The Economic Benefits of a Super-Converged Multi-Access Edge Network

Traffic demand in access networks is growing at a rapid rate and this growth is expected to continue for the next five years. The key drivers are:

• Transition from 4G to 5G in mobile networks

• Massive fiber rollout for Gigabit access

• Evolution to the cloud

• Bandwidth-intensive applications in residential PON networks

• Bandwidth-intensive applications in businesses

As a result of traffic growth access networks will be upgraded from 10GE to 100GE. As service providers roll out higher capacity they have the opportunity to converge their Access Edge to create a super-converged multi-access edge which supports:

• Mobile backhaul

• Residential broadband backhaul

• Business services

• PON infill

• SONET/SDH

ACG Research has developed a total cost of ownership (TCO) model that compares the capital expense (CapEx) and operations expense (OpEx) over five years for separate service access networks versus a converged access network. The model projects traffic growth over five years. Our results show CapEx savings of 33%, OpEx savings of 60%, and TCO savings of 46%.