On May 28th ~ 31st 2024, the 18th ETSI ISG F5G Plenary meeting was held in Luxembourg, hosted by POST Luxembourg. Significant progress was made during the meeting.

F5G-A Work Items (WIs) in Release 3 become mature:

The F5G-A Release 3, started early last year, is now getting more and more stable, and is expected to be published in 2024Q3. 

• F5G-A generation definition (F5G-021) was published in November 2023 (ETSI GR 021 V1.1.1).
• F5G-A Use Cases (UCs) (F5G-020): The final draft was approved and will be published very soon.
• F5G-A requirements and gap analysis (F5G-023): The requirement and gap analysis is nearing completion.
• F5G-A architecture (F5G-024): Is also nearing completion stable. The F5G-A key enabling technologies such as FAN Intelligent Engine (FIE) were well accepted.
• The classification and measurement of residential service QoE had been published (ETSI GS F5G 015 V1.2.1 and ETSI GS F5G 017 V1.1.1).
• The monitoring of residential service QoE is awaiting approval.

The ISG F5G has also started working on F5G Release 4 topics:

• The SME service QoE classification (F5G-028).
• F5G-A End-to-End management and control. Energy efficiency management will be added to the document.
• Additionally, WI F5G-031: “Intelligent Management for PON based Industrial network” was created.

TEST Working Group (WG) under ISG F5G was created:

• The TEST WG proposed by CAICT was created, with 15 supporter companies from ISG F5G members and participants, including operators, vendors, instrument manufacturers and testing labs.
• Ms. Qian Liu from CAICT is the Acting Chair of this WG, until the election of chair and vice chair at the next plenary.
• The main responsibilities of the TEST WG are (from the TEST WG ToR):
  • Maintain and evolve the F5G/F5G-A test specification framework.
  • Develop F5G, F5G-A and beyond test specifications and test methodologies.
  • Initiate and facilitate the ISG F5G test activities.
  • Coordinate test efforts with ETSI Technical Groups as well as external partners including SDOs and alliances.

To date there are two test specification under consideration in the TEST WG:

• F5G-029: testing specification for residential FTTR functionality and performance;
• F5G-030: testing specification for 50G PON functionality and performance.

F5G White Paper project on Intelligent FTTR was initiated:

The ISG F5G developed one White Paper per year since it was created.

During the Plenary meeting, the new White Paper: “Intelligent FTTR Enables New Services, Scenarios, and Experiences of Green Home Networks” was initiated. This White Paper is expected to be published in November 2024. Experts who are interested in this topic are encouraged to contribute to this White Paper.

ISG F5G Industry outreach activities updates and plans:

In addition to standard document development, ISG F5G is also active on outreach activities. So far, the F5G outreach activities are:

• Show-floor program: “F5G Intelligent and Green Networks Towards 2030” in OFC 2024.
• Workshop: “End-to-end network for 2030 and beyond: from F5G-Advanced to F6G” in ONDM 2024.
• Being invited to give two F5G related presentations in BBF BASe Technical Summit 2024.
• F5G PoC demonstrations shown in industry events including MWC 2024 and HANNOVER MESSE 2024.

For the remainder of the year, the ISG F5G will continue to promote the optical network generation evolution in the industry. Network X 2024 is one of the next planned events, in which the ISG F5G will hold a workshop. Experts from the industry are welcome to be the speakers and share their technical views in this event.

Upcoming meetings:

The following ISG F5G Plenary meetings in 2024 will be:

• F5G-F2F#19, August 27th~30th, 2024, will be held in Sophia Antipolis, France. It has been agreed that during this meeting, a joint open session between ISG F5G and ISG ZSM will be held.
• F5G-F2F#20, proposed to be held in November 2024, hosted by Huawei in China. To be determined.

There will also be dedicate conference calls for TEST WG and general F5G topics.