Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line

DSL technologies
Standard
ADSL ANSI T1.413 Issue 2
ITU G.992.1 (G.DMT)
ITU G.992.2 (G.Lite)
ADSL2 ITU G.992.3
ITU G.992.4
ITU G.992.3 Annex J
ITU G.992.3 Annex L
ADSL2+ ITU G.992.5
ITU G.992.5 Annex M
HDSL ITU G.991.1
HDSL2  
IDSL  
MSDSL  
PDSL  
RADSL  
SDSL  
SHDSL ITU G.991.2
UDSL  
VDSL ITU G.993.1
VDSL2 ITU G.993.2

Very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL or VHDSL)[1] is a digital subscriber line (DSL) technology providing faster data transmission over a single flat untwisted or twisted pair of copper wires (up to 52 Mbit/s downstream and 16 Mbit/s upstream),[2] and on coaxial cable (up to 85 Mbit/s down- and upstream);[3] using the frequency band from 25 kHz to 12 MHz.[4] These rates mean that VDSL is capable of supporting applications such as high-definition television, as well as telephone services (voice over IP) and general Internet access, over a single connection. VDSL is deployed over existing wiring used for analog telephone service and lower-speed DSL connections. This standard was approved by ITU in November 2001.

Second-generation systems (VDSL2; ITU-T G.993.2 approved in February 2006) use frequencies of up to 30 MHz to provide data rates exceeding 100 Mbit/s simultaneously in both the upstream and downstream directions. The maximum available bit rate is achieved at a range of about 300 meters; performance degrades as the loop attenuation increases.

Contents

Development

The concept of VDSL was first published in 1991 through a joint Bellcore-Stanford research study. The study searched for potential successors to the then-prevalent HDSL and relatively new ADSL, which were both 1.5 Mbps. Specifically, it explored the feasibility of symmetric and asymmetric data rates exceeding 10 Mbps on short phone lines.

VDSL standards

VDSL uses up to 7 different frequency bands, which enables customization of data rate between upstream and downstream depending on the service offering and spectrum regulations. First generation VDSL standard specified both quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and discrete multi-tone modulation (DMT). In 2006, ITU-T standardized VDSL in recommendation G.993.2 which specified only DMT modulation for VDSL2.

Version Standard name Common name Downstream rate Upstream rate Approved in
VDSL ITU G.993.1 VDSL 2004-06-13
VDSL ITU G.993.2 VDSL2 2006-02-17

Deployment

In 2006, the market was still small, except in Japan and South Korea. The third largest consumer market was Germany where VDSL is available in large parts of over 50 major cities and small parts of over 750 smaller cities and towns.

Africa

Mauritius
  • VDSL is being rolled out mostly in the Hotel Industry in Mauritius by a private Network Solution Integrator company, Enterprise Data Services Ltd (EDS LTD). EDS is not an ISP, but provide the VDSL in hotels as opposed to the expensive cost of Fiber Optic. The service enables the hotels to provide both wired and wireless Broadband Internet access, Video On Demand and Music on Demand as well as IP telephony to the residents. Since November 2004, till date, EDS has already completed such installation in 12 hotels.

