Telecoms operator BT has updated their technical document (SIN520) for the new 330Mbps G.fast hybrid fibre broadband technology to include the specific technical requirements for end-user modems, which is what Openreach and ISPs will supply to homes and businesses.
Initially most people who order a G.fast service can expect to receive a Managed Install, which will most likely include the installation of a new NTE5C Master Socket (unless you’ve already got one) and the Huawei MT992 broadband modem (pictured below). However the operator will also offer a self certification option for ISPs to use to test their own G.fast modem/routers against.
Openreach’s G.fast pilot is currently being rolled out to cover 1 million UK homes and businesses by the end of 2017 and it will then aim to reach 10 million premises by 2020 (here).
The following table shows which technical requirements can be verified by ISPs and which would be verified by BT, although this is only of any real interest to ISPs and those with an interest in the technical side of how such things work. Further details can be found under Section 3 of the aforementioned document.
Requirement | Description | Verification by |
R.PHY.1 | Physical Connector | CP |
R.FAST.1 | BBF G.fast Certficiation | CP |
R.FAST.2 | Compliance with mandatory sections of G.9700 and G.9701 | CP |
R.FAST.3 | Support of Profile 106a and 106b | CP |
R.FAST.4 | Compliance with Part F of the UK ANFP | BT |
R.FAST.5 | Support of AA43C handshake tones (i.e. A43 and A43 only) | BT |
R.FAST.6 | Compatibility with 17MHz VDSL2 | BT |
R.FAST.7 | Aggregate 1Gbps capacity (2 to 106MHz) | CP |
R.FAST.8 | Support of upstream and downstream retransmission | CP |
R.FAST.9 | Support of upstream and downstream vectoring | BT |
R.FAST.10 | Support of seamless rate adapation (SRA) in both upstream and downstream directions | BT/CP |
R.FAST.11 | Support of fast rate adapation (FRA) in both upstream and downstream directions | BT |
R.FAST.12 | CPE noise floor ≤ -150dBm/Hz | CP |
R.FAST.13 | Support of 8dBm aggregate downstream transmit power | CP |
R.FAST.14 | Support of 8dBm aggregate upstream transmit power | CP |
R.FAST.15 | Capable of transmitting at PSDs of up to -65dBm/Hz at frequencies up to 30MHz. | BT |
R.FAST.16 | Support of TDD frame lengths of 36 symbol periods | CP |
R.FAST.17 | Correct reporting of Hlog | BT |
R.FAST.18 | Correct reporting of QLN | BT |
R.FAST.19 | Correct reporting of ALN | BT |
R.FAST.20 | Support of low power modes | CP |
R.FAST.21 | Correct inventory reporting | BT |
R.FAST.22 | Support of up to 14bits/tone in both upstream and downstream directions | CP |
R.FAST.23 | Correct reporting of performance data | BT |
R.FAST.24 | Support of RFI and ARI notching | BT |
R.FAST.25 | Support of upstream power back-off (UPBO) | BT |
R.FAST.26 | Correct reporting of vendor information | BT |
R.ETH.1 | Support of an Ethernet frame size of between 68 and 1534 bytes. | CP |
R.WAN.1 | Support of IEEE 802.1q VLAN encapsulation | CP |
R.WAN.2 | Support of encapsulation within an IEEE 802.1q VLAN (C-VLAN) | CP |
R.WAN.3 | Support of Multicast and Unicast over the same single-tagged VLAN. | CP |
R.WAN.4 | Ethertype (Tag Protocol Identifier) field of the Ethernet frame set to 0x8100 | CP |
R.WAN.5 | CVLAN Canonical Format Indicator set to zero | CP |
R.WAN.6 | VLAN ID set to 101 for when GEA Data and Multicast are used | CP |
R.WAN.7 | IGMP reports encoded as IGMPv3 or IGMPv2 over CVLAN ID 101 | BT |
R.WAN.8 | Multicast for GEA frames not encapsulated with PPP | BT |
R.OAM.1 | Support of “dying gasp” | BT |
R.OAM.2 | Support of EFM OAM as per IEEE 802.3 Clause 57 | CP |
R.OAM.3 | EFM OAM statistics collection | BT |
R.OAM.4 | EFM OAM loopback | BT |
R.OAM.5 | RX and TX statistics collection point | CP |
R.OAM.6 | EFM OAM statistics collection response | BT |
R.OAM.7 | EFM OAM enabled on CPE G.fast ports | CP |
R.FILTER.1 / R.FILTER.2 | Compliance to ETSI TS 101 952 Part 1 (extended to 212MHz) or Part 3 (extended to 212MHz) | CP |
Providers will as usual be able to submit their devices to Openreach for a “much shorter” (we hope) G.fast Modem Conformance test, after sharing the results of their self certification testing with Openreach for verification.
Has anyone found a supplier for the Huawei MT992 modem? Or any other G.fast modem. BT now install using their super fast router which includes the modem and is generally awful.