Last Mile News

Improving the Backbone with Dual Redundant SIP Service by Ian Colville

Home

DSL News

AT&T Extends Uverse with Pair Bonding, Vectoring
AT&T is extending its U-verse reach with technologies including pair bonding, "G-vectoring" and micronodes, writes John Donovan, AT&T's Chief Technology Officer, in a company blog.

Pair bonding uses two copper wire pairs (instead of one) for each customer. An iNID device is installed outside the home to connect these wires and improve the signal.

G-vectoring predicts interference over the copper wire and helps mitigate crosstalk that can degrade the signal.

Micronodes bring fiber closer to the home, reducing the distance required for copper and enhancing the effectiveness of other technologies. Donovan says this strategy also helps with "spectrum expansion," which broadens the useful range of the communications channel to create even more capacity.

... > More

Motorola Tunes its Remote Mgt for Multi-Screen Digital Homes
Motorola Mobility is introducing a new "EDGE" Service Assurance Software Suite for activating, provisioning, maintaining and supporting all broadband services in multi-screen digital homes.

Motorola's EDGE Manager remote management software platform (formerly Motorola NBBS) is a multi-protocol management solution that supports Broadband Forum's TR-069, SNMP, OMA-DM,WIB, Telnet and HTTP DL Server protocols.

This provides operators with expanded visibility into a range of consumer equipment (including Motorola and third-party modems, gateways, set-tops and mobile devices) and enables them to manage those devices' usage and performance parameters from a single control point. It also integrates into operator's existing OSS and billing systems.

... > More

Verizon Boosts DSL to 10-15 Mbps Downstream
Verizon introduced a new s High Speed Internet DSL tier at 10 to 15 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. The service is initially available to more than 4 million households and small businesses.

Pricing for the 10 to 15Mbps/1 Mbps service is $49.99 per month for residential customers with voice service from Verizon, and $59.99 per month for those without voice service. Small-business pricing for the new, higher speed tier begins at $89.99 per month as a stand alone service with a two-year agreement, and $99.99 per month with no term contract. Equipment fees and other charges apply.

... > More

Occam Supplies Multiservice Access in Indiana
Perry-Spencer Rural Telephone Cooperative, has deployed Occam Networks' BLC 6000 multiservice access platform (MSAP) in a FTTH project serving Christmas Lake Village in Santa Claus, Indiana. PSC selected Occam to provide equipment for an ILEC fiber overbuild as PSC looks to enhance its broadband service. This FTTH upgrade of PSC's network, which also provides broadband services throughout a three county region of southern Indiana, is further enhancing the voice, video and data needs of the community.

In addition to the new fiber deployment in Santa Claus, Indiana, earlier this year PSC added Active Ethernet to serve business customers from its existing 10Gigabit Ethernet ring. The network was initially deployed for fixed wireless backhaul and has facilitated the convergence of wireless and business Ethernet traffic. PSC is currently in the process of connecting hospitals and small to medium businesses (SMBs) with high-speed voice, video and data over copper, fiber and native Ethernet services. Occam currently supports over 2,000 total access lines throughout PSC's service network.

... > More

Lantiq Samples 65nm VDSL2 CO Chipset with Line Bonding
Lantiq unveiled its latest generation 65nm chipset for central office linecards supporting the global VDSL2 and ADSL/2/2+ standards. The design can drive data rates up to 150 Mbps/downstream and 100 Mbps/upstream on a single line.