Asia

Hong Kong
  • VDSL is offered by HGC[5] and PCCW. A 10 Mbit/s up and up to 30 Mbit/s down connection costs less than $11–34 USD/month with a 18-month to 24-month contract (price is negotiable and each customer get different prices and plans), with unlimited traffic.
India
  • VDSL plan launched by MTNL[6] (ISP for Delhi NCR and Mumbai[7] for Mumbai city on 25 December 2009. The plan costs $110 USD and has a limit of 20GB for data transfer amount and 20 Mbit/s for data transfer speed. After crossing the limit the user has to pay approximately 10$ USD per GB downloaded.[8] Bharti Airtel has introduced a new VDSL plan on the 28th March 2010 with speeds of 50 Mbit/s and 1000GB for data transfer.The plan cost 300$. While Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has also launched 2 VDSL plans 16 Mbit/s and 24 Mbit/s which costs approximately $100 and approximately $300, respectively.[9]
Israel
  • On August 28, 2009 Bezeq communication company started testing VDSL with 20, 25, 30 and 40 Mbit/s (asymmetric, up speed 1 Mbit/s) in certain areas in north Israel.
  • VDSL services are provided since late 2009 using the Next generation network (NGN) of Bezeq communication company. The maximum download speed is up to 100 Mbit/s.[10]
Japan
  • Japan's VDSL offerings use an FTTx access line network architecture.
Malaysia
  • Alcatel Lucent is also a provider of VDSL in Malaysia.
  • Telekom Malaysia is deploying VDSL with its UniFi service in high-rise and residential apartment buildings.
  • VDSL Network S.B.[11] has also been a provider of VDSL technology for more than 3 years in Malaysia.
Pakistan
  • VDSL2 is announced recently by PTCL to provide Data Rates of Up to 50 Mbit/s for 20,000 PKR per month
South Korea
  • KT and other several providers offer VDSL in the place where FTTH is not available. The speed is varied from 4 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s by payment plans, about US$25–40/month.
Taiwan
  • The VDSL modem is, and never marketed as such, a final link between the telephone line and their building's fiber terminal. As of 2011, FTTB service bandwidth is 100 Mbit/s download and 10 Mbit/s upload, and is a major improvement over ADSL in terms of attaining maximum contract bandwidth.
Thailand
  • True Corp announced on 30 June 2010 that it would offer "Ultra hi-speed Internet", a VDSL2 services, for high-end condominiums. It's said to be Thailand's first ISP to provide a VDSL2 services. True Corp will offers two packages a 50 Mbit/s downstream and 3 Mbit/s upstream or 30 Mbit/s downstream and 2 Mbit/s. There are no specific date about when it will be available, it said that soon, within 2010.

Europe

Austria
  • Telekom Austria started providing VDSL2 under the name Gigaspeed in rural areas in November 2009. As of November 2010 Telekom Austria started a widespread campaign to bring VDSL2 (GigaSpeed) to as many customers as possible in metropolitan areas.[12]
Belgium
  • Belgacom was one of the early adopters of VDSL1, which has since been outphased for the more widely used VDSL2, supplying up to 30/6 Mbit/s (DS/US) of videograde quality to support its single-, dual- and mostly triple-play customers all over Belgium. The technology deployment accompagnied a large-scale FTTC investment.
Czech Republic
  • VDSL is offered by O2 Telefónica in most urban areas. While the full speed offered is 25Mbit/s, in some areas only 16Mbit/s can be attained (as of Sept 2011). O2 do not provide the end user with the ability to customize the upload / download stream.
Denmark
  • TDC is providing VDSL in two larger city areas in Copenhagen and Aarhus from February 2008, most urban parts (100 largest city areas) was announced for March 2008, but this was changed to September 2008. Fullrate is providing VDSL the same places as TDC, as they have access to their nodes.
Finland
  • Provided in Oulu by DNA, in Turku by Auria, in various cities by Nebula and in Helsinki by Sonera. The services provided in Turku and Oulu are actually based on Cisco's LRE. A few universities also provide fiber-optic VDSLs to their students.
France
  • Erenis (bought by Neuf-Cegetel, now part of SFR) was offering both internet and telephone over VDSL in Paris. The broadband was 60 Mbit/s down and 6 Mbit/s up.[13]
Germany
  • VDSL2 is currently available in large parts of over 50 major cities through outdoor DSLAMs and in small parts of over 750 cities and towns through the existing indoor DSLAMs with 25:5 Mbit/s or 50:10 Mbit/s downstream/upstream. The infrastructure is mostly owned by Deutsche Telekom, and based on VDSL2 technology with FTTC. The theoretical bandwidth right now is 100:100 Mbit/s (synchronous line) downstream/upstream, but is limited by T-Home to 50:10 Mbit/s downstream/upstream. While VDSL2 was originally only available to customers who purchased the triple play package "Entertain" (starting at €54.95 per month for 25:5 Mbit/s or €59.95 for 50:10 Mbit/s), VDSL2 is now also available to double play customers (starting at €44.95 for 25:5 Mbit/s (capped to 6,016:576 kbit/s after a quota of 100 GB), with 50:10 Mbit/s (capped to 6,016:576 kbit/s after a quota of 200 GB) available as an option for an additional €5 per month). Competing providers, such as 1&1 and Hansenet, provide double and triple play services on top of Deutsche Telekom's VDSL2, although operating telephony as an NGN service. Local providers, such as Netcologne, offer up to 100/10 rates.
Greece
  • OTE has decided to invest in VDSL2 as a transitional technology until FTTH hits the market.[14]
Hungary
  • Starting in October 2008 the largest Hungarian incumbent offers 25 Mbit/s subscriptions to approximately 100,000 households after upgrading part of their network to VDSL.[15]
Iceland
  • Provided in Akureyri/North East by Tengir.
  • The telecom company Síminn is now implementing VDSL to much of the capital of Reykjavík, starting in 2010. The service is known as Ljósnet[16] and most of the connections available with this service are VDSL2 but some users are apparently being offered GPONsame marketing name.
  • Hringiðan (Vortex) sells VDSL.
Ireland
  • Eircom is to trial VDSL at speeds of 60 Mbit/s in November or December 2009. There have been no official public statements yet but the Dundrum exchange will be part of the trial. It is planned to launch the service in 2010 for some exchanges.[17]

