Recent Trials of G.metro-Based Passive WDM Fronthaul in 5G Testbeds

Abstract

Over the past few years, the passive WDM technology has been proven to be a suitable and cost-effective solution in C-RAN environments to interconnect the central office and remote antenna sites, due to the future-proof bandwidth and greater utilization of fiber resources. The G.metro passive WDM allows single fiber working (SFW) operation by separating the up- and downstream into two wavelength windows in the C-band. More importantly, the newly-standardized wavelength-agnostic interface (G.metro) enables autonomous wavelength tuning at the tail end given the connected port at the remote filter node. This significantly eases the network operation and reduce the optical transceiver cost. We have been implementing and evaluating the G.metro prototype system since the beginning of its standardization, from the laboratory to the field. In this paper, we summarize the recent trials of the G.metro passive WDM prototype for the upcoming 5G applications.