Archive for Broadband

RB | October 4, 2011
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825 Mb/s Over Copper

NetworkIts been a while since I have looked at DSL. My current job has spoiled me because we have private fiber going everywhere. It looks like DSL has evolved since last time I looked at it.

HuaweiHuawei, the Chinese telecom gear maker achieved speeds of 700 Mbps over Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL) using a prototype system for up to 400 meters according to Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm. To reach the 700 Mbps speeds, Huawei is using what it calls SuperMIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology. SuperMIMO uses four twisted pairs to achieve its downstream speeds. This technology addresses crosstalk among multiple twisted pairs and increases DSL bandwidth by 75 percent, from an average of 100 Mbps per twisted pair to approximately 175 Mbps. It is unclear if SuperMIMO is the same as Wireless MIMO in 802.11n WLAN’s which uses spatially separated antennas and signal processing, so it can use radio reflections to create multiple paths for the radio signals between transmitter and receiver.

Shortly after, Nokia Siemens Networks claimed it has set a world record data rates of 825 Mbps over 400 meters for copper and 750 Mbps over a distance of 500 meters of DSL speeds. According to the NSN press release the Espoo, Finland based firm used phantom DSL (which I covered here) to do these speeds.

Man with hose

How fast is my at&t DSL?

NSN also said it obtained a speed of 750 Mb/s over 500 meters. This is a significant gain over the 300 Mb/s over 400 meters that Alcatel-Lucent demonstrated earlier (which I covered here). Alc-Lu also claimed they could support 100 MB/s over distances of up to 1 kilometer but provided no details to GigaOm.

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Faster copper speeds are necessary because of massive existing copper networks around the world and the cost of upgrading all of those networks to fiber. The problems are:

  • Lab results over pristine copper wires are not the same as ‘in the wild’ copper pairs’ with all their cross connects, bridge clips, beanies, squirrels and other issues.
  • Copper access lines deployed by U.S. telcos often are considerably longer than the demonstrated 500 meters which means that to use the phantom DSL technology, many service providers would still need to deploy fiber in local networks to support the new technology, just not as much fiber.
  • Neither NSN nor Alcatel-Lucent has provided an estimate of when phantom DSL will be available.

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RB | September 20, 2011
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Super-Fi OK’d by IEEE

White spaceI usually don’t have a problem getting a wireless signal where in my Bach Seat. However there are some areas where I coordinate technical service that don’t get wired or wireless Internet. In these rural areas, where AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), Sprint Nextel (S) and Comcast (CMCSA) and their fellow travelers fear to tread because they can’t make a buck in these areas, some help maybe on the way.

IEEEIn 2009, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) started development of IEEE standard 802.22, which addressed the need for broadband wireless access in rural areas, those where it is not economical to deploy a wired infrastructure. In July 2011, the IEEE announced that it has published the standard titled: “IEEE 802.22-2011 Standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks in TV Whitespaces” (PDF).

The IEEE press release states: “This new standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks (WRANs) takes advantage of the favorable transmission characteristics of the VHF and UHF TV bands to provide broadband wireless access over a large area up to 100 km (60 miles) from the transmitter. Each WRAN will deliver up to 22 Mbps per channel without interfering with reception of existing TV broadcast stations, using the so-called white spaces between the occupied TV channels.”Digital televisionThat part of the spectrum, known as white spaces, sits between broadcast TV channels and will become available when broadcast TV stations switch from analog to digital in 2009.The White Space Coalition led by Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), Dell (DELL) and other tech titans strongly support the use of the white spaces in the U.S., going up against strong opposition lead by Michigan’s own John Dingell and big media like the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, NBA, NHL, NCAA, PGA Tour and ESPNwho say unlicensed devices in the TV bands would interfere with their signals.IEEE 802.22 reportedly will not interfere with TV broadcasts, because it incorporates advanced cognitive radio capabilities including:

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I met Mr. Dingell about a dozen years ago, at a school to encourage the politician to support schools when the USF started the eRate program for schools. I recall Mr. Dingell telling me he could not support eRate because he did not trust the FCC to get it right. At least he is consistent.

I believe there is a very good chance this technology will never be a commercial success. The wireless carriers will squash this technology like they have squashed municipal wi-fi and community fiber networks. The improved speeds and coverage areas are a threat to their limited 4G coverage and they would lose out on their monthly pound of flesh capped rate limited data plan.

It will be up to use in the public sector to implement this technology for our clients.

What do you think?

Will Super-Fi ever see the light of day?

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RB | August 18, 2011
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LED Broadband Wireless is D-Light-ful

TEDGlobal has an intriguing presentation by Harald Haas who is developing a new type of light bulb that can access the Internet using light instead of radio waves. According to TEDGlobal, the professor of engineering at Edinburgh University, has been designing modulation techniques that pack more data onto existing networks, but his latest work leaps beyond wires and radio waves to transmit data via an LED bulb. The new technology will turn LED lights on and off, so fast the change is imperceptible to the human eye to enables data transmission without any noticeable change in room lighting.

