To satisfy increasing consumer bandwidth demands and align with market trends, many Telecom solution providers have begun to future proof their networks with the deployment of fibre technologies. These can be new deployments or augmentation and upgrade of existing copper-based networks. According to the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), the number of households has recently hit the 30 million mark in North America, with over 14 million homes connected. This growth can be attributed from telecom operators of all sizes.

Headquartered in Oakland, California, DASAN Zhone Solutions (DZS) is a global innovator in telecommunications solutions, and has the 2nd largest market share for Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) among publicly traded global companies. DZS serves Telecom operators of all sizes, ranging from rural co-ops worldwide to Tier-1 national carriers in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Most notable among Tier-1 vendors are the national carriers in South Korea, having grown supplier relationships with them for nearly 20 years. While DZS’ headquarters is in Silicon Valley in the USA, more than 70 percent of its business is International, outside of the US.

Well over half of the world’s population is now online, with the latest data showing that nearly a quarter of a billion new users came online for the first time in 2017. Among countries with high-growth in Internet connectivity and consumption, India is arguably the most strategic location for DZS solutions, and the company serves customers in India with an office in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.

A Plethora of Options
At the cusp of a digital revolution that India is going through, the internet speed doesn’t seem to join forces with the other elements contributing to the transformation. The requirement High Speed Internet has given rise to Fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) that has become an integral infrastructure for the future, as the economy, society and the environment now relies heavily on the high speed internet and associated applications. While DZS continues to increase connection speeds and add new capabilities in software, their strategy today and in the considerable future remains to empower customers with freedom of choice.

Legacy vendor lock-in was an industry norm in the earlier roll-out phase of FTTx, but the rapid growth in fibre and the emergence of new broadband networks and cloud adoption are now changing the interoperability norm to

one based on freedom of choice. DZS has adopted an open broadband interoperability business model, especially for earlier standards and now with 10G broadband solutions. This freedom of choice enables customers the flexibility to rapidly scale out fibre networks with the latest technology without the concern of vendor lock-in.

"While DZS continues to increase connection speeds and add new capabilities in software, their strategy today and in the considerable future remains to empower customers with freedom of choice"

Fibre is faster, more reliable, and enables a significantly higher density of connections. DZS recently released additions and enhancements to its product portfolio offering 10G PON technology end to end from the CO to the customer premises. Modern consumers connect more devices and perform more bandwidth-intensive activities at home that become a challenge for the service provider to cope with the bandwidth requirements. 10G PON offers a path to alleviate those challenges. It can be deployed on top of existing GPON fibre networks and makes it possible to implement a Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) strategy that is scalable and cost-effective and drives subscriber retention.

Additionally, Whole Home Wi-Fi is a solution for service providers in response to the growing number of devices as per subscriber and the fact that almost all of these devices connect wirelessly. The majority of complications reported by customers to their service provider are not related to bandwidth, but rather insufficient Wi-Fi coverage at the subscriber location. With the ability to monitor and measure the connection experience of all devices sharing the Internet connection, operators can recommend changes and additional services that optimize the experience and deliver value.

In addition to a broad choice among access solutions, DZS has also co-developed 100G network switches with advanced timing features to support 5G mobile backhaul. The combination of fibre-based access and ultra-low-latency backhaul enables operators to provide the best possible Internet connection experience to users. While not applicable in all environments, 5G solutions will become the standard in connectivity in high-density environments to support exponential growth in consumption driven by streaming video, IoT, and collaboration.

Growing Importance of Mobile Backhaul and POL
Recent research shows data-hungry smartphones will grow from just over 50 percent of all devices in 2014 to almost 70 percent by 2018. This is evident today, as one need only look around at a grocery store or shopping center to see the ubiquitous nature of smartphones. In step with that expansion, bandwidth consumption by smartphone - equipped mobile users will continue to skyrocket in the years ahead due to high-bandwidth, video-centric content consumption. As people flock to increasingly powerful smartphones, faster mobile networks have come online to accommodate all

that new traffic.

At the same time, the way users access data has shifted significantly. Higher-bandwidth content is being consumed more often, for longer periods of time-thereby skyrocketing bandwidth consumption. DZS' mobile backhaul solution enables mobile operators to accelerate the capacity and coverage quality of service (QoS) of their mobile networks with network flexibility, scalability and ease of operation.

Given the internet driven generation we live in, enterprises also toil to evaluate & deliver the best experience to their internal customers. DZS also offers Passive Optical LAN solutions to such Enterprises. Passive Optical LAN technology addresses evolving service demands with outstanding network performance. This fibre optics-based technology allows businesses and public sector organizations to deliver all services on 1 high-capacity network, operate more efficiently, and improve mobile connectivity for all users. A POL deployment enhances the service experience, reduces costs, and delivers value for decades.

Progressive Strategies in India
As DZS’ Senior VP of Global Sales, Jun Bahk illustrates, “While education and hospitality are growth areas for POL globally, in India DZS has seen interest particularly in the government sector. Government entities at several levels are being very progressive in their economic development initiatives, including a strategy of going directly to fibre-based Internet access as a foundation for growth for decades to come. Commercial entities can leverage the solution testing and validation conducted by these government organizations to accelerate the use of fibre for internet connectivity and connectivity within their offices and campus complexes.”

Bahk brings more than 20 years of telecommunications and IT start-up experience to his role. Prior to joining DZS, he held various senior management and executive positions with British Telecom Plc, UK and Korea Telecom Corp. He was Senior Vice President and Head of Global Business at KT responsible for global sales and operations, strategic alliance /partnership and strategic investment projects to expand global. During his tenure with BT Plc, Bahk held senior management positions in product management, strategy, marketing, business development and sales.

DZS’ envisions empowering global advancement by shaping the Internet experience of the future. With engineering in the US and Korea, DZS has recently announced the acquisition of Key mile, a German supplier and manufacturer of broadband solutions. The result is added credibility to their objective to innovate in the areas of SDN, interoperability, and virtualization. DZS intends to benefit its customers worldwide with the addition of a new European engineering center and R&D lab as well as increased manufacturing capabilities. With such solutions and services on offer, DZS has entered the Indian market with a strong focus to help transform the telecom landscape.