After Open RAN comes Open FAN? . News on October 31, Beijing time (Shuiyi) Everyone has heard of Open RAN, and now there is Open FAN. Recently, Telefonica, Telecom Italia Mobile and Vodafone took the lead in putting forward the slogan of openness for fixed access networks (FAN). As with wireless access networks, the goal is to ensure that products from different vendors can be combined in the same fixed access network, like dishes from different countries on the same plate. The main thrust of Open RAN is an open fronthaul interface that allows one vendor's baseband products to communicate with another vendor's radio equipment. Open FAN targets links between optical line terminals (OLTs) and optical network terminals (ONTs), the boxes that sit at either end of a fiber optic connection. Integration with SDN controllers is another priority. Currently, Open FAN has become the latest subgroup of the Telecommunications Infrastructure Project (TIP), which is led by Meta (formerly Facebook) and aims to promote innovation and reduce costs in the telecommunications equipment industry. Participants are currently developing technical requirements for so-called Pizza Box OLTs. They will release information later this year to assess vendors' technical capabilities and their readiness for Open FAN. This all suggests that telecom companies are somewhat dissatisfied with the state of the FAN market. Paolo Pellegrini, access innovation project manager at Telecom Italia Mobility, said in his speech: The decoupling of OLT represents a valuable opportunity to expand the telecommunications supply chain, which we have seen in recent times is more important than ever before. It is great to have the opportunity to work with a new generation of hardware and software suppliers who can bring innovative solutions and help us build more cost-effective and efficient networks. It is not surprising that market forces are worried about the state of the supply chain. Omdia data shows that last year, three suppliers, Huawei, ZTE, and Nokia, controlled 85% of the OLT market. The UK government has placed fewer restrictions on fixed-line equipment than on wireless equipment as it cracks down on Chinese suppliers due to a lack of alternatives. TIP may hope that interoperability will spur competition in the PON products market, which generated about 8 billion in sales last year. If operators can more easily purchase OLT and ONT separately, developers can focus their resources on one area, and OLT experts will not need to have ONT capabilities to compete. A source at TIP said that mixing FAN products from different vendors is problematic these days, and Nokia seems to agree. It s not easy to do, but it s what we re doing. Federico Guill n, head of Nokia s network infrastructure business, said in an interview at the recent Network But that doesn't seem to be useful when it comes to multi-vendor interoperability. It is fully standardized and everyone is implementing and following it, but they are choosing different options, said Stefaan Vanhastel, chief technology officer of Nokia's fixed networks unit. Nokia had about 24% of the global PON market last year, according to Omdia, but its share of the OLT market has increased, according to Federico Guill n. Our market share is growing, especially in the area where we want to grow, which is OLT. The ONT side is a very crowded market, he told LightReading. Experts may find that challenging Nokia in FAN is as difficult as in RAN. Nokia invested 4.2 billion in R&D last year, including investments in silicon platforms to support high-speed broadband services. At Network That's a lot of capacity and the ONT will be upgraded as needed, said Julie Kunstler, principal analyst at Omdia. What? No Vendor Support There was no mention of vendor support for Open FAN in TIP's announcement, and without this it could be in trouble. If enough operators demand changes, these vendors may have to make concessions - but Ericsson and Nokia's caution about Open RAN illustrates how difficult that might be. Open FAN also seems to lack an organization similar to the O-RAN Alliance. TIP has previously distanced itself from standard specifications. If an alternative to OMCI is needed, who will lead it? It is questionable whether the development of Open FAN will be like Open RAN First, operators spent 37 billion less on FAN products than RAN products last year, according to Omdia. Most of their fixed line capex is in civil engineering, and no amount of interoperability or virtualization will save money here. In addition, despite the strong strength of Huawei, ZTE and Nokia, according to Omdia analyst Julie Kunstler, before the emergence of Open FAN, the market competition was becoming increasingly fierce. Ciena in the United States and Indian company Sterlite entered the PON market as examples. The PON market is expected to have annual sales of US 16 billion by 2027