Here are a couple of questions you might be interested in knowing the answers to.
- Did you know there are about 1.2 B installed copper connections globally that link households and businesses?
- Did you know that VDSL2 Vectoring technology is capable today of enabling those links to provide 100Mbps broadband over that existing copper downstream and 40Mbps upstream?
- Did you know that a copper solution to provide 100Mbps solution is roughly one third the cost of an equivalent fiber to the home (FTTH) solution and you don’t have to wait?
And, last and not least, did you know that as of today, that not only is VDSL2 Vectoring ready for prime time, but that the ability to deploy it economically and quickly — the pain of getting rid of all cross-talk on the loops all the way back from the end point to the serving office — has been eliminated? As a result of a new capability released by Alcatel-Lucent (News 
- Alert), “Zero Touch Vectoring,” the last question has been answered is a reality.
You read correctly; Zero Touch Vectoring clears the path for quick, cost-effective rollout of superfast broadband over existing copper lines by enabling service providers to introduce VDSL2 Vectoring technology without the need to upgrade every VDSL2 modem on their network.
As noted in the announcement of this new capability, Zero Touch Vectoring uses sophisticated signal processing to automatically ensure that VDSL2 modems already installed in customers’ homes can continue to run at full speed without undermining the service quality for customers subscribing to higher-speed VDSL2 Vectoring. This eliminates the need to update the firmware on all modems on the network, as was previously necessary.
This may sound like a boring plumbing issue, but it is significant. What it means is that the “last mile” broadband connection to peoples’ homes no longer has to wait for the time when fiber hits the neighborhood to obtain 100Mbps broadband. Individual subscribers will be able to turn on service without the service providers having to upgrade their entire subscriber base at the same time just to provision one or a few customers — decreasing immensely the time to provide service and significantly reducing the cost to operators to be opportunistic to meet today’s competitive challenges. It is all done through an easy to deploy and manage firmware upgrade.
The need for speed
The graphic tells the story.
As Stefaan Vanhastel is Director of Fixed Access Marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, told TMCnet, “this builds upon Alcatel-Lucent’s seven years of VDSL2 Vectoring experience. The business case is solid. In fact, we have six VDSL2 customers and 20 plus trials and have demonstrated up to 130Mbps downstream.” He added that Beyond Zero Touch Vectoring, the company has pioneered techniques to provide up to 384 lines in VDSL2 Vectoring systems to support rollouts in high-density areas, and is introducing advanced troubleshooting capabilities in the Motive Network Analyzer to help ensure high-quality network performance.
Teresa Mastrangelo, Principal Analyst at Broadbandtrends, said, “For a service provider, the ability to deliver higher-speed broadband over existing infrastructure provides a time-to-market edge over the competition. Over the past year, service provider interest in VDSL2 Vectoring has accelerated… Innovations like Zero Touch Vectoring remove the final hurdles to mass-market adoption of VDSL2 Vectoring technology. It is good to see Alcatel-Lucent’s extensive field trial experience translates into features that will benefit every operator.”
Dave Geary, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireline activities, said, “Trials with leading service providers have shown that VDSL2 Vectoring can effectively deliver the kinds of speeds it promised, and we are now starting to engage in mass-market deployments. With our Zero-Touch Vectoring and other innovations we are eliminating the final barriers that service providers around the world have faced – enabling them to deliver higher bandwidths to more subscribers, now.”
Seeing is believing and Alcatel-Lucent will be showcasing its VDSL2 Vectoring solution at Broadband World Forum in Hall 11.
Given mass market demands for things like IPTV (News - Alert), interactive gaming, and intense competition from cable companies and increasingly from wireless networks, the ability to transform copper into an inexpensive and easy to deploy capability that can be rapidly installed is good news for providers of fixed networks who now no longer have to wait to reach interested markets until their fiber deployments go from being planned to being installed and turned on. Enabling the ability to target customers desiring service without the major expense of upgrading everyone’s CPE to avoid loop cross-talk is big.
It will be interesting to see how fast the VDSL2 Vectoring market ramps now that this obstacle to rapid and inexpensive deployment has been surmounted.
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