Lisbon
Portugal
- Sylwester Laskowski
Intermediate
- Bank transfer
Event Organizer(s)
Description
This course provides a comprehensive and regulator-focused content on wholesale bitstream services over fiber networks (FTTH/NGA), including technical, regulatory and business/economic aspects. It starts with coverage of the telecom networks evolution, fundamental Internet technologies and architectures, and main optical access technologies including NGA/FTTH architecture, P2P (Point-to-Point), GPON (Gigabit PON), XG-PON (10G PON) and XGS-PON (10G Symmetrical PON), followed by a detailed examination of wholesale bitstream architectures and handover models, including L2 (Ethernet layer) and L3 (IP layer) models, local and central handovers, VLAN models, as well as Virtual Unbundled Local Access (VULA).
Further, the course covers regulatory and economic aspects of wholesale bitstream access over fiber, including regulatory frameworks (EECC, BEREC), market definitions, SMP obligations, pricing approaches, as well as and Equivalence of Inputs (EoI) and competition role of wholesale bitstream access. Participants will gain insight also into the technical implementation of bitstream over FTTH, as well as QoS management, KPIs, and SLA design, with a strong focus on regulatory monitoring and enforcement as applied by NRAs. The course also covers the design and evaluation of reference offers, international practices in migration from copper to fiber, and the growing role of AI in provisioning, monitoring, and compliance. It concludes with future trends in optical access networks and their impact on wholesale bitstream services and broadband competition.
This course is targeted at managers, engineers and regulators.
No prior knowledge or qualification is required to register for this course, considering the given target population.
This training will invite a maximum of 20 participants.
At the end of the training, the participant should have gained knowledge about the key aspects of:
- · Describe optical access networks (FTTH/NGA) and Internet architecture
- · Explain wholesale bitstream architectures and handover models (L2/L3)
- · Analyze regulatory and economic aspects of wholesale bitstream access over fiber
- · Explain the technical characteristics of bitstream over FTTH/GPON
- · Asses Quality of Service (QoS) and traffic management for fiber access networks
- · Interpret and evaluate SLAs and KPIs for bitstream access
- · Examine and evaluate design and evaluation of reference offers
- · Compare international practices and case studies for copper to fiber-based wholesale access
- · Analyze the case of wholesale bitstream services in Portugal
- · Discuss the future evolution and use of AI in optical access networks and bitstream services
This course will be delivered using face-to-face training methodology, which is defined as follows:
- The course will be conducted as two full days lecture sessions in a face to face manner at the premises of Lisbon, Portugal, on 3 and 4 September 2026. The participants will attend lectures and interact with the tutor on the given topics.
- All presentations from face to face lectures/sessions used during the course will be made available on the ITU Academy platform (before the start of each course day).
- Course forum, asynchronous and online on the ITU Academy, will be organized based on discussion topics raised by the instructor (after return to the home country), on 9 September 2026 for Day 1 lecture material, and 10 September 2026 for Day 2 lecture material, however different dates can be agreed in coordination with the course participants at the end of Day 2.
- Final Quiz test which will be assigned online on the ITU Academy platform on 11 September 2026 and will remain open for 72 hours, however different date can be agreed in coordination with the course participants at the end of Day 2.
- All information in the course be given in a timely manner (prior to the event) by the course tutor on the ITU Academy platform.
The evaluation of the participants will be based on 60% from the Final Quiz and 40% from the answers given in the course forum on the raised discussion topics by the tutor on the ITU Academy after the course, thus reflecting both the quality and the quantity of time spent on the course.
Attendance on the course face to face lectures at the venue in Lisbon is mandatory in order to access the Course Forum and the Final Quiz which will be given later online on the ITU Academy (after the return of participants to their home countries).
The Course Forum will be open on the ITU Academy on 9 September 2026 according to the GMT time.
The Final Quiz will be open on the ITU Academy platform from 00:00 hours on Friday (11 September 2026) according to the GMT time, and will remain open at least for 72 hours after opening, so each participant can choose the most convenient time to solve it. It will consist of 20 questions (multiple choices). However, after the start of the attempt the Quiz should be completed in 90 minutes.