Note: Eircom began testing in March 2010, and expects roll out of services to the general public in September 2010.[18]
Isle of Man
  • Sure:Cable and Wireless and Manx Telecom on the Isle of Man are now offering VDSL at max 40 Mb download and max 2 Mb upload speeds, up from the current 16Mb/800kb ADSL2 service. This is available to customers within 2km of the exchange and will also be available to customers of the other Isle of Man based broadband suppliers such as WiManx.
Monaco
  • VDSL only, at a 30 Meg down / 2 Meg up rate, is offered to residential clients of Monaco Telecom, the incumbent monopoly operator for fixed lines, television and internet provision. At February 2011, this internet service costs €35 per month, use of the provided Monaco Telecom "MT Box", a rebranded Thomson TG789vn modem, is obligatory.
Netherlands
  • VDSL roll-out is being tested by the company KPN. KPN hardly invested in ADSL2+ in 2006, despite the current coverage of only 57% (2007), because they see a better future in VDSL.
  • VDSL is rolled out by Tele2 in 25 different cities on September 1, 2009.
Norway
  • VDSL2 was first announced by NextGenTel at the start of 2009, and is now also offered by Tafjord Marked (Mimer) in Ålesund and Drangedal Everk (DEAN) in Drangedal. Telenor started offering VDSL subscriptions on Feb 1 2011. Speeds are 25/5, 30/10 and 40/10. NextGenTel has different speeds (30/5 and 40/20)
Romania
  • VDSL is offered in urban areas by Romtelecom at speeds of 20:4 Mbit/s or 30:6 Mbit/s downstream:upstream for €5.5 per month, and €7.5 per month respectively (VAT included).
Russia
  • VDSL appeared on 8 February 2005. It is provided by SCTS, offers Internet speeds ranging from 4:1.5 Mbit/s to 12:6 Mbit/s at Saratov city. Connection costs around €7-50 per month (including 125–1024 MB of external incoming traffic). Traffic costs around €0.03-0.05 per megabyte.
Slovenia
  • VDSL appeared on 1 October 2005. It is provided by T-2, offering triple play services with Internet speeds ranging from 1 Mbit/s:256 kbit/s to 60:25 Mbit/s at more than 120 locations across the country (75% coverage). A 40:15 Mbit/s connection costs €56 per month.
Spain
  • VDSL roll-out by Telefonica began in 2005 in selected places in Madrid. Commercial launch up started on September 2009 (combined with free national telephone calls and TV-over-IP service)[19] and December 2009 (combined with free national calls).[20]
Sweden
  • Bredbandsbolaget AB[21] supplies fiber-optic VDSL, but not officially.
  • They offer 60 Mbit downstream and 20 Mbit upstream.
Switzerland
  • Used in the Bluewin TV[22] television-over-IP service and in the DSL service with 20 Mbit/s downstream and 2.5 Mbit/s upstream, introduced in July 2007. The city of Zurich had a vote about putting Fibre (and not VDSL) infrastructure in place in 2007 which was approved by the voters. This "Fiber to the Home" network will be run by the city's power company and will offer maximum speeds of around 100Mbit bandwidth though it's not clear what the upload speeds or pricing will be. The Swiss telecom giant Swisscom offers VDSL in most of Switzerland.
Turkey
  • Turk Telekom announced it would offer VDSL2 services for resale by Turkish ISPs as of July 1, 2008 across 73 of Turkey's 81 provinces, however service is still unavailable in most locations. Two packages in the form of 16 Mbit/s download/1 Mbit/s upload or 32 Mbit/s download/1 Mbit/s upload speeds were announced. 16 Mbit/s will sell for approximately $70, while 32 Mbit/s will sell for $90.[23] Turkish ISP's that will offer the service include TTNET,[24] TTNET[25] Tellcom[26] Biri[27] and Smile[28]
United Kingdom