The new VINAX V3 chipset, which boasts the smallest package size and highest channel count, gives network equipment vendors a single solution to meet carrier requirements for all xDSL deployments. Sampling is underway. Some key features include:

Power consumption of just 0.9W per channel to meet future green design goals for broadband infrastructure, including requirements defined in the EU Code of Conduct (CoC) on Energy Consumption of Broadband Equipment. VINAX V3 also is the first VDSL2 solution to work with either Class AB or low-power Class H line drivers.
the small package size and highest channel count (per chipset) allows double VDSL2 linecard density compared to all on-market alternatives. Each VINAX V3 chipset occupies an area of 29 mm x 29 mm for 16 channels in VDSL2 Profile 17a. An 8-channel solution for VDSL2 profile 30a requires 30 percent less area.
On-chip integration of a MELT controller for remote line testing by carriers with no external equipment needed.
VINAX V3 uses the same Analog Front End (AFE) chip to support all of the VDSL2 profiles. The same PCB design can be used for a card deployed at a DSLAM or CO (Profile 17a, supporting up to 100 Mbps downstream/50 Mbps upstream) and a MDU card running Profile 30a (up to 150 Mbps downstream/100 Mbps upstream).
Higher density cards, up to 72 channels compared to 24 - 48 channels with earlier generation chipsets, reduce costs for both system vendors and carriers.

Lantiq noted that its VINAX V3 also supports line bonding techniques at chip and linecard levels that boost data-rate or data-reach for home and business users and support mobile backhaul applications with up to 500 Mbps symmetrical data rates. The chipset is also ready to support full System Vectoring, a VDSL2 enhancement that will reduce crosstalk in dense cable bundles.

... > More

Ohio's Wabash Mutual Selects Occam in Broadband Stimulus Project
Wabash Mutual Telephone , a subscriber-owned telephone exchange in Mercer County, Ohio, has chosen Occam Networks' BLC 6000 multiservice access platform (MSAP) to expand broadband services in west central Ohio. As part of a $4.3 million broadband stimulus fiber project, Wabash will provide digital television, high-speed Internet and voice services to Fort Recovery and the surrounding area. The project will be funded through a combination of Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) grants and loans and will increase broadband access in areas that currently have limited access to high-speed service.

For the deployment, Wabash will utilize Ethernet technologies on Occam's BLC 6000 MSAP, including a mix of GigE/10GigE capable Ethernet Optical Line Terminals (OLTs). Residential, business and community organization environments will be supported by the ON 2342 Optical Network Terminal (ONT). Occam noted that work is already underway and that Wabash plans to begin turning up its first services before the end of the year.

... > More

Great Plains Comm. Selects ADTRAN Total Access 5000
Great Plains Communications, a provider of integrated communications services to businesses and residents in Nebraska, has selected ADTRAN's flagship Total Access 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform (MSAP) for legacy switch migration and next-generation IP-based voice and data service delivery. Great Plains Communications is now in its 4th generation of family ownership and serves 30,000 customers in 90 rural communities.

... > More

Huawei and Silicon Vendors Complete DSL Retransmission Test
Huawei, in partnership with major DSL chipset suppliers, including Broadcom, Lantiq and Ikanos, successfully completed the industry' s first ITU-T G.998.4-compliant DSL retransmission interoperability (IOP) test. The test proves that DSL retransmission technology is mature, with good IOP among chipsets from major DSL chipset suppliers.

ITU-T G.998.4 retransmission technology is an important milestone for DSL technology because it improves DSL stability by diminishing impulse noise, lowering high bit error rates (BER), and reducing the number of dropped VoIP calls, and frozen, blank, or paused screens. This is seen as a key to ensuring high-quality IPTV services over DSL.

In this Huawei-led DSL retransmission test, chipsets from different suppliers passed the IOP test, even in high impulse noise environments. In the ADSL2+ IOP test between Broadcom and Lantiq, the payload throughputs showed little difference between retransmission features enabled with impulse noise, and retransmission features without impulse noise. The maximum packet delay caused by retransmission is approximately 6 milliseconds, and the anti-impulse-noise capability of the retransmission technology is more than 10 times that of traditional INP technologies.

Mr. Deng Xiaohe, Chief Officer of Access Network Product Line, Huawei, said, "DSL retransmission technology will help carriers worldwide to construct best-in-class ultra-broadband, ultra-stable DSL networks. We believe that through our joint efforts with industry-leading chipset suppliers, this technology will enable carriers to roll out new services that meet the needs of today' s consumers who seek not only higher bandwidth and richer services but better broadband service stability."

