Fixed Access Network Sharing

Abstract

Deep fiber deployments for ultrafast broadband are both technically and economically challenging. Fixed access network sharing (FANS) offers a highly enhanced form of virtual unbundling of broadband access networks, enabling cost sharing and the dynamics of a competitive landscape. Data, control, and management interfaces are automated and harmonized among wholesale infrastructure providers and retail virtual network operators. Standardized FANS interfaces can greatly decrease OPEX while increasing customer satisfaction. When FANS is implemented, network slicing logically partitions and isolates network resources among the VNOs, and such sharing can split the cost of network upgrades among several entities. FANS works with virtualization, where control plane functions are migrated from dedicated network equipment into software running on commodity hardware, with FANS providing network as a service. This article describes the drivers behind FANS, several architectures supporting FANS, and emerging standards supporting FANS.