Big guns line up to standardise DMT-VDSL

Five industry leaders have launched an initiative to ensure interoperability in the DMT-VDSL market.

Five industry leaders have launched an initiative to ensure interoperability in the DMT-VDSL market.

Alcatel Microelectronics, GlobespanVirata, Ikanos Communications, STMicroelectronics and Sarlink Semiconductor have joined forces with the goal of producing interoperable DMT-based semiconductors that meet international standards for broadband VDSL.

The DMT-VDSL initiative is committed to DMT as the line coding technology of choice for the delivery of more reliable, higher quality VDSL-based data, video and voice services to homes and businesses.

The five member companies are developing VDSL chipsets based on DMT modulation technology as adopted by ETSI and ANSI.

These member companies have agreed to achieve verifiable interoperability this year between their respective products, using the ITU-T's standard band plans, including Plan 998 and Plan 997, at speeds up to 52Mbit/s.

Achieving joint interoperability will boost the number of products that meet global specifications, and accelerate the market for VDSL solutions by increasing choice and lowering costs for equipment manufacturers.

VDSL is an emerging standard for symmetrical and asymmetrical transmission in support of full-service access network applications including data, video and voice channels, plus high-speed Internet - at up to 52Mbit/s using existing copper telephone lines.

In real-world conditions, noise and other line interference degrades signal integrity, impacting the speed and distance of VDSL transmission.

DMT modulation overcomes this interference by configuring the transmitted signal in real-time to match the line conditions.

The result is higher quality, error-reduced communications at higher data rates over longer distances.

Tests show that VDSL modems and other products designed with DMT-based components will deliver significantly improved speed and distance performance.

Carriers have already standardised on DMT for their ADSL transmission.

According to Dell'Oro Group, a market research firm that specialises in strategic competitive analysis in the networking industry, the number of DSL subscribers on a worldwide basis will reach 32 million by year-end 2002.

DMT-VDSL fits seamlessly into the carriers' existing DMT infrastructure, making DMT-VDSL a pragmatic extension of their current service offerings.

"Concerning wide-scale deployment of high-datarate and video delivery over copper pairs, backward compatibility of the DMT modulation with existing ADSL deployment is essential", said Leon Cloetens, vice president and general manager, wireline division at Alcatel Microelectronics.

"Our long history in DSL deployment has lead to an understanding of the importance of modulation and spectrum compatibility for technology scalability.

Industry wide, interoperable solutions will be a key element to enable high volume deployment of future applications in broadband access technology".

"This announcement highlights a major industry initiative driving the standardisation of a DMT-based line coding technique for VDSL and we are pleased to be at the forefront of this critical technology development", said Angelo Stephano, vice president of marketing for GlobespanVirata.

"Standardising on a single line code will drive interoperability, which will be a key driver for large scale VDSL deployment".

"DMT-VDSL technology offers the superior performance which is required for carriers to provide high-speed data, voice, and video services to their subscribers", said Behroos Resvani, founder and chief technical officer of Ikanos Communications.

"Standardising on DMT technology will allow carriers to leverage their existing DMT infrastructure and maximise subscriber revenue".

"DMT-VDSL is a natural extension of our successful business in ADSL chipsets", said Pietro Palella, general manager, STMicroelectronics' Wireline Communications Division.

"It is clear now that DMT was the right choice for ADSL and now we are confident that it will also be the optimal solution for VDSL".

"The communications industry knows that DMT line coding is a superior technology for maximising speed and distance performance in VDSL modems and other products", said Andrew Faulkner, VDSL product manager, Sarlink Semiconductor.

"This announcement on interoperability indicates that the industry leaders are committed to delivering powerful, cost-effective DMT-based silicon that will benefit customers".

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