ZTE has successfully completed phase-1 5G transport test in cooperation with Telefonica at its Future Networks Lab in Madrid, Spain. In this test, ZTE provided the new 5G Flexhaul solution, a transport solution integrating fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul features. It comprises ZXCTN 609 based on FlexE Tunnel technology, and ZXMP M721 CX66A based on low latency OTN (Optical Transport Network) technology.

According to the plan of Telefonica, it will continue to perform phase-2 transport test together with ZTE, and will perform further tests and verification for 5G end-to-end solutions.

By virtue of the FlexE Tunnel technology, the forwarding latency, in the test of ZXCTN 609, is less than 0.5µs per node, and the protection switching time is less than 1ms, well satisfying the requirements of 5G uRLLC service for super-high reliability and ultra-low latency. ZTE completed the integrated transport of CPRI/eCPRI and Backhaul services, demonstrating the distinctive feature of ZTE 5G Flexhaul solution, namely, unified transport of Fronthaul and Backhaul. 

In the test of the ZXMP M721 CX66A, the end-to-end latency caused by equipment processing is the only 5µs, which is one order lower than that of the traditional OTN equipment.