A common core for fiber, 5G could be just around the corner

Convergence between wireline and wireless networks is one of those ideas that feels like it’s perpetually on the horizon. But a perfect storm of industry trends – virtualization, disaggregation, 5G, fiber, cloudification – has finally come together to bring the long-sought-after approach within reach. Dave Allan, distinguished engineer at Ericsson and leader of the Broadband Forum’s Wireless-Wireline Convergence Work Area, summed up why convergence is such a big deal and why operators continue to chase it. According to Allan, once an operator’s core network becomes a common digital platform “the services are common, the tooling is common, [and] you can provide ubiquitous policy irrespective of access to a given subscriber for things like parental controls, corporate access et cetera. That’s kind of huge.” The Broadband Forum has been working shoulder to shoulder with wireless standards body 3GPP on convergence specifications since early 2017, when the groups held a joint meeting to look at use cases, set goals and establish how work should proceed. They’ve been actively writing specifications to make convergence a reality since 2019, with 3GPP addressing this in its Release 16 standard. Broadband Forum finished its Phase 1 specifications addressing fundamentals of convergence, including how to support a 5GRG on a wireline network and how to begin transforming the network, last year. Allan said it is currently in the midst of work on Phase 2, which will tackle expanded deployment options, added functionality, new revenue sources and other improvements.