... > More

Verizon Global Wholesale Expands its White-Label Offerings
Verizon Global Wholesale is expanding its portfolio of services to include two white-label, or non-branded, high-speed Internet (HSI) options.

Starting immediately, wholesale customers can offer Verizon's DSL-based services -- Broadband Traffic Aggregation Service (BTAS) and InfoSpeed DSL Service -- under the customers' own branding.

Verizon's BTAS offers a turnkey solution for national providers that want to offer an easy-to-implement HSI service across the U.S. InfoSpeed, generally a regional service, provides the local access portion of DSL to providers that already operate an ATM backbone and that have local points of presence, allowing them to apply their own quality control to their services. Verizon Global Wholesale can also create ATM networks for providers.

Under the new options, a carrier can repackage the services with its own branding, including the name of the service, the URLs associated with it and the "company-dot-com" or "service-dot-net" e-mail addresses.

Verizon Global Wholesale offers HSI services with speeds up to 7.1 Mbps (download) and 768 Kbps (upload).

... > More

	ZyXEL's VDSL Products Gain IPv6 Phase II Certification ZyXEL Communications' VDSL CPE/IAD products have been certified for IPv6 Ready Logo Phase II by the IPv6 Forum. This makes ZyXEL the world's first vendor to receive an IPv6 Ready Logo Phase II certification for VDSL CPE/IAD products in the market.... > More

ADTRAN Supplies Total Access 5000 in Alaska
Copper Valley Telephone Cooperative, dba Copper Valley Telecom (CVT), a leading provider of communications services for Alaska's Valdez/Copper River Basin, has selected ADTRAN's Total Access 5000 Multi-Service Access and Aggregation Platform (MSAP) and Total Access 1124P OSP DSLAM for Broadband DLC and rural broadband expansion. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"The ADTRAN Total Access 5000 and Total Access 1124P solution allows us to provide Broadband services 70 miles from the nearest office and 85 kilofeet from the nearest commercial power source," said Mitch Vieu, plant manager, CVT.

... > More

Calix Cites Broadband Stimulus Boom
Calix announced a contract to supply its Unified Access portfolio to XIT Rural Telephone Cooperative (XIT), which serves rural customers across the northwest Texas panhandle. XIT will leverage advanced fiber and copper access technologies to deliver a superior broadband services experience to underdeveloped parts of its access network.

As part of the Broadband Stimulus program, XIT has been awarded a $3.1 million grant and $3.2 million in private funds. XIT will be leveraging a combination of E5-121 and E5-111 Ethernet Service Access Nodes (ESANs) for targeted VDSL2 and ADSL2+ services, as well as the E7 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) for Gigabit Ethernet aggregation and 10GE transport applications. XIT has also submitted an additional application for Round Two Broadband Stimulus award consideration.

Calix noted that this vendor selection by XIT pushes the total number of Calix Broadband Stimulus award winner selections to nine, which in aggregate represent over $100 million in stimulus-related grants, loans, and private investment for plant engineering, materials, labor, and other costs, including access equipment.

... > More

HomeGrid Forum Partners with BroadBand Forum
The HomeGrid Forum and the Broadband Forum have agreed to develop and deliver to the market, later this year, a global compliance and interoperability testing program for products using G.hn technology � ITU-T's unified wired home networking standard, which aims to unify the home networking of content and devices over any wire -- coaxial cable, phone lines, and power lines.

The Broadband Forum will support HomeGrid Forum's validation of G.hn products, their promotion of product conformance and interoperability, and help expedite the total time to market for HomeGrid Forum Certified products of all types. The compliance and interoperability program will enable HomeGrid Forum to certify a wide variety of products indicated with the HomeGrid Certified logo. Through this program, manufacturers will have defined guidelines to design, test, and develop G.hn products for market introduction. The HomeGrid Certified program, with the support of the Broadband Forum, will help facilitate adoption of G.hn in the market.

