Alcatel-Lucent gives DSL networks a gigabit boost

July 02, 2013

Alcatel-Lucent and Telekom Austria have completed the world's first trial of G.fast, new technology enabling gigabit broadband over existing copper networks.To help keep DSL a relevant option for the last part of a broadband connection, the so-called "last mile," vendors are working on a number of technologies to increase the broadband speeds that can be delivered over old telephone lines.However, calling G.fast a last-mile technology is somewhat misleading, because the technology is only intended for distances up to 100 meters or 0.06 miles. But at that distance and less it helps copper keep up with fiber. The trial achieved a maximum speed of 1.1Gbps over 70 meters and 800Mbps over 100 meters over a single, good-quality cable, according to Alcatel-Lucent. On older, unshielded cables the trial managed 500Mbps over 100 meters on a single line, it said.With the help of vectoring, G.fast also works over multiple copper lines at the same time. Vectoring already improves the performance of VDSL2 to 100Mbps over existing copper connections at up to 400 meters by removing crosstalk interference. It works by continuously analyzing the noise conditions on copper lines, and then creates a new anti-noise signal to cancel it out, much like noise-canceling headphones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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