It is true, however, that the fiber investment/rollout
is often discussed together with the 5G investment/rollout
in operators’ press releases or governments’ infrastructure
plans. This should not be surprising considering the
significance of broadband-enabled internet access that
may even become a basic human right.
To extend the fiber everywhere definition, one could
potentially claim that 5G promises to make mobile communications
fiber-like (i.e., wireless fiber) in terms of
speed and reliability. More interestingly, 5G and optical
fiber should be seen in symbiotic and synergistic terms.
RF
Fronthaul CPRI Backhaul
eCPRI
FIGURE 1: Fiber deployed to support different use cases, which will increasingly be 5G-related (note here the virtual/5G network
architecture elements, such as radio unit (RU), distributed unit (DU), central unit (CU) or remote/distributed/central unit).
8 I ICT TODAY
This article focuses on the rising importance of
optical fiber networks, particularly in the context of 5G
and future mobile/converged networks. To emphasize
this importance and the relationship with 5G, the term
FiberG for fiber generation is proposed.
Similar to the fiber everywhere reference, FiberG does
not imply that fiber should be deployed where it makes
little business sense. Business cases may comprise criteria
related to social and regional benefits that should be considered
in the return on investment (ROI) assessment
of fiber deployment.
Fixed
Wireless
Access
Macro
cell sites
Distributed
antenna
systems
(DAS)
IP/MPLS
network
Access unit
CPE Uplink
Downlink
Ethernet
Aerial
Fiber
FTTH
RRH
Centralized
radio access
network (C-RAN)
Small cells
Fiber
Optical
distribution
network