"The Broadband Forum has 15 years of interoperability experience, and our work spans from the core to the user. In our Connected Home Initiative, work has always supported various LAN technologies, and this collaboration is a natural outgrowth of our focus on supporting industry standards that allow for seamless networking of content throughout the home." said Robin Mersh, COO of the Broadband Forum.

... > More

Taiwan's Chunghwa Selects D-Link/Ikanos Equipment
Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest telecommunications operator, has selected Ikanos-based VDSL2 central office (CO) products and customer premises equipment (CPE) from D-Link for its high-speed multimedia service deployments. The Ikanos-based modems and IP DSLAMs are being utilized by Chunghwa Telecom in its next-generation fiber and VDSL network deployment, planned for roll out in the second half of 2010.

D-Link is using Ikanos' Fusiv Vx180 communications processor in its VDSL2 modem, the DSL-6541K. Ikanos' Fusiv Vx180 is a low-power, single-chip communications processor that incorporates a MIPS-based CPU core capable of 500 MHz processing speeds, digital signal processor (DSP)-based VoIP capabilities and security.

D-Link's DEV-3726K 24-port IP DSLAMs being deployed by Chunghwa Telecom include Ikanos' low power broadband DSL CO chipsets. These chipsets incorporate Ikanos Quality Video (iQV) technology -� a combination of ITU G.inp compliant retransmission and Rapid Rate Adaptation (advanced ITU-T compliant SOS, SRA and Bitswap) technologies. This enables the chipset to intelligently adjust its data rate instantly to provide optimal quality in any line condition. Ikanos said that even in very noisy conditions, its iQV maintains image quality with no degradation. Additionally, the chipsets support 100 Mbps symmetrical performance and enhanced impulse noise protection (INP) schemes.

... > More

France Surpasses 20 Million Broadband Subscriptions
As of 31 March 2010, there were 20.06 million high-speed and ultra high-speed internet subscriptions in France. The number of subscriptions increased about 370,000 over the quarter. Over one year, the growth was about 1.69 million (+9%). The number of gross sales is about 1.075 million over the quarter.

19.73 million of these subscriptions were high-speed subscriptions. The number of ADSL subscriptions (18.81 million at the end of the quarter) represented 95% of high-speed broadband subscriptions and increased by about 315,000 throughout the quarter.

As of 31 march 2010, the total base of ultra high-speed broadband subscribers in France was estimated to 330,000 (about 40,000 net adds over the quarter), all operators and all technologies combined, including:

75,000 FTTH or FTTB subscribers. The total net adds (+5,000 over the quarter) is due to growth in FTTH subscriptions;
255,000 other subscribers (hybrid fiber-coax solution) which increased of about 35,000 over the quarter.

... > More

ASSIA's Optimization Software Garners 80% of U.S. DSL Lines
ASSIA, which supplies software for Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) of DSL networks, noted that it has now established sales with U.S. service providers representing 80% of the nation's DSL footprint. ASSIA's U.S. customers collectively provide DSL service to 27 million subscribers.

"We are extremely pleased with our customer traction over the past year," said Dr. John Cioffi, Chairman and CEO of ASSIA. "DSL service providers are increasingly recognizing the significant value that ASSIA can bring to their DSL networks. ASSIA is very active in serving customers on four continents and expects to further increase its penetration of the North American market in the next year."

... > More

ZyXEL Offers Dual-WAN, Multi-Service, Wireless VDSL2 Gateway
ZyXEL Communications is introducing a single gateway that supports copper, fiber-to-the-node (FTTN)

and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments. The P2812HNU, with dual-WAN, offers an integrated VDSL2 modem that enables service providers to support up to 100/50 Mbps over newer PTM networks -- along with ADSL2+ fallback to accommodate existing networks. The gateway also has a dedicated Gigabit Ethernet WAN port for FTTH deployments. ZyXEL's new gateway also features 300Mbps 802.11n wireless, four Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and two SIP-based VoIP ports. On the management side, the device supports TR-069 for remote configuration by the service provider.

