Deutsche Telekom today announced a partnership with Huntsville, Alabama-based networking vendor Adtran to create an open software-defined access network for gigabit internet service.

In the first phase of the project, the network operator will fold Adtran’s SDX optical line terminals (OLT) and Mosaic SD-access suite into its emerging Access 4.0 network architecture.

“This has been a journey that we set out on four or five years ago around open disaggregated networking and helping service providers realize the promise of software-defined networking,” said Dan Whalen, chief product officer at Adtran. “There’s a number of things that are really wonderful about it for us, but the use of some of the same products that we build, particularly the OLT as well as our cloud orchestrator, really sets us up well for the future.”

Adtran VP of global marketing Gary Bolton explained that while SDN is commonplace in the data center and the WAN, it is still making inroads in the telecommunications space.

Access 4.0 is part of Deutsche Telekom's efforts to adopt SDN technologies. The architecture is founded on the Open Network Foundation’s (ONF) SDN-Enabled Broadband Access (SEBA) architecture and aims to integrate SDN principles with desegregated hardware and network function virtualization (NFV) in order to create an open ecosystem for the delivery of gigabit fiber services.

However, according to Bolton, gigabit is just the beginning. He said that the vendor’s SDX OLTs are capable of symmetrical 10Gb/s XGS-PON fiber service as the telecom’s bandwidth demands rise.

Alongside Adtran’s optical hardware, Deutsche Telekom will also take advantage of the vendor's Mosaic orchestration suite to control and manage these deployments.

The partnership builds on an existing relationship between Deutsche Telekom and Adtran. “They have been our No. 1 customer for quite some time in Europe,” Bolton said.

Prior to the announcement, Adtran worked with Deutsche Telekom to deploy its Vectoring and Super Vectoring service delivery platforms to squeeze more capacity out of the telecom’s existing network.

Earlier this week, Adtran announced a joint partnership with Orange Business Services to develop SDN technology for fixed fiber access networks.

The two companies aim to develop a roadmap for the introduction of a software-defined management architecture on Orange’s network, test compatibility with third-party management and orchestration platforms, as well as ensure consistent engineering rules for Orange’s current and future GPON and XGS-PON architectures.

According to Adtran, the ultimate goal of the collaboration is to investigate and test technologies that will enable Orange to improve network performance, shorten the time to market for new services, and reduce the provider’s energy consumption.

“Orange has selected us to help them assess and figure this out for their network,” explained Bolton.

The end result of the project will be “comprehensive” architecture studies, technical requirements for network nodes, cost models, prototype evaluations, field trials, and potential field trials within Orange’s network.

“For Orange, the evolution of our fixed access optical network represents a challenge and opportunity as we look to extend the range and reach of our networks,” said Christian Gacon, VP of wireline networks and infrastructure at Orange, in a statement.