Orange deployed a live 50 Gb/s passive optical network (50G PON) fiber trial in France in the unusual testing ground of a video game tournament.

Claimed to be France’s first real-world deployment, the test extended upon Orange’s existing PON technology, such as its capabilities in 10G symmetrical PON (XGS-PON).

The trial encompassed the locations of Lyon and Marseille, with one player in each region going head-to-head on fighting game "2XKO."

Previous Orange deployments of 50G PON have included a field trial in Brittany, with a residential customer hooked up to a dedicated 50G PON line on its live fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network.

Orange Spain also partnered with ZTE to trial the tech during Orange's Network Fashion Week 2023 event.

PON legacy

Capable of speeds between 1 Gb/s to 50 Gb/s, PON is a fiber-optic technology that utilizes a point-to-multipoint infrastructure to transmit data from a centralized source. This is usually via an optical-line terminal (OLT) to multiple endpoints across optical splitters.

The 10G capacity of XGS-PON is the technology’s current standard on the high-end, with 50G representing the next stage of development, alongside coherent PON (CPON), which is capable of 100 Gb/s services over a single wavelength to multiple endpoints.

Nokia recently released what it claimed to be the first commercial solution of 50G PON tech, with a view to ensuring quantum-safe measures in passive optical networks.

While advanced PON exploration is not quantum adjacent by nature, the release came in response to PON networks being increasingly used to provide internet connectivity to enterprises, demanding secure protection of transmitted data against harvest-now, decrypt-later attacks.

The technology has also been trialed by Brightspeed in partnership with Calix.

In a statement, Christian Gacon, director of broadband networks and services at Orange, admitted it was too early to predict the potential applications of 50G PON technology.

The company expects future network needs for higher speeds, with potential use cases including AI usage, video conferencing, and cloud gaming.

Orange added it was working to ensure future 50G PON infrastructure is compatible with the existing network, promising that a swap out of network cards within optical exchange equipment would connect fiber customers to its 50G PON service once in operation.