MaxLinear G.hn Technology Powers ZTE’s New Family of FTTH Fiber Extenders

  • G.hn technology allows ZTE’s new FTTH fiber extenders to leverage either legacy twisted pair or coaxial cable, giving service providers unprecedented flexibility
  • The new solution will enable FTTH service providers to deploy symmetric gigabit broadband services, even in locations where fiber cannot be easily installed

CARLSBAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE: MXL), a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the connected home, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multimarket applications, today announced that ZTE Strawcom Telecommunications Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, has selected MaxLinear’s G.hn Wave-2 chipset to develop a new family of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) fiber extenders designed to help service providers reduce the cost of deploying symmetric gigabit services to residential and business users by leveraging existing copper wires, including twisted pair and coaxial cables.

“As a leader in the broadband industry, we have shipped more than 330 million CPEs to carriers in more than 100 different countries. Our FTTH customers are often faced with the challenge of reaching potential broadband subscribers who live in homes or apartment buildings where installing fiber is not feasible or economical. Due to either cost, lack of space for fiber, or lack of permissions from building owners, sometimes installing a new fiber to the customer’s premises is not feasible. Our new generation of fiber extenders are designed to address this challenge, which affects up to 30% of target FTTH subscribers in certain regions,” said Haiwei Li, Sales Director at ZTE. “By reusing the existing copper infrastructure, carriers can now reach those difficult locations to deliver the same quality of service and speed as traditional fiber deployments.”

The new solution is composed of two devices, the ZXHN H182G single-port DPU (distribution point unit) and the ZXHN H581 CPE (customer premises equipment), that work together to provide a symmetric gigabit connection over existing twisted pair or coaxial cables.

  • The H182G single-port DPU provides an optical uplink (compatible with both EPON and GPON), a copper-based downlink (compatible with ITU-T Recommendations G.9960/G.9961) with options for coaxial or twisted pair, and two Gigabit Ethernet ports. The H182G can be either locally powered or reverse powered from customer premises, following the ETSI TS 101 548 standard. Options for both indoor and outdoor installations are available.
  • The H581 CPE provides a copper-based uplink (compatible with ITU-T Recommendations G.9960/G.9961) with options for coaxial or twisted pair and one Gigabit Ethernet port. Service providers can deploy the H581 CPE either as a standalone network termination device or in combination with ZTE’s portfolio of wireless home routers such as the ZXHN H159Q. This high-performance router provides 4x4 802.11ac at 5GHz plus a 3x3 802.11n at 2.4GHz for the best Wi-Fi experience.

The ZTE fiber-extender solution integrates several features designed to provide the best user performance in the most challenging conditions:

  • Line rates up to 2Gbps with adaptive modulation and state of the art LDPC (low-density parity check) forward error correction ensure error-free operation over any type of wire, including old telephone lines that may be subject to ingress noise.
  • Advanced crosstalk management capabilities deal with both NEXT (near-end crosstalk) and FEXT (far-end crosstalk) in scenarios where multiple fiber extenders are deployed in the same apartment building. The solution, based on MaxLinear’s cloud-based VectorBoost™ architecture, can scale from single-port deployments to hundreds of lines in high-density MDUs.
  • Flexible bandwidth allocation capabilities support fixed upstream/downstream ratios or Collective Dynamic Time Allocation (cDTA) configurations.
  • AES-128 encryption to ensure maximum user privacy.

“With the increased demand for faster and more reliable broadband connections, it is critical to ensure that everyone can get access to gigabit-class broadband services regardless of where they live. For years, FTTH service providers have been unable to reach a significant percentage of users because bringing fiber to their homes was too expensive or impractical. Based on our G.hn technology, ZTE’s new fiber-extender solution will enable service providers worldwide to finally address 100% of their target customer base,” said Will Torgerson, Vice President & General Manager of the Broadband Group at MaxLinear.

For more information about MaxLinear G.hn Wave-2 products for broadband access, please visit https://www.maxlinear.com/products/infrastructure/wired-infrastructure/last-mile-access/g-hn-access.

About MaxLinear, Inc.

MaxLinear, Inc. (NYSE: MXL) is a leading provider of radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the connected home, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multimarket applications. MaxLinear is headquartered in Carlsbad, California. For more information, please visit www.maxlinear.com.

MxL and the MaxLinear logo are trademarks of MaxLinear, Inc. Other trademarks appearing herein are the property of their respective owners.

Cautionary Note About Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements include, among others, statements concerning or implying future financial performance, anticipated product performance and functionality, and industry trends and growth opportunities affecting MaxLinear, in particular statements relating to MaxLinear’s G.hn Wave-2 chipset and ZTE’s products, including but not limited to potential market opportunities, functionality, and the benefits of use of such products. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. We cannot predict whether or to what extent the availability of our G.hn Wave-2 chipset will affect our future revenues or financial performance. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current, preliminary expectations and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may contain words such as “will be,” “will,” “expected,” “anticipate,” “continue,” or similar expressions and include the assumptions that underlie such statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: intense competition in our industry and product markets; risks relating to the development, testing, and commercial introduction of new products and product functionalities; the ability of our customers to cancel or reduce orders; uncertainties concerning how end user markets for our products will develop; our lack of long-term supply contracts and dependence on limited sources of supply; potential decreases in average selling prices for our products; and the potential for intellectual property litigation, which is prevalent in our industry. In addition to these risks and uncertainties, investors should review the risks and uncertainties contained in MaxLinear’s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including risks and uncertainties identified in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. MaxLinear is providing this information as of the date of this release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

MaxLinear Inc. Press Contact:
Debbie Brandenburg
Sr. Marketing Communications Manager
Tel: +1 669-265-6083
dbrandenburg@maxlinear.com

MaxLinear Inc. Corporate Contact:
Will Torgerson
Vice President & General Manager of the Broadband Group
Tel: +1 760-692-0711
wtorgerson@maxlinear.com

Source: MaxLinear, Inc.