Activity Weighting (%)
- Mandatory forum contributions (discussion topics on the ITU Academy platform) : 40%
- Final Quiz test on the ITU Academy platform : 60%
- Total : 100%
The course is completed successfully with a total grade of 70% or higher. The grading will be completed by the course tutor after the course is fully completed. Each fully registered participant who successfully completes the course with a total grade of 70% or higher will receive an ITU Certificate of Completion for this course.
The ITU certificates will be given to participants via the ITU Academy platform after completion of the course reporting and processing within the ITU.
Day 1: Wholesale Bitstream Access over FTTH/GPON Networks
Session 1: Optical Access Networks and Internet Architecture
- Telecom network evolution and Internet fundamentals
- IP networks and broadband service delivery
- Optical access networks (FTTH, FTTB)
- P2P fiber, GPON, XG-PON, and XGS-PON technologies
- Comparison of fiber access architectures
Session 2: Wholesale Bitstream Architectures and Handover Models
- Wholesale broadband access architectures
- PPPoE, BNG/BRAS, and aggregation networks
- L2 and L3 bitstream access models
- Local and central handover approaches
- VLAN concepts (C-VLAN, S-VLAN)
- Virtual Unbundled Local Access (VULA)
Session 3: Regulatory and Economic Aspects
- EECC and BEREC regulatory frameworks
- Wholesale access markets and SMP obligations
- Regulatory remedies (VULA, LLU, Bitstream)
- Wholesale pricing methodologies
- Non-discrimination and Equivalence of Inputs (EoI)
- Competition impacts of wholesale access
Session 4: Technical Characteristics of Bitstream over FTTH/GPON
- Bitstream implementation over FTTH/GPON
- VLANs and traffic encapsulation
- Service mapping for Internet, VoIP, and IPTV
- Multicast delivery and bandwidth allocation
- Contention management and network resiliency
- Fiber-to-the-Room (FTTR)
Session 5: QoS and Traffic Management
- QoS and QoE fundamentals
- Traffic prioritization and classification
- Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA)
- Traffic shaping and congestion management
- IPTV multicast management
- KPIs and regulatory QoS considerations
Day 2: Operations, Regulation, and Future Evolution
Session 6: SLAs and KPIs for Bitstream Access
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
- Key performance indicators (availability, latency, jitter, packet loss, bandwidth)
- QoS monitoring and reporting
- OSS/BSS, probes, and NMS tools
- EoI/EoO principles and dispute resolution
- Regulatory use of SLAs and KPIs
Session 7: Design and Evaluation of Reference Offers
- Purpose and structure of reference offers
- Wholesale services, handover points, SLAs, and pricing
- Non-discrimination requirements
- OSS/BSS integration
- Technical and economic evaluation
- Future-proofing for next-generation PON technologies
Session 8: International Practices and Case Studies
- Migration from copper to fiber networks
- Regulatory approaches to fiber transition
- Copper and fiber coexistence
- International pricing, QoS, and SLA practices
- European fiber access case studies
- Impact on competition and customer experience
Session 9: Case Study – Wholesale Bitstream Services in Portugal
- Portuguese wholesale fiber market overview
- MEO wholesale access obligations
- OCE and ORAB reference offers
- L2/L3 bitstream models and VLAN implementation
- EoI vs. EoO approaches
- Regulatory and operational challenges
Session 10: Future Evolution and AI in Optical Access Networks
- Migration to 25G/50G-PON
- PON support for 5G/6G transport networks
- Enterprise and industrial use cases
- AI-driven traffic forecasting and QoS management
- Predictive maintenance and fault detection
- Automated SLA management and future regulatory trends
- Open access fiber and emerging competition models
Tutors
Registration information
Unless specified otherwise, all ITU Academy training courses are open to all interested professionals, irrespective of their race, ethnicity, age, gender, religion, economic status and other diverse backgrounds. We strongly encourage registrations from female participants, and participants from developing countries. This includes least developed countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing countries.
