November 16th at the "Eleventh Chinese optical communication development and Competitiveness Forum", the China Telecom group science and Technology Commission Director Wei Leping said that the 5G of optical communication technology has brought new opportunities and challenges, opportunities for optical fiber, optical module, optical access network system, the whole industry will benefit from the construction of 5G; 5G fiber is the challenge in order to fully realize the communication and large-scale application, still need to technological innovation and economic breakthrough.
Wei Leping said, first of all, in the optical communications industry, optical fiber is the first beneficiary of 5G construction. 5G band is high, the number of base stations may be 2-3 times of 4G, and according to the full coverage requirements, according to Fiber Broadband Association estimates, the amount of 5G fiber will be 16 times more than 4G. Considering the high coverage density of 4G base stations in China, the distance between urban areas is only hundreds of meters, and the estimated 5G fiber consumption will be 2-3 times of 4G.
Second, the optical module is the second beneficiary, assuming that the 5G base station is 2-3 times of 4G, in considering the middle / back module, it is expected to bring tens of millions of 25/50GHz high-speed module consumption, 5G flat architecture brings huge capacity and cost pressure to the system.
Finally, the high speed optical access network and optical devices is third beneficiaries, the 5G architecture allows return / transfer / prequel capacity expanded several times, tens of hundreds of Gbps, the need to introduce 25G/50G based CWDM/WDM on adjustable laser, tunable filter and CWDM/WDM device put forward a very high price and the TWDM requirements; PON, eCPRI and ROADM edge system demand may increase. The demand for 5G and IP networks, capacity expansion and the demand for flexible routing will increase the demand for OTN/WDM and IP networks, and will further expand to china. Some of the new routing function, such as SR will be introduced to.
5G era, the number of base stations will grow substantially, a large number of base stations need optical fiber interconnection, which brings new opportunities for optical communications, but also put forward new challenges. In the development of 5G, the optical communication industry is facing the challenge of technology, backhaul capacity and cost. The existing SAW/BAW/FBAR filters are difficult to be used in high frequency devices, and optical devices are the bottleneck of the forward cost, especially the tunable lasers.
Wei Leping stressed that the current 4G investment peak has passed, 5G has become a hot new breakthrough and development of communication industry is concerned, is an important national strategy, is stimulating economic investment, leading scientific and technological innovation, an important factor to realize industrial upgrading, promote economic prosperity, but the expectations of 5G should be appropriate and timely, resonance equipment and components manufacturer operation taking the interests of the excessive and premature expectations, despise the inherent logic and the inherent law of market, technology and economy.
