DSL Beyond the CO

Copper Mountain Networks announced a new DSL concentrator optimized for deployment in remote cabinets and neighborhood broadband gateways.

by the CLEC-Planet Staff [September 21, 2000]

Copper Mountain says that its CopperEdge 200 RT (Remote Terminal), designed to meet the demands of the remote environment, will increase the total addressable market (TAM) for DSL by enabling ILECs and CLECs to offer a full range of services — including high-speed Internet access; multi-line packet-voice service; virtual private networks (VPNs); Frame Relay; video streaming; and emerging productivity and entertainment applications — to business and residential customers who cannot be reached effectively from phone company central offices (COs).

According to the company, its NEBS 3-compliant CopperEdge 200 RT will be the only remotely deployable high-density DSL concentrator that offers multiple networking models and advanced IP IQ (Internet Protocol intelligence) packet-management capabilities for cost-effective provisioning and scaling of value-added services and applications.

Digital Loop Carriers (DLCs) in remote cabinets serve millions of customers in North America — depending on the territory, from 15 percent to 40 percent of lines — and are projected to serve as much as 53 percent in some regions by 2003. Until now, the company says that the only way to provide DSL service to these remote customers has been to provision limited-bandwidth ISDN Digital Subscriber Line (IDSL) service from COs or to install low-density DSL cards in Digital Loop Carriers.

Bridging the distance to the customer
Copper Mountain's CopperEdge 200 RT is supposed to move all the functionality of the CopperEdge 200 to the end of the digital loop, extending the DSL feature set to business and residential customers who previously could not receive full DSL service because of their distance from COs.

The company claims that its CopperEdge 200 RT supports widely deployed ATM-based backhaul and Quality of Service (QoS), as well as IP-to-ATM mapping for IP voice and data. It is also supposed to be compatible with a wide array of upstream and downstream networking equipment solutions and support multiple networking models, configurable on a port-by-port basis. This should allow ILECs to assign to a CLEC entire line cards or individual ports within a hardened concentrator, thus making it considerably easier for them to implement government-mandated subloop unbundling.

"Consumer and business demand for a wide range of value-added broadband services is skyrocketing," said Rick Gilbert, president and CEO of Copper Mountain Networks. "Until now, most service providers could deliver high bandwidth only to those subscribers located within a distance of about 16,000 feet from phone company COs. By moving the DSL concentrator to the remote cabinet, carriers can reach more subscribers and offer higher-speed services."

Gilbert added, "The CopperEdge 200 RT dramatically expands the footprint of high-value, high-speed DSL broadband services by bringing the provisioning, scaling, and intelligent traffic-management capabilities of Copper Mountain's CopperEdge 200 — already proven in COs and multi-tenant unit deployments with a total capacity of nearly two million ports — to subscribers served by the remote cabinets and neighborhood broadband gateways. The CopperEdge 200 RT will enable carriers to offer a full menu of differentiated high-bandwidth SDSL and ADSL services to suburban and rural business and residential customers who would otherwise be out of reach."

"Today, nearly thirty percent of ILEC subscribers are connected to the network through remote digital loop carrier terminals. High-speed access is not available to these subscribers because their copper loop cannot be connected to a central office access multiplexer (DSLAM)," said Claude Romans, director access networks for RHK, a leading telecom analysis firm. "The ILECs need an environmentally-hardened remote DSL concentrator to provide broadband service to remote subscribers. A solution, such as that provided by the CopperEdge 200 RT, supports provisioning of broadband service to these remote subscribers and makes it easier for ILECs to comply with government mandated sub-loop unbundling."

Neither ice nor snow nor rain shall stop it
Copper Mountain claims that its NEBS 3-compliant CopperEdge 200 RT DSL Concentrator is being optimized not only for the physical challenges of the remote environment — which include extreme temperature and humidity fluctuations, high levels of airborne contaminants, and space limitations — but also for operational challenges such as high density under restrictive power budgets. The company says that the concentrator meets all these challenges with extremely high reliability, flexibility, and ease of configuration and management.

The specs indicate that the CopperEdge 200 RT DSL Concentrator will support up to 192 ports of voice and data services, using any combination of ADSL, G.lite, IDSL, and SDSL concurrently from a single chassis. The CopperEdge 200 RT is supposed to support multiple networking models, configurable on a port-by-port basis, including CopperVPN, virtual wide area networking (VWAN), Frame Relay or ATM multiplexing, PPP over Frame Relay (RFC 1973) and ATM, IP policy, and full routing.

IP IQ really is smart
Also, IP IQ, Copper Mountain's IP service intelligence, which recognizes user profiles and services at the IP layer and allocates network resources, should enable service providers to maximize bandwidth utilization, scale to meet the escalating demands of millions of subscribers and support advanced services such as voice, data and multi-cast traffic — all without the problematic virtual circuit proliferation associated with ATM-based solutions.

Pricing and availability
Currently available for trials, the CopperEdge 200 RT will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2000. Pricing will vary by configuration and the particular integration requirements of each carrier.

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