The relationship between the UNH-IOL and the Broadband Forum (BBF) proves that collaborative partnerships are the foundation of exceptional progress. Over the past 25 years, our labs have supported the BBF during technological advances from ADSL (G.992.1) to the 50-gigabit PON technologies being developed today. Through these innovations, BBF’s leadership in developing network standards and promoting best practices has been a keystone in the success of our global broadband community.

Discover the key accomplishments of broadband recently and current updates below!

Driving Wi-Fi Excellence with BBF Standards

Global broadband operating communities also often require more formal testing and product certification programs. Our lab has supported the BBF community by developing testing programs and contributing to technical and program operation documentation, which later became part of the program materials used today for the BBF.369 USP Certification and BBF.398 Carrier Grade Wi-Fi programs.

The BBF.398 program broke ground as the industry’s first, and still only, testing program focused exclusively on Wi-Fi performance. The UNH-IOL recently completed a case study on this matter with Calix, a long-time UNH-IOL participant and BBF member.

Broadband operators have utilized the BBF.398 program to improve the quality of their Wi-Fi service offerings, especially after experiencing increased customer support requests on their Wi-Fi connectivity needing to meet the high-speed expectations of the service packages they purchased. The suppliers, in turn, have benefitted from a unified approach to testing adopted by service providers worldwide.

BBF.247 PON Certification Program

All of us at UNH-IOL are excited to join the BBF.247 PON certification program as an authorized testing laboratory for the BBF community. We’re working closely with BBF’s other lab to ensure all testing is aligned between both organizations. UNH-IOL anticipates running the first certification tests for ONU devices in early 2025. Explore enterprise and campus networks with a recent joint technical paper with Ciena and get a fresh perspective on applying within local area networks (LANs). 

The availability of BBF.247 testing will augment the UNH-IOL current focus on interoperability testing according to the TR-255 PON test plan and the upcoming 25G and HSP (high-speed PON) plugfest tentatively scheduled for October 2025.

Mission Forward

A core tenet of the BBF mission is facilitating interoperability for broadband system components used by service providers around the globe. Throughout our partnership with the forum, our combined focus on developing industry-adopted test plans and specifications has enabled our organizations to build on each other’s strengths and provide the broadband industry with the tools needed to deliver broadband services to millions of people around the globe.

Since 1994 and the very beginning of the forum, connection speeds have increased from ADSL (1 Mbps) to ADSL2/2 plus (25 Mbps), VDSL2 (100+ Mbps), G.fast (1 Gbps), GPON (2.5 Gbps), and XGS-PON (10 Gbps). Other innovations include the TR-069 (CPE WAN Management) and USP (User Services Platform) management protocols. Through years of industry innovation, the BBF and UNH-IOL have worked together to develop network standards, best practices, and to provide opportunities for the broadband community to work together to ensure the interoperability of their components.

Current Development and Resources

The IOL hosts webinars throughout the year, which can all be found by visiting our webinars page. Our latest cover Wi-Fi IoT test plan developments uncover key deployment device tests that can drive user satisfaction. Stay current, prepare for PON and the latest insights from NetworkX.

We are always busy! To stay up to date on all development work from our broadband services and beyond, visit our events page. 

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Explore partnerships in Broadband testing and beyond.

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