Making a smooth, fast and economical transition to offering next generation (voice, data and video) services is vital for carriers, yet poses critical challenges. What is the best technology to choose, from the standpoint of financial investment, time-to-market and the ability to deliver the services customers will buy? And what processes can best assist the service provider in making the transition? With the right approach and the appropriate process improvements, carriers can rapidly introduce new technologies, such as ADSL2+ and VDSL, that will help them successfully meet the competitive and financial challenges before them. The need for decisive action is clear.
Service providers face significant technical challenges when they attempt to deliver triple-play services over copper F2 facilities. Quite simply, the greater the distance a signal must travel over copper, the lower the available bandwidth. Even advanced DSL protocols such as ADSL2+, which are capable of carrying triple-play bandwidths over shorter distances, encounter these limits.
Some carriers have decided to “build around” such problems by constructing new fiber optic access facilities to every customer location. This solution is known as “fiber to the home,” or FTTH. But an alternative approach promises to deliver the triple-play goods without the cost of FTTH. The same services can be delivered at lower cost using the “fiber to the neighborhood” approach. Studies show that most distribution (F2) loops are 4,000 feet or less. Over this distance, using the most advanced DSL protocols (ADSL2+ and VDSL), it is possible to deliver voice, data and video services over copper loop facilities. But pushing such large amounts of data through a twisted pair of copper wires demands top performance from the loop facilities. The quality of the F2 plant is more important than ever to guarantee the minimum speed necessary for simultaneous voice, data and video.
A high-speed service such as video on demand, which requires bandwidth of more than 16 Mbps, requires very “clean” copper. In addition, unlike data service, ADSL2+ and VDSL for video service requires sustained minimum speed. Where data communication protocols make it possible to resend dropped packets, video requires sustained communication continuity. This presents a significant challenge for service providers. Even at the reduced loop lengths made possible by FTTN, a significant percentage of F2 plant is not capable of supporting video transmission. Studies confirm that between 20 percent and 35 percent of F2 plants will not support the requirements of video using ADSL2+ and VDSL. Testing and conditioning the plant is an essential process for carriers intent on offering triple-play services.