The system, which he calls D-Light, and hopes to commercialize under the new VLC (Visible Light Communications) brand uses OFDM (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing), The article reports the signal can be picked up by simple receivers. As of now, Haas is reporting data rates of up to 10 MBPS (faster than a typical broadband connection), and 100 MBPS by the end of this year and possibly up to 1 GB in the future.

He says: “It should be so cheap that it’s everywhere. Using the visible light spectrum, which comes for free, you can piggy-back existing wireless services on the back of lighting equipment.”

“As well as revolutionizing internet reception, it would put an end to the potentially harmful electromagnetic pollution emitted by wireless internet routers and has raised the prospect of ubiquitous wireless access, transmitted through streetlights.

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LED-Fi Could Replace Wi-FiSo in 2008 Boston University under a National Science Foundation grant started this the research to piggyback data communications capabilities on low-power LEDs to make an LED light the equivalent of a Wi-fi access point.

Some of the advantages of this technology include:

  • Security: Since white light does not penetrate opaque surfaces such as walls, eavesdropping is not possible and should not extend beyond building perimeters like current Wi-Fi technology. It also requires line-of-sight which will allow the user to see where the data is going.
  • Green: The development of this new technology coincides with the switch from incandescent and compact fluorescent lighting to LEDs. LED lights consume far less energy than RF technology, making it possible to build a communication network without added energy costs and reducing carbon emissions over the long-term.

One down-side is that the technology seems to be a one-way (down) transmission.

Possible applications could include automotive safety be enabling car brake lights to alert the car behind or traffic signals could alert cars when they change.It could also have applications in indoor mobile location and positioning services.

What do you think?

Does D-Light have a future as a green, wireless access point light?

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RB | June 11, 2011
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Asia Set to be the New Center of the Web

Chin Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm points out a report from UK analyst firm Informa Telecoms & Media which says that  Internet traffic will grow seven-fold between 2010 and 2015 to reach roughly 1.2 zettabytes globally and that Asia will led the growth.

Loading disk pack into IBM 2314 disk driveAccording to the report the amount of Internet and service traffic will vary greatly from region to region and, despite the focus on the US, Asia will be the larger region in terms of traffic by 2015. Asia Pacific’s share will have increased to 42% of global Internet traffic by virtue of the sheer growth in user numbers that this region will see over the forecast period. “Much of the hype about Internet traffic growth continues to come from the US and Silicon Valley, but it is the Asian Internet users that are generating the most traffic. This will only become pronounced over the next few years, as the region’s Internet penetration grows”, comments Giles Cottle, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media.

China will also play a major role in fueling this growth. “China will not become the single largest Internet traffic market during our forecast period, but it will have a fundamental impact on shifting the online balance of power from East to West. In China alone, Informa predicts that there will be 670 million Internet users in the market in 2015; even if many of these users are not high-volume users, they will still collectively produce a huge amount of traffic,” concludes Cottle.

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I wrote about Chinese becoming the lingua franca of the web here.

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RB | January 10, 2011
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Apple, Google Picking Nortel 4G Bones

- Updated 04-04-11 - Google has offered Nortel $900 million for its patent portfolio. According to the Google Blog Nortel selected the Google bid as the “stalking-horse bid,” which is the starting point against which others will bid prior to the auction. They hope that the Nortel patent portfolio will “create a disincentive for others to sue Google.” I wrote about the letigation happy nature of the mobile telecom market  here . –

Bankrupt Canadian telecom giant Nortel Networks is auctioning off its patents to the highest bidder. The sale of the patents is the last gasp of  bankrupt networking giant. Nortel, which Reuters says had a market capitalization of more than $250 billion and more than 90,000 employees. The bones of the one time king have been scattered across the landscape. But now Sweden-based network equipment maker Ericsson owns most of Nortel’s North American wireless operations, its multi-service switch business and a Chinese joint venture. Ciena Corp bought Nortel’s optical networking and carrier Ethernet business, while the Canadian government is taking over Nortel’s Ottawa campus.

Nortel is said to have more than 4,000 patents, with a market valuation of about $1 billion . Nortel owns seven of the 105 patent families likely to be likely components of 4G wireless technologies to LTE and Service Architecture Evolution (SAE),  research firm Fairfield Resources told Reuters.

Apple (AAPL) and Google, ( GOOG) are both eyeing the patents in their escalating wireless wars, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources. Von|Xchange says Research In Motion ( RIMM) and Motorola (MOT) also are said to be eying the intellectual property.  Potential buyers will study how widely Nortel’s 4G-related patents have been licensed, since the company went into bankruptcy protection before 4G was commercially viable warns Reuters.

The due diligence for the Nortel Wireless patent pursuers may not be necessary because the ITU has redefined 4G all the way back to HSPA+, rubber stamping the marketing claims of the operators according to Connected Planet. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has changed its definitions of 4G, bringing not just WiMax and long-term evolution (LTE) under the umbrella of 4th generation, but also evolved 3G technologies like high-speed packet access plus (HSPA+).

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