The growth of the digital world is driving the demand for bandwidth and pushing wired and wireless networks toward the convergence of networks.Network convergence is defined as the use of multiple communication modes on a single network to achieve convenience and flexibility that a single infrastructure cannot provide.Transmission of high-speed data stream from data source/signal source to wireless distribution point via high-bandwidth network is the direction of current network development.

The coverage of wireless networks is growing rapidly.Recent industry research shows that the asia-pacific region leads the world in the deployment of 5G networks, with 79% of network operators in the region saying they will launch 5G networks in the next 18 months, compared with 67% globally.According to the GSMA, the asia-pacific region will have the largest 5G coverage in the world by 2025.Asian mobile operators plan to invest nearly $200 billion over the next few years to upgrade 4G networks and roll out new 5G networks. China issued commercial 5G licenses to four major telecom operators in June, and the GSMA Intelligence predicts that the number of 5G connections in China will reach 460 million by the end of 2025, accounting for 28 percent of the country's total connections.

The deployment of 5G networks will require new, extensive fiber optic networks to meet the performance requirements of high bandwidth and low latency.With converged networks, service providers can offer a wider range of services, including innovative services that adopt new business models to enter new markets more efficiently and quickly.

For operators, network integration can bring many benefits, including a significant saving deployment of the total cost, through the optical fiber network connection, simplified realization of something, and to ensure the switch other operating mode when necessary, to ensure that operators basic network architecture standardization of both flexibility at the same time, to meet the requirements of the new technology in the future.
　　 
Fiber to home and 5G densification

FTTH has extensive coverage in Asia Pacific.With 93% FTTH coverage, 100% 4G coverage and over 10,000 WIFI hot-spots, Singapore was rated as the best smart fiber city in Asia Pacific by FTTH committee.Tokyo and Seoul followed with 90 percent fiber to home coverage, followed by Hong Kong, Busan and Melbourne. Mainland China has also rapidly completed a large number of 4G and FTTH deployments in a few years. Currently, FTTH network in China has covered over 90% of households and over 80% of users.

 Network convergence provides a cost-effective solution for FTTH networks that require a large amount of fiber, as the technology allows large operators to support a variety of 5G use cases by using a single fiber network, thereby maximizing asset utilization and extending the payback period.The next evolution direction of wireless network architecture will be 4G/LTE densification and 5G wireless network, namely the fusion of fixed network connection and wireless access point.

In traditional cellular networks, each base station is powered independently and is interconnected through different types of back haul networks, including fiber optics, HFC, copper cables, and microwaves.The signal coverage of mobile devices depends on the macro cellular base station.While 4G has led to an increase in the number of macro cell towers, the surge in 5G and expected bandwidth demand will require more cell towers -- especially now that the frequency of 5G networks aimed at higher speeds is still limited by distance.The normal links currently used for independent microwave point-to-point communications (P2P) will not be able to meet the bandwidth requirements, and service providers will need to think about how to connect to cellular sites using fiber optics.This, in turn, has created a need for converged networks.

Network convergence also provides solutions for future wireless access networks (RAN).The use of optical fiber is critical to the implementation of a centralized RAN architecture, which has high bandwidth, flexibility, and scalability to support the continued evolution of RAN.As a result, operators with fiber optic resources will be better able to deploy advanced RAN networks to better serve customers.

Internet of things (IoT)

Consumers will own more than 26 billion iot devices by 2020, according to Gartner, and one of the main reasons is to reduce time and administrative costs by automating processes.As consumers increasingly rely on connected devices and their increasingly connected lifestyles, network convergence plays an indispensable role in helping operators meet this demand.

In the internet-centric world, the universal demand for bandwidth drives the convergence of fixed and wireless networks.High-speed data flow is generated from the data source and transmitted to the wireless distribution point through the high-bandwidth network.As iot devices become more timely in accessing information, the value of a high-quality network will increase. Therefore, in the process of providing information services to consumers quickly, network convergence will eventually play an important role.
　　
The best use of iot devices depends on the network infrastructure on which they operate.Therefore, the challenge for operators now is to ensure network convergence so that IoT devices can operate quickly and efficiently.
 
Integration is the way forward, now and in the future
 
The advantages of converged networks are obvious.Facing 5G and more possibilities in the future, network convergence is the best choice to build a forward-looking network.In particular, network convergence can provide reasonable and economical solutions for operators to cope with the challenges of high bandwidth demand and resource constraints brought by the proliferation of 5G and IoT applications.