Turnstone Launching Smart Splitter 

By Wayne Kawamoto
Managing Editor, CLEC-Planet 

November 2, 2000 -- Turnstone Systems will be introducing its Smart Splitter SX500, a patent-pending product that is supposed to dramatically reduce costs of deploying loop management for residential DSL services.

Unlike traditional passive splitters that can hinder a service provider's ability to access and accurately test copper loops, Turnstone says that its Smart Splitter SX500 integrates metallic access with the splitter function, enabling comprehensive, remote testing of DSL services deployed over existing "Plain Old Telephone Service" (POTS) lines. This architecture may eliminate the need for additional metallic access products on the facility side of the splitter, which may greatly reduce a service provider's overall costs.

The Turnstone solution should be ideal for ILECs deploying DSL over POTS lines, for voice CLECs deploying DSL and POTS services and for CLECs deploying line sharing. Future releases of the Smart Splitter SX500 will provide comprehensive, remote testing for DSL deployed over Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) circuits, as well.

The Smart Splitter SX500 is supposed to support up to 576 splitters in a single shelf and includes multiple test access ports that can be controlled by any test solution using standard TL1 commands, including Turnstone's Copper CrossConnect CX100 loop management platform.

At a cost comparable to that of the passive splitters being deployed today, service providers should be able to use the Smart Splitter SX500 to provision customers more quickly and maintain a higher quality of service. Because it enables a cost-effective remote-testing solution that can fully examine all components of the DSL circuit, the new Turnstone solution may help eliminate many of the truck rolls and human labor that could otherwise torpedo the business case for deploying residential DSL.

By providing full, unencumbered access to the facility-side of the loop for testing, the Smart Splitter SX500 should also help service providers overcome limitations of existing POTS testing solutions to fully qualify copper loops for DSL service. In addition, the Smart Splitter SX500 may enable testing towards the DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) equipment or the voice equipment to enhance troubleshooting and fault-isolation capability.

The Smart Splitter SX500's 23-inch, rack-mount, modular platform has 24 line card slots. A 19-inch platform includes 19 card slots. The initial cards for the Smart Splitter SX500 include the SP50 processor card and the SL24 line card. Each SL24 line card supports 24 splitters that are fully compliant with ANSI T1.413 Annex E and include standard MLT signatures. The Smart Splitter SX500 is a robust platform designed to preserve the POTS line at all costs. All cards are hot-swappable, and the removal of any card should not disrupt the POTS lines cabled through the system. In the event of power failure or loss of control, the Smart Splitter SX500 is designed to fall back to operating as a standard passive splitter, again to ensure that POTS service is not disrupted. Furthermore, when Turnstone's test solution is used, all lines are checked to ensure there is no call in progress before performing any disruptive test.

"While our Copper CrossConnect CX100 solution was designed from the ground up for providing loop management in unbundled copper environments, the Smart Splitter SX500 was designed from the ground up to provide the optimal loop management solution for high-volume, DSL-over-POTS applications," said Eric Andrews, vice president of marketing with Turnstone. "We believe the Smart Splitter SX500 will provide significant value to ILECs, CLECs or any service provider deploying residential DSL services."

"Providers of residential DSL are on the lookout for tools that hold down operational costs as they scale deployments," said Adam Guglielmo, DSL analyst with TeleChoice. "Combining splitter and loop-management functionality in a single platform would assist ILEC and CLEC deployment in the residential market, especially as line sharing moves forward."

The Smart Splitter SX500 is currently in trials and will be available in volume in December 2000.