DSL Prime: Innovation

New products are hitting the market, but the industry needs independent test results to judge competing claims, both for standards and for equipment.

by Dave Burstein DSL Prime [December 29, 2003]

Japan's 45/3 raises ADSL upstream
An unannounced Globespan chip is competing with market leading Centillium for bragging rights for the fastest ADSL deployment in Japan. Effective speeds are lower to most users more than a block from the telco office, but most get 10 Mbps or more. Japanese and Korean consumers are paying extra for speeds over the older 7 Mbps, typically seeking out the fastest service the they can get. That's clear evidence from the market of what users want.

Made me laugh when a telco exec wrote me today that 2 Mbps is more than "what 99 percent of the users could effectively use ... in the next 3-5 years." What he is saying is that his company (a Bell) doesn't have any applications they intend to sell that need speed. That's why we fight to keep the net open, end-to-end, so that someone other than the providers than create innovation.

Sumitomo's inexpensive VDSL 70/30 switch
Because D.C. is considering what to require for "fiber to the curb" to be equal to "fiber to the home", it's important to look at what's practical. VDSL chipmakers are currently offering 70 Mbps downloads, resulting in products including the MegaBit Gear VMS5000 that supports 16 ports. A similar unit could easily be designed for the edge of a U.S. Bell FTTC network. Here are the specs for a unit Verizon could install in my basement in 2004:

Maximum data rate: downstream 70 Mbps, upstream 30 Mbps
Interface: 10/100/1000 Base-TX, 2-port RJ-45 (gig-E)
Store-and-forward, Port based VLAN, Tag based VLAN, IGMP Snooping function for IP multicast, SNMP/telnet/web based management, ITU-T*1 G.993.1

Starr: DSL Forum Progress in Paris
Reaching out worldwide
"Next August's meeting will be in Seoul, in recognition of the extraordinary success of Korea in DSL and world-leading innovation. This will not just be an ordinary meeting, we will adapt our content to the needs of Asian deployment. We will work with all Asian companies to make it possible for them to attend. Those interested should contact our executive director Karen Moreland at kmoreland (at) dslforum.org. We'll have a special offer for companies not yet members to attend.

We held our planning meeting in London and created the 'European Market Focus Group', which met again in Paris in November. They will produce white papers on networking and DSLHome in Europe. We expect some key Europeans to keynote our Brussels meeting March 1-4. We're also developing material for the ITU-D providing technical support for developing nation's broadband."

DSL Prime strongly believes this is a worldwide industry, and we all can learn from peers around the world. I know from personal experience that the leaders of the DSL Forum are very open to anyone in the industry wanting to become involved. I also know it can be difficult to reach across language and cultural barriers, and for new companies to become involved. E-mail me freely if you'd like an introduction to someone at the Forum who shares your interests.

Objective test results
"Interoperability is crucial, and we've accredited eight testing labs and are setting standards for the ITL program. Major service providers are looking for the ITL data while evaluating products. We're also updating TR-048 for the higher bit rates, looking for quick approval. We're also making progress on TR-60 testing for G.shdsl. TR-62 on autoconfiguration updates TR-37, while TR-61 updated ADSL premises configurations."

A megabit more on bridge tap
Bridge taps rob many U.S. DSL subscribers of the speed they need, and Starr believes the problems have been dramatically reduced with new technology. Westell and TI have claimed as much in press releases, and Armando Geday of Globespan tells me they've done similar. But this is the first confirmation I have the new techniques are working well. Starr adds that ADSL2+ plugfests are a high priority, as the ADSL2 testing is proceeding apace.

Copyright 2003 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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