Fifteen companies met in Durham, NH, USA during the week of February 25 – March 1, 2013, to participate in the first wide scale interoperability testing of equipment implementing ITU-T G.vector for VDSL2. This plugfest, the first of a planned series of interoperability events organized by the Broadband Forum, and hosted by the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), was focused on detailed testing of G.vector functionality.

The participating companies were Actiontec Electronics, Inc., ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent, AVM GmbH, Broadcom, Calix, Cisco, EXFO, Ikanos, JDSU, Lantiq, Metanoia Communications, NETGEAR, Real Communications and Technicolor, with the support of Telebyte and TraceSpan Communications.

Each plugfest offers an opportunity for industry leading companies to come together in a neutral environment to test their G.vector implementations. Testing was conducted according to the Broadband Forum’s G.vector plugfest test plan, and initial results will be provided to the Broadband Forum membership in the coming weeks.

Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum, said: “There is no doubt that VDSL2 has a pivotal role to play in the future of high speed broadband services. It is rapidly becoming a widely deployed technology and the addition of G.vector functionality is helping to achieve the increased bandwidth needed for today’s applications and consumer expectations. Our role is to ensure that implementations of G.vector are interoperable and perform well, and the plugfest is a key step towards that goal.”

G.vector provides a boost to VDSL2 data rates by cancelling crosstalk in real-time between wire pairs in the copper access network. This allows the equipment to operate at higher bit rates, and gives subscribers quality access to even higher bandwidth services. The Broadband Forum series of plugfest events helps implementations to mature, fosters cross-vendor interoperability, and ensures that participants keep up with G.vector advancements, thereby expediting quality rollouts of super-fast broadband services over VDSL2 around the world.

“Our company appreciates this Broadband Forum initiative, helping to foster interoperability and market readiness for G.vector”, said Manuel Paul, Deutsche Telekom, and member of the Broadband Forum Board of Directors. “Broadband Forum provides a great value to the industry by continuing its successful interoperability programs.”

The next G.vector interoperability event is scheduled to take place in April at the UNH-IOL in Durham, NH, USA. Future events will continue to assess industry G.vector interoperability, validate the Broadband Forum test plan parameters and confirm the common functionality of the features tested during each event; keeping pace with the developments being made within the ITU-T Recommendations. To participate in these plugfests, Broadband Forum members should contact info@broadbandforum.org.