Why @FlowJamaica may upgrade ADSL to 10 Gbps VDSL G.fast by 2016 with cooled DSLAM

“In many countries, doing nothing is not an option any more in my opinion. In particular, this is true where there is significant coverage and competition from cable companies, who I expect to be embarking on another upgrade over the next few years that will enable them to support 1Gbps services....We are also likely to see some fiber to the home”

Ovum analyst Kamalini Ganguly commenting on the development of G.fast upgrade that enables ADSL to deliver Broadband speeds of up to 10 Gbps

Telecom Provider LIME may have one more trick up their sleeve after all as it relates to ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) as ADSL gets to Die Another Day. Queue the song Die Another Day by Madonna.

In fact, they may not even need to launch FTTH (Fiber to the Home) after all as I’d predicted in my blog article entitled “CWC invests US$250 million in LIME Jamaica - Mobile 4G LTE, Broadband, LIME TV and FTTH Expansion will make LIME the Google of Jamaica”.

During the week of Sunday October 19^th 2014, several Telecom Providers announced at the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam that they'd be putting a new Technology called G.fast to the test to enable ADSL Lines with 1 Gbps Speeds by 2016 as stated in the article “Lowly DSL poised for gigabit speed boost”, published October 21, 2014 6:15 AM PDT by Stephen Shankland, CNET News.

Already Telecom Equiptment suppliers Broadcom, China-based Triductor Technology and Israeli startup Sckipio are making DSP (Digital Signal Processors) that support the VDSL (Vectoring Digital Subscriber Line) Technology that makes G.fast work. Already Sckipio has plans for testing its DP3000 chip for DSP in DSLAM and its CP1000 chip for the CPE i.e. Gigabit ADSL modems by 2016.

G.fast is a protocol still in development with pair of ITU (International Telecommunication Union) ITU-T G.9700 and ITU-T G.9701 still being in development. It has the potential to ramp up Broadband Speeds on ADSL up to as high as 10Gbps as reported in the article “G.fast: 1 Gigabit per second DSL”, published July 14, 2014 21:14 GMT (14:14 PDT) by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, ZDNet.

Once ratified, it’ll offer speeds comparable to FTTH such as Google Fiber, AT&T U-Verse and Verizon’s FiOS as described in my blog article entitled “Gig.U Third Annual Report - Google Fiber's American Gigabit Internet Revolution as Jamaica starts Broadband Internet Revolution” which ADSL has long been competing against.

But clearly Broadcom is excited, based on the tone of Broadcom Senior Director of Product Marketing Jim McKeon, who apparently has already found buyers for the product, quote: “We think it's very competitive relative to the alternative of deploying fiber. We believe we are going to be the first to market with this. We're very excited for the potential for G.fast to unlock the hidden value of existing copper plant that is distributed worldwide for DSL”.

So how exactly does VDSL work?

ADSL gets G.fast Upgrade to 1Gbps - Superfast Squelching upgrade requires Customers come closer

How it works is really simple!

ADSL uses high frequencies to carry Data over old Twisted Pair Telephone Wires typical found in POTS (Plain Old Telephone Systems). The problem is that there is a limit to how high the frequencies can go to increase Bandwidth and carry more Data, as beyond a certain frequency, the Twisted Pair Telephone Wires begin to experience what's referred to as Skin Effect, where the outer layers of the Wire heat up due to the higher frequencies travelling through them.

Line conditioning such as reducing the capacitance and inductance on the Twisted Pair Telephone Wires helps to mitigate against this effect. But once outside in the 600 pair Copper cables used to carry the multiplexed Telephone signal, the cross-interference coupled with EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference) will severely degrade the ADSL Signal.

For this reason, customer’s Landlines are assessed to see if the level of noise on the Twisted Pair Telephone Wires is low enough to accommodate. In some cases, the Twisted Pair Telephone Wires may be individually wrapped in flexible metallic conduit that earthed to reduce the cross-interference from other Twisted Pair Telephone Wires inside of the DSLAM. The DSLAM itself may even be air-conditioned and cooled so as to reduce the effect of localized heating due to the Skin Effect on Twisted Pair Telephone Wires.

