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February 01, 1999, Issue: 1046
Section: News
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AG, Lucent, Paradyne collaborate on copper-pair access system; Fujitsu in xDSL alliance -- OEM allies team up on telephony, DSL options
Loring Wirbel
Washington - OEMs broke new ground at the ComNet show last week, forging alliances aimed at giving carriers better tools to provision multiple voiceband channels and digital-subscriber-line services.
Perhaps the most radical leap came from the troika of AG Communications Inc. (Phoenix), its parent Lucent Technologies Inc. (Murray Hill, N.J.), and DSL innovator Paradyne Corp. (Largo, Fla.), who jointly launched a single copper-pair access system called SuperLine.
Meanwhile, Fujitsu Network Communications Inc. worked with its algorithm partner Orckit Communications Inc. (Sacramento, Calif.) on DSL provisioned over frame relay, while Orckit launched its first program with Fujitsu Microelectronics Ltd. to develop a single-chip splitterless ADSL solution.
AG Communications' rationale in pulling in partners for SuperLine was echoed in nearly all the partnerships announced at ComNet.
"It's not enough to have a winning technology any more," said Mark Emery, vice president and general manager of new ventures at AG. "We wanted to bring in Lucent to make sure this is a technology that can be accepted in a wide range of carriers."
SuperLine is based on a technology developed by Paradyne called Tripleplay, which uses quadrature amplitude modulation to provide three independent phone lines on a single copper twisted pair, while preserving a 500-kbit/s data channel for Internet Protocol packets. While data rates on the channel can be affected by analog lines in use, the system can work over any length of copper local loop. All three analog lines can use advanced digital pulse-code-modulation methods used in the V.90 modem standard. AG Communications is providing the equipment for the central office, while Paradyne will provide the integrated-access device (IAD) for the home.
Andy May, president of Paradyne, said the existing desktop IAD system could be upgraded to support future interfaces such as voice over IP, a Home Phoneline Alliance (Ethernet-like) controller, or even coaxial cable interfaces if it made sense. The IAD box in such a scenario would become a de facto residential gateway system.
Robert Barry, director of access business management at Lucent, said this was the first time Lucent had agreed to co-brand and co-market a product developed by a subsidiary or affiliate. To date, the Lucent and AG product lines had remained fairly separate and complementary, he said, but the SuperLine technology represented a joint need for both classes of circuit-switching systems developed at Lucent and AG.
The companies do not see the technology as competing with xDSL, since SuperLine is intended primarily to give additional voice-line support without new cable installations. However, the typical data speed is faster than two bonded ISDN B channels, and the technology can be inserted into digital-loop carrier pedestals, which means it may be able to be deployed significantly faster than xDSL.
Possible impact
John Freeman, principal analyst for enterprise infrastructure at Current Analysis Inc., said the technology is not without limitations, since it currently interfaces only to North American circuit switches, and several regulatory issues remain regarding how derived voice circuits are handled. Nevertheless, Freeman said, "SuperLine may eliminate the DAML (digital added main line) market, and may change the way customers order phone service."
Meanwhile, Fujitsu was positioning its ADSL service to be offered in a frame-relay backbone infrastructure, a strategy Paradyne already has tried for SDSL-over-frame relay. The strategy is driven in part by one of Fujitsu's larger customers, GTE Corp., which uses frame-relay backbones rather than asynchronous-transfer-mode switches. But the bigger emphasis placed on switched links over frame relay is meant to send the message that carriers cannot wait for full deployment of ATM backbones to get DSL service deployed.
"The threat from cable modems is becoming very, very real," said Fujitsu Networks' director of corporate business development David Self. "We have to use every means at our disposal to help carriers deploy DSL services now, or we can simply say 'game over.'"
The Quality of Service parameters service providers are demanding for IP services can be met with frame-relay's committed-information-rate features, said Orckit strategic marketing manager William Dorsey. And over the next few months Fujitsu will be enhancing products for the frame-relay space, including an environmentally hardened Speedport DSL cabinet that can be deployed next to a data-link-control pedestal in loop carrier neighborhoods, and a next-generation multimode ADSL termination unit that supports both frame-relay and ATM transport methods.
Meanwhile, Orckit and Fujitsu Microelectronics are on the verge of sampling a single-chip G.lite splitterless ADSL transceiver, based on DSP expertise from Orckit and physical-layer designs from Fujitsu. The G.lite chip will not include the line driver, stressed Fujitsu Microelektronik GmbH's strategy marketing manager Heinz Neppach, but it will integrate many analog front-end functions previously offered as a chip. |
