Leveraging the real benefits of fibers in access by virtualizing the optical layer

The ultimate benefit of fibers in the access space is beyond bare provisioning of high capacities to customers. It is rather the wide range of possible utilization and business models - enabled by virtualization and flexibilization of the physical layer - that differentiates optics from copper and wireless infrastructures in access and that will finally help make this market segment more attractive for investments. Different sharing and virtualization models for the optical layer will be introduced and related operational aspects will be discussed.