Vodafone and Nokia achieve world-first trial of lag-busting technology on fibre broadband
- Vodafone and Nokia slash delays on live home broadband fibre connection by 94%.
- World’s first live network test of L4S technology from Nokia Bell Labs using Vodafone Türkiye’s Fibre to the Home network, including in-home Wi-Fi, will lead to improved Internet access across Europe.
Vodafone and Nokia have successfully trialled a new internet technology on a live commercial fibre broadband network, which can significantly reduce internet delays during gaming or videoconferencing, as well as improve the customer experience when streaming content. Using Vodafone Türkiye’s Fibre to the Home (FTTH) network, including in-home Wi-Fi, in Istanbul, the two companies reduced lag (the time it takes for data to be sent and received over a network) by up to 94%, paving the way for a significant boost in the quality of interactive online experiences for customers. Lag or latency of 100 milliseconds or more – roughly the time it takes to blink an eye – can cause a noticeable delay during video calls or online gaming.
Vodafone and Nokia Bell Labs reduced latency on multiple customer lines whilst using video conferencing and cloud gaming applications. The increase in round-trip delay with the customers line heavily congested was reduced from 220 milliseconds to just 4.7 milliseconds. The trial represents the world’s first live deployment of L4S (Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable throughput) technology on a full Fibre to the Home (FTTH) network end-to-end.
It follows a successful joint Vodafone and Nokia lab trial last year, unlocking the technology’s full potential for high-speed, low-latency applications. Vodafone will conduct more tests before looking to deploy the technology across its European markets.
Alberto Ripepi, Chief Network Officer of Vodafone, said: “We are raising the bar on quality for fibre broadband by significantly lowering latency. Our world-first trial underlines our commitment to innovate and deliver an enhanced service to customers across Europe.”
Developed by Nokia Bell Labs and backed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), L4S tackles queuing delays, a major cause of lag in online experiences. These delays occur when data packets get stuck in network buffers, such as in routers or modems, before reaching their destination – a common frustration for gamers and video callers alike.
Bjorn Capens, Vice-President Fixed Networks Europe of Nokia, said: “Nokia continuously strives to increase the performance of its fibre solutions through innovation, and this trial puts the L4S internet protocol - pioneered by Bell Labs - into practice in a real-world fibre network, including the in-home Wi-Fi. “Innovating for and with a leading operator like Vodafone is paramount for a company like Nokia, as well as providing superior latency with minimal latency variation on an end-to-end fibre and in-home Wi-Fi network.”
While the Vodafone and Nokia Bell Labs tests were conducted using Passive Optical Network (PON) - the foundation of most home fibre broadband - L4S is access-agnostic meaning it can also be deployed over mobile and fixed networks, for both consumer and enterprise services. Nokia is the key vendor for Vodafone Turkey’s FTTH network and played a central role in enabling this world-first implementation.
Notes to Editors
Nokia’s research arm Nokia Bell Labs and Vodafone’s Fixed Access Centre of Excellence performed the world’s first live implementation of L4S running over a PON built with Nokia technology. It consisted of a broadband network gateway (BNG), a PON optical line terminal (OLT), multiple PON optical network terminals (ONTs) and Wi-Fi access points.
The tests showed extremely low and consistent end-to-end latencies when travelling across every element of the network. L4S networking technology consistently achieves near-zero packet queuing delays, no matter how much traffic load the network experiences. By eliminating queuing delays, L4S removes big variations in latency without compromising network speeds.
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