Fan Zhiwen, the vice president of Fiberhome Telecommunication Technologies Co., received an exclusive interview with C114 during the MWC. In view of the evolution of 5G, Fan Zhiwen analyzes it in three aspects, the network structure, network bandwidth and network management. Firstly, in order to deal with the pressure of bandwidth and delay index of RAN, thes carrying network will be redivided from a single haul to a variety of ways such as fronthaul, midhaul, backhaul and so on. With cloudification and sinking of the core network, service traffic of the core convergence layer has changed from "north-south" oriented to "north-south" and "east-west" directions. The carrying network should evolve from ring network topology of convergent service to a mesh-based network with equal emphasis on converging and distributed services. The change of network technology is driven from the traditional grouping or the electric crossover of ODUK to the hybrid optoelectronic crossover of ROADM / OXC.
In the aspect of bandwidth, in order to deal with the 5G data flood, the bandwidth requirements will increase greatly both in access and convergence aspects. Based on the scientific estimation,Fiberhome believes that the access layer in the 5G era will be upgraded from GE in 4G to 25GE or 50GE, the convergent layer will be upgraded from 10G to 100G, the core layer needs to deploy N*100G+.
Because the complexity of the network in the 5G era is greater than that of the past, the OPEX continues to rise compared with the CAPEX. Fan Zhiwen especially emphasizes the importance of network management. The deployment mode of separated management&control in 4G era has not completely changed the status quo of traditional inefficient network management. The next generation management and control system of cloud intelligentization is one of the core demands of 5G. It is urgent to centralize the traditional network management and SDN control to realize the integration of management and control, so as to greatly improve the efficiency of business distribution and operation&maintenance, reduce OPEX and provide the soil for AI applications in telecom operations and maintenance. In addition, Huawei's rotating chairman, Xu Zhijun, also said in a speech at the main forum that "developing 5G should focus on reducing OPEX".