Finding a home for VDSL gear

Carrier sales reps who've learned to spend time with corporate IT departments as well as traditional telecom managers have dreamed of the day when they could whisper one eight-letter word into buyers' ears.

The magic incantation? "Ethernet."

But matching up carriers and customers for much-discussed metro Ethernet services, instead of always shoehorning LAN traffic into T-1, T-3, frame relay or other "telecom" services, is easier said than done. Ethernet is the quintessential on-net service requiring dedicated high-capacity transport, while many if not most carriers base their offerings on a mix of their own network assets and other people's network elements.

For example, you can't just start renting Bell copper loops to end users and start providing them 10M bit/sec of native Ethernet connectivity. Or can you?

Long-time access and transport vendor Telco Systems is preparing a way to bring Ethernet to more of the masses. Its planned CopperMax VDSL Switch uses Very high bit-rate DSL technology to push throughput to 10M and beyond over copper lines.

The 19-inch rack-mountable CopperMax, to be officially unveiled at the upcoming ComNet 2001 show in Washington, D.C., also is up-to-date on the full spectrum of Ethernet standards. It supports 802.1d Spanning Tree Algorithm, 802.1p Priority Queuing and 802.1q virtual LAN tagging, among others. It provides DSL Access Multiplexer functionality plus LAN switching to deliver 10M bit/sec standard Ethernet over telephone lines.

One immediate knock against the CopperMax, which I've already heard from a vendor pushing fiber instead of copper, goes like this: "Oh well, VDSL. That has more stringent distance restrictions than any other type of DSL."

Is that a problem? It is if you think of DSL as only a local exchange carrier service provided straight out of the central office. But DSL is more flexible than that. It's a technology can handle the last mile - or in this case, the last three-quarters of a mile, since VDSL taps out at about 4,500 feet - in any network topology that a carrier or enterprise wishes to set up.

Telco Systems itself is careful not to fall into the trap of labeling DSL a central office-only service. Telco's marketing materials, which tout its new ownership by Israeli tech up-and-comer BATM Systems, are replete with slogans like "Redefining the edge" and "Wherever you define the edge." The CopperMax could go in multitenant office spaces, remote neighborhood terminals, collocation sites - the possibilities run the gamut.

The point is: That final hop to the user is more likely to be copper than fiber for some time. Shorten it as much as possible, and put 10M of throughput on it, and you may have a winning service.

Another example of DSL's role beyond the central office: Intermedia Communications, which operates one of the largest shared-tenant telecom businesses in the country, is vastly expanding its DSL coverage in partnership with Rhythms NetConnections.

Intermedia serves up national DSL with security
Network World, 12/11/00

And see our latest report on the state of the dedicated BLEC, or building local exchange carrier, market.

BLECs are building a name in broadband for buildings
Network World, 12/11/00

Optical fiber and DSL find a meeting place
The Edge, 11/07/00

So is optics really just hype after all?
Network World, 11/20/00

Contact Edge Managing Editor David Rohde

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