British Telecom and resellers:

  • Openreach, the Access Network delivery arm of BT Group conducted successful trials of VDSL using FTTC technology in the Muswell Hill area of North London. Following this trial national rollout commenced under the banner of NGA (Next Generation Access) starting with selected exchange areas around the UK. The product will initially offer downstream bit rates of up to 40 Mbit/s dependent on the distance between the new DSLAM street-cabinet and the end user's premises, although Openreach will be investigating other technologies which could increase this to a potential 80 Mbit/s in the future. Alongside this Openreach are conducting additional trials into the deployment of FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) which although more expensive & complex to implement can provide downstream rates of up to 110 Mbit/s and is thought to be more future proofed than FTTC. Original projections indicated that FTTC was significantly cheaper to implement than FTTP, however current thinking is that the cost difference between the two technologies may be smaller than at first envisaged.
  • As of 2011, the Openreach product is also resold by other ISPs.

Other providers:

  • A number of smaller regional ISPs also exist and sell VDSL based services.
  • For example, Rutland telecom currently offer VDSL technology in some parts of the UK, mainly focused around the county of Rutland. Rutland telecom was the first ISP to offer VDSL services in the UK.[29] Also ask4 Ltd, Ripwire & DRBSY LTD[30] announced the availability of up to 40 Mbit/s VDSL services for business users and consumers across South Yorkshire which utilises the infrastructure being rolled out by the four main councils in the area; Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley (collectively known as Digital Region Ltd),[31] an EU government backed project. The network offers up to 40 Mbit/s downstream and up to 10 Mbit/s upstream with an assured level of service. The infrastructure consists of FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) with sub loop unbundling to provide the last mile connection to the consumer via existing copper.

North America

Canada
United States
  • Qwest provides Internet access over FTTN VDSL in Denver, Colorado; Boise, Idaho; Phoenix, Arizona; Seattle, Washington, St. Paul, Minnesota; and the surrounding areas of these cities. According to the Qwest information page on current VDSL markets new VDSL service is only available in Phoenix, Omaha and Highlands Ranch CO. In Seattle and Denver areas, Qwest's rate structure extends up to 40 Mbit/s downstream and 20 Mbit/s upstream, for around $80/month (Dec 2011). In Boise, Qwest offers 40, 20, or 12 Mbit/s downstream and 5 Mbit/s upstream over VDSL. Other locations are known to support up to 20 Mbit/s downstream.
  • AT&T provides Internet access and television service over VDSL in several regions under the trade-name U-verse. The AT&T service is based on FTTN; FTTP is also used.
  • Verizon offers its FiOS service in some metropolitan areas at speed of up to 150 Mbit/s. The Verizon service is based on FTTP, and normally CAT5e Ethernet (or MoCA over coax) is used to deliver data service throughout the home. However, VDSL is used in MDUs when running CAT5e or coax to individual units is not practical.