Finally customer have to live within 200m of the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer), which is what multiplexes the Internet onto the customer's Landline so that the ADSL Modem, which is the CPE (Customer Premises Equiptment) can filter and separate the Analog voice channel multiplexed with the Data Channel at a higher frequency.

With G.fast, a new technique called Vectoring is basically traditional ADSL with an additional firmware and hardware update to the ADSL that keeps track of what Data is being multiplexed onto each Landline inside of the DSLAM Cabinet.

At the higher frequencies required for 1 Gbps speeds, those higher frequencies will cause self-interference within the cabinet that Twisted Pair Telephone Wires shielding cannot resolve unless the Twisted Pair Telephone Wires were shielded with a braided Cylindrical Earth Wire shield like Coaxial Cable.

That, in case you're wondering, is why Triple Play Provider FLOW can provide high speed 100MBps Internet and VAS (Value Added Services) such as Hosted PBX as explained in my blog article entitled “FLOW rolls out Hosted PBX - How 100 MBs FLOW Ultra can power a Private WiMaX Community Network” without worrying about cross-interference inside of their cross-connection cabinets.

G.fast with Fiber Optic Backhaul – DSLAM cooled and Twisted Pair Telephone Lines shielded

Because the Twisted Pair Telephone Lines are not shielded, vectoring basically uses this knowledge of what's being transmitted on each Twisted Pair Telephone Wire and the DSP algorithm to predict the pattern of interference from nearby Twisted Pair Telephone Lines inside the DSLAM Cabinet.

It then squelches out the interference, thereby allowing the transmission of super high speed Data at speeds nearing 1 Gbps. I say “nearing” as in reality you’ll probably see speeds of say 950Mbps as vectoring can only squelch out noise inside of the DSLAM Cabinet not outside. Also you can only get the full 1 Gbps if you live within 50m of the DSLAM or the Telecom Providers Exchange.

Since that's not going to be practical, a solution has to be found. That solution is the use of Fiber Optics as backhaul to carry High Speed Data to the DSLAM Cabinet, bringing it closer to the customer! Makes sense as ADSL already installed and it’s cheaper to upgrade than to buy new equiptment for FTTH.

Technology Leadership as important as pricing - ADSL to Die Another Day as G.fast makes 1 GBps Internet possible

Telecom Providers such as LIME will use Fiber Optics to extend their DSLAM range by bringing the high speed data to the DSLAM to be multiplexed inside of the DSLAM Cabinets with the Analog voice on the Twisted Pair Telephone Lines, like traditional ADSL.

Only this time with the Hardware and firmware updates for DSL, they'll be able to carry speeds of up to 1 GBps instead of just 8MBps, the current maximum for LIME ADSL as noted in my blog article entitled “LIME rolls out new Business themed ADSL and Local and International Landline Calling Bundles - DigiHome offense could Herald the coming of LIME FTTH and relaunch of LIME TV”.

Because its will now be within the required 50m, the rest of the line to the customer’s premises can be conditioned i.e. individually wrapped in flexible metallic conduit so as to further reduce external EMI.

With other Technologies requiring the installation of new Infrastructure, this firmware and hardware upgrade couldn’t have come at a better time, lending a new lease on life for ADSL  which was designed to be free at one point as predicted in my blog article entitled “LIME goes FTTH like Verizon's FiOS - Free ADSL after FTTH Mass Adoption”.

Telecom Provider LIME doesn’t have to invest in any significant amount of New Hardware, just a few firmware and Hardware upgrades in the form of circuit packs to upgrade the DSLAM and ADSL Modems to process the higher speeds. Being a leader in High speed Data Technology is just as important as pricing according to the BroadbandTrends Survey among eighty eight (88) Telecoms Providers.

The DSLAM Cabinets will have to be retrofitted with Air conditioning to keep them at a super-cool 22◦C and the Twisted Pair Telephone Lines coming from the DLAM to the customer premises will have to be shielded with flexible metallic conduit that’s earthed.

ADSL gets to Die Another Day as G.fast makes 1 GBps Internet possible over Twisted Pair Telephone Lines!

BroadbandTrends Survey

ITU-T G.9700 and ITU-T G.9701