I found that mention of the MA5611s on a different post on here (ta!), so was trying to investigate ... it does indeed seem to be an elusive beast.
From a list of Huawei documentation (ie just the titles), and one or two other references
- it looks like it is used in the Swisscom FTTS rollout
- it appears to support vectoring
- it gets listed among DSLAMs that support the use of VoIP terminating in the home gateway
- it is IP waterproof, and can sit in submerged chambers.
- Power can be supplied over copper pairs.
I agree that Huawei probably intend for it to be used for G.fast applications ... but the surprise that I had earlier was that there has been no explicit mention of any particular supplier for these trials, until the mention of Swansea when Alcatel turned up.
I should acknowledge that Huawei have been mentioned in previous trials, and it wouldn't surprise me to see that they'd been used in the trial in Hethersett.