (UNH-IOL) is the foremost independent testing facility for data networking companies worldwide. UNH-IOL offers comprehensive testing services for device interoperability, conformance, and certification. IOL’s state-of-the-art laboratory and extensive experience make it a strategic resource for industry startups to Fortune 500 companies.