Four Major Operators Collaborate through the Telecom Infra Project to Define the Next Generation of Open and Disaggregated BNG

The TIP OpenBNG Technical Requirements document is the result of the collaboration between Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom, BT, Vodafone, with large scale fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, within the Telecom Infra Project (TIP).

The document includes:

• Hardware and software requirements for an open and disaggregated Broadband Network Gateway (BNG) device that operators can deploy in current and future networks for the provision of fixed broadband services.
• The role of software-defined networks (SDN) and the desired approach concerning fixed-mobile convergence
• The required hardware and proposed non-mutually exclusive software packages for the support of additional services or functionalities
• Reference regulatory requirements to deploy Open BNG in the networks of the operators participating in this requirements document .

OpenBNG is an initiative within the Open Optical & Packet Transport (OOPT) Project Group’s Disaggregated Open Routers (DOR) sub-group.

Cayetano Carbajo, Core and Transport Director at Telefónica Global CTIO, said: “In Telefónica, openness is a key principle to select the right technology and maintain a healthy diversity in our networks. BNG is a crucial element in our network for our broadband residential services. Sharing common goals and establish coordinated actions with respect to OpenBNG, is a big step towards that strategy.”

Yago Tenorio, Head of Network Architecture, Vodafone Group and Chairman of TIP said: “The evolution of the Broadband Network Gateway to an open and disaggregated platform creates an important opportunity to widen the supply chain for fixed broadband solutions and enable a more rapid delivery of new features and services. This complements similar approaches we have taken in the mobile domain, for example with Open-RAN, and accelerates the move towards greater convergence.”

Paul Crane, Converged Network Research Director, BT said: “At BT we firmly believe that open architectures will form a crucial part of the fundamental building blocks of network infrastructure. The flexibility of open architectures has the potential to enable a diverse eco-system benefiting vendors, integrators and operators alike. We are proud to be part of the group of like-minded operators who have contributed to the Open BNG requirements document. The strength of the telecommunications industry has been driven by the collective endeavour to define industry standards which enable interconnectivity, competition and global scale supply chains.”

Abdurazak Mudesir, SVP Technology Architecture & Innovation, Deutsche Telekom AG and member of the TIP Board of Directors, said: “DTAG fully supports this TIP activity as an essential step towards the creation of an Open BNG eco-system. Building on the on the successful principles of the Disaggregated Cell Site Gateway, I expect that the TIP OpenBNG project will serve as an open reference implementation supporting our path towards open, disaggregated access networks.”

Why Open BNG?
The goal of the OpenBNG project is to develop a solution that overcomes some of the most relevant issues operators presently face when deploying fixed access services to a diverse range of customers (e.g. residential, SOHO, SME). A short-term challenge for these services is continuous traffic growth, which not only affects required performance, but also determines the most adequate location for BNG functionality (i.e. more centralized vs. more distributed).

Next Steps
The mobile operators will move to prototyping and initiate the RFI phase, targeting the first lab trials in Q4 this year (2020) and moving into early field trials into 2021.