Oceania

Australia
  • The sole VDSL supplier in Canberra is TransACT, who use VDSL for Digital TV, Internet and WAN applications over their Fibre-To-The-Curb network.
  • EFTel has commenced a rollout of VDSL2 compatible MSAN (Multi-Service Access Node) technology to exchanges across Australia as part of their BroadbandNext network. As of September 2008, EFTel have successfully installed MSANs in 55 exchanges in readiness for the ratification of VDSL2 in Australia.[32]
  • iiNet began trialing VDSL in the Domus apartment complex in Perth in December 2008 offering 100Mbit/50Mbit speeds including 3 months free, and a free modem with uploads counted in the data limits.[33]
New Zealand
  • VDSL will be released within a one kilometre range of the Auckland city exchange by Vodafone, who plans to extend coverage after this 'test'. Testing also occurring for friendly users in Glenfield and Ponsonby.
  • VDSL2 announced by TelstraClear on 16 October 2008, will be released in seven main centres, including Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland, and Napier. With speeds of up to 30 Mbit/s symmetrical.
  • From March 2009, VDSL2 line cards will be progressively installed into all roadside cabinets and local telephone exchanges in towns and cities with more than 500 lines by Telecom.
  • From 27 May 2010 Telecom NZ will be launching a VDSL2 Technical Trial and will also be followed up with a Soft and Full launch in the months following.

South America

Argentina
  • Since mid 2009, Iplan networks NSS started providing FTTH VDSL home connections in the city of Buenos Aires and main areas of La Plata, Quilmes, Lomas de Zamora, Córdoba, Rosario and Mar del Plata. The home service is available through their "Internet Optimo" plan which goes from 2 MB up to 10MB (80 Mbit/s), providing the same download and upload speed (starting at ARS162 -US$40.50- for 2 Mbit/s).[34]
Brazil
  • GVT is providing a VDSL network, that reaches speeds up to 50 Mbit/s and 3 Mbit/s upload in their service plans. The company uses equipment of Keymile corp. and Zhone Technologies, Inc.

See also

References

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  2. ^ "VDSL Speed". HowStuffWorks. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/vdsl2.htm. 
  3. ^ "Industrial VDSL Ethernet Extender Over Coaxial Cable, ED3331". EtherWAN. http://www.etherwan.com/Product/ViewProduct.asp?View=64. 
  4. ^ "G.993.1 (06/04)". ITU. http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-G.993.1-200406-I/en. 
  5. ^ "HGC homepage". http://www.hgcbroadband.com. 
  6. ^ "MTNL homepage". http://mtnl.net.in/. 
  7. ^ "Mumbai.mtnl.net.in homepage". http://mumbai.mtnl.net.in/. 
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  9. ^ "BSNL High Speed Plans". bsnl.co.in. http://www.bsnl.co.in/service/new_BB/BB_highspeed_lim.htm. 
  10. ^ "?". bezeq.co.il. http://www.bezeq.co.il/NGN/Documents/ngn_home2.htm. Retrieved 26 November. 
  11. ^ "VDSL Network S.B. homepage". http://www.vdslnetwork.com. 
  12. ^ "Newsroom" (in German). unternehmen.telekom.at. http://unternehmen.telekom.at/Content.Node/media/news_neu/1117-gigaspeed.php. Retrieved 26 November 2010. 
  13. ^ "Erenis.fr homepage". http://www.erenis.fr/. 
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  15. ^ Tamás, Koi (September 8, 2008). "Csomagban kínált szolgáltatások, VDSL-internet és új ADSL-csomagok a Magyar Telekom új márkájának égisze alatt" (in Hungarian). hwsw.hu. http://www.hwsw.hu/hirek/36886/magyar_telekom_t-home_vdsl_adsl_iptv_internet_kabel_telefon_telekommunikacio.html. Retrieved 26 November 2010. 
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  20. ^ "Telefónica lanza el Dúo Línea Internet 25 Mb por 54,90 € al mes". bandaancha.eu. http://bandaancha.eu/articulo/6976/telefonica-lanza-duo-linea-internet-25-mb-5490-mes. Retrieved 26 November 2010. 
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  22. ^ "Bluewin TV homepage". http://services.bluewin.ch/tv/. 
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  25. ^ "TTNET homepage". http://adsl.turk.net. 
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  27. ^ "Biri homepage". http://www.biri.com.tr. 
  28. ^ "Smile homepage". http://www.smileadsl.com. 
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  34. ^ "IPLAN Argentina - Internet Optimo". iplan.com.ar. http://iplan.com.ar/productos/internet/internet-optimo-iplan. 
  35. ^ B. Lee, J. Cioffi, et al. (September 2007). "Gigabit DSL". IEEE Transactions on Communication. 55 (9): 1689–1692. doi:10.1109/TCOMM.2007.904374. 

Aware, Inc., VDSL2 White Paper, Rev 2

External links