The Broadband Forum (BBF), like other industry bodies previously confined to a wireline environment, has played an increasingly important role in 5G. Last year it submitted specifications for key elements of a converged wireless/wireline architecture to 3GPP, and now it has published a 5G Network Architecture Overview. This focuses on bringing the same intelligence and automation that is envisaged for the virtualized 5G RAN and core, to the transport network, along with the high levels of capacity and efficiency that 5G or converged data traffic volumes will require. Adding 5G New Radio to a 4G site means up to 10Gbps backhaul capacity will be needed in many cases, said BBF, and that’s before fronthaul, with its very low latency demands,…