... > More

Bell Labs' Phantom-mode DSL Achieves 300 Mbps at 400m
Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs unveiled a "DSL Phantom Mode" technique that achieves downstream transmission speeds of 300 Mbps over distances up to 400 meters and up to 100 Mbps at 1km. This new DSL performance boost is expected to reinvigorate copper access network, including in-building VDSL2 network, for 100+ Mbps services.

The gains are achieved using a virtual or "phantom" channel that supplements the two physical wires that are the standard configuration for copper transmission lines. This analogue phantom mode technique is further enhanced using vectoring to eliminate interference or "crosstalk" between copper wires, and the bonding of two copper pairs into an aggregated pipe. The company has demonstrated these techniques in lab tests.

The "phantom mode" technique of creating virtual channels has actually been understood for decades. Alcatel-Lucent said this breakthrough was enable by combining phantom mode with the power of fast processor to eliminate crosstalk between copper pairs in a binder. Practical implementation will require CPE capable of bonding the 3 channels over two copper pairs. Vectorized VDSL2 silicon will also be required.

"Beyond a showcase of the innovative technology for which Bell Labs is known, DSL Phantom Mode is a demonstration of Bell Labs' direct impact on the market and its ability to invent technology that serves as a competitive differentiator for Alcatel-Lucent and for its customers," said Gee Rittenhouse, vice-president of research at Bell Labs. "Similar breakthroughs in optical access technologies such as ten gigabit PON technology, for which we recently won an FTTH Council Innovation Award, further show Bell Labs' continual and significant influence on Alcatel-Lucent's technology and portfolio leadership."

... > More

Actelis Extends Ethernet-over-Copper with Dynamic Spectral Shaping
Actelis is leveraging newly developed Dynamic Rate Boost (DRB) and enhanced Dynamic Spectral Shaping (DSS) technologies to significantly extended the capabilities of EFM over bonded copper solutions.

The innovations significantly extend the performance and "spectral friendliness" of Actelis' Ethernet access devices and aggregation systems already deliver the best performing and most reliable Ethernet service over bonded-copper links. Both innovations are implemented in software.

Specifically, Actelis said its DRB technology optimizes transmission over multiple copper pairs, delivering more than 2x rate and reach, compared to competing EFM solutions available today. The combination of Actelis' DRB technology, along with symmetrical higher rates of up to 15Mpbs per single copper pair, provides significant performance advantages, enhanced reliability and substantial reduction of CAPEX and OPEX.

The Dynamic Spectral Shaping (DSS) capabilities enable Actelis' standards-based and spectrally compliant XR239 EFM Repeaters to support up to 15Mbps per single copper pair and more than 100Mbps using 8-pair bonded links.

The company said its DSS virtually eliminates the impact on ADSL/ADSL2+/VDSL2 without sacrificing performance of either service. This means that Actelis' XR239 EFM Repeaters, now in their fifth generation, can be deployed to provide even higher symmetrical throughput and longer reach to new and existing customers throughout the access network. This will enable service providers to deploy repeaters further into their customer serving area for delivery of advanced broadband services, including backhauling voice and data traffic from DSLAMs and mobile base stations.

... > More

AT&T Extends its 24 Mbps U-verse Internet Service
AT&T is

extending the footprint of its U-verse High Speed Internet Max Turbo service to 120 markets across 22 states. Max Turbo, which offers speeds of up to 24 Mbps downstream and up to 3 Mbps upstream, was initially launched in Austin, San Antonio and St. Louis in December 2009.

AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet Max Turbo is priced at $65 per month for eligible residential customers and $95 per month for small business customers.

... > More

Motorola Tunes its Remote Mgt for Multi-Screen Digital Homes

31-Aug-10

Verizon Boosts DSL to 10-15 Mbps Downstream

30-Aug-10

Occam Supplies Multiservice Access in Indiana

25-Aug-10

Lantiq Samples 65nm VDSL2 CO Chipset with Line Bonding

23-Aug-10

Ohio's Wabash Mutual Selects Occam in Broadband Stimulus Project

03-Aug-10

Great Plains Comm. Selects ADTRAN Total Access 5000