New Broadband Forum specs allow internet service providers to begin tapping 5G capabilities

The Broadband Forum wrapped Phase II of its wireless-wireline convergence (WWC) effort, unveiling new specifications which will allow legacy residential wireline gateways to take advantage of certain 5G capabilities. Its latest work builds on Phase I specifications completed in 2020 and includes two key updates: multi-access support and multi-session enablement for fixed network residential gateways (FN-RGs). Deutsche Telekom’s Manuel Paul, who is VP, board member and WWC Work Area Director at Broadband Forum, said that together these will allow fixed providers to begin exploiting a 5G toolkit including features like edge computing and network slicing that has hitherto either not been introduced or not made “as easily available to pure wireline core network or gateway functions to date.” According to Paul, the advent of multi-access support means “now hybrid access is possible” for residential gateways. In plain English, that means they can connect to both wireline and wireless networks, with PON or DSL as options on the fixed side and 5G or LTE for mobile. While the Phase II updates are a step in the right direction and provide operators a path to begin the transition to a converged infrastructure, Paul noted there’s plenty more work to be done. For instance, Broadband Forum’s WWC work group is developing a reference design for 5G-RGs. And there are other security-related issues that need to be addressed to allow gateways to tap into the full spectrum of 5G capabilities.