G.fast Speeds Toward Certification

The University of New Hampshire InterOperabilty Laboratory (UNH-IOL) said it’s making progress with a certification program tied to G.fast, an emerging standard that will bring gigabit speeds to DSL networks and help telcos better compete against cable’s DOCSIS platform. 

At this week’s  Broadband World Forum in London,  UNH-IOL said it will demo G.fast interoperability to deliver 4K. Additionally, it announced a seventh G.fast “plugfest” set for November. 

UNH-IOL said it’s on target to launch the certification program in the first half of 2016, with the first certified devices expected to emerge sometime next year. So far, more than a dozen companies have engaged with the organization’s certification beta program. 

On the product front, Sckipio Technologies announced that its latest G.fast technology can deliver up to 2 Gbps by bonding two copper pairs to a single G.fast-enabled CPE. The company , which teamed up ith Calix, also claimed that its bonding technique can hit more than 1 Gbps in aggregate throughput across a distance of 300 meters. 

“Bonding is an important requirement, especially with North American operators,” said David Baum, co-founder and CEO of Sckipio Technologies, in a statement. “Service providers need the ability to deliver fiber-like speeds to address regulatory and competitive challenges. Even better, Sckipio allows the service provider to provision such performance only where necessary – keeping overall CapEx and OpEx costs low when gigabit speeds are not required.”

Broadcom, meanwhile,  announced VDSL2 35b and G.fast bonding support for two new protocols under development in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Broadcom said it’s supporting an end-to-end solution for G.fast bonding utilizing the existing BCM65244 infrastructure DSP with the newly-released BCM65249 bonded CPE PHY device.