Hi Elmat,
re: "The guys who engineered those old first generation outdoor things are retired already."
And so, too, are those field units, very likely either retired or on the way out. But I know that there is still some of this going on. Most vendors now meet the newer standards, however, at the ILEC's insistence, in instances where providers would want to extend remote DSL. And where they don't, no one is putting in remote DSLs yet, waiting for the field changes to occur.
Here, and going forward, SLCs/Next Gen Digital Loop Carriers [NGDLCs] must meet Bellcore-prescribed and ANSI standards, which are spelled out in Generic Requirements, such as GR-303.
In any event, most of the older proprietary stuff you are alluding to wont scale to present day traffic expectations, anyway.
Incidentally, in recent weeks I've noticed that I have been lumped, in certain ways, into the pro-DSL camp. Forsooth!
I've seen the merit to deep fiber supporting VDSL-like configurations in the past, and early on I was encouraged that something was being done in the way of DSL to graduate from POTS-based V.34 and V.90 services. The problems with VDSL, however, are scalability beyond 52 Mb/s (which isn't so bad, when you think of it, for now), but more importantly the inability to get acceptance on the parts of providers due to the vendors' inability to get price points down to acceptable levels.
Granted, tho, if VDSL migrations were affordable they would serve as the next best thing in bringing fiber closer to the home, better than remote ADSL, because the distances for VDSL would be so much tighter (read: 'closer' to the home) than those of lower-speed ADSL grades.
But because of the lower ratio of homes to nodes, VDSL would be that much more expensive, at the same time. True fiber to the home runs, in comparison, could extend for greater distances than those of VDSL, hence increasing that ratio to more palatable levels.
As a matter of looking towards the future, given the new enabling characteristics of native fiber, I no more see hope for DSL at this point than I do for classical HFC and most forms of wireless services, if, what we are talking about, is a medium to be all and end all to the residence.
With some triage and a new outlook, HFC stands a chance to meet escalating requirements. The problems we face here have more to do with industry politics and intransigeance, than they do with technology. The MSOs and CableLabs are too far along in a model for them to see anything through their peripheral vision. They have, instead, elected to perpetuate a kind of artificial restraint in the hope of fulfilling the ideals that were conceived prior to anyone ever taking WDM seriously.
And those wirelesses that I am encouraged about (I'm beginning to think that these are merely a figment of my imagination, such as hybrid fiber/wireless), beyond the type that are most useful in situations that demand mobility and short-to-intermediate length messageing, do not exist yet. Yes, with the right terrain and demographics [along with some additional spectrum for those independents who would make the most earnest go of it without fearing the cannibalization of their other services], some wirelesses will work out just fine for longer-length messaging, such as those required by telecommuting, too.
Actually, I don't find any comfort in being pigeon-holed in the fiber to the home camp, either, unless we specify which of the ftth variants that is being discussed. This, too, is still in a state of flux, with models ranging from what I consider to be HFC emulation over fiber, to the rawest forms of Ethernet delivery which are suited best for Internet access, only, at this time. This last type that I just mentioned, however, will bear fruit in the future, as a reference model unfolds that will allow the same GbE and 10GbE loops to deliver all that is delivered today over all other media, combined.
In combination with such a fiber to the home loop, residential gateways and various appliques (both wireless and powerline) will ensure mobility throughout the residence and its immediate surroundings, as well.
FAC |
