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New Look at ADSL2
genrader writes "broadbandreports.com just posted a news article which had an interesting story about the new ADSL2, which should be approved in 2003. They say it should be backward compatible with current hardware. It seems pretty interesting. ISP-Planet has the featured in-depth look at it, so you might want to see if it is of any intrest to you."
I just signed up for a 12Mbit line here in Tokyo.
(I'm upgrading from 8Mbit - the 12 is actually a cheaper plan.)
Regular DSL, IIRC. Used the 30 year old wiring in my place, no problem.
Even on the 8, I've had Internet downloads stream in at better than 1500K.
A year or two ago, Japan was *way* behind in internet access - I was using ISDN (cheap here) and I was a bit of a rare case. Most people used dialup.
So what's really holding DSL back over there? I'd bet the reasons were more economic than engineering.
Just a thought,
Jim
-- My Weblog.
I mean honestly, I am sure that someone here can explain why DSL is fundamentally going to be limited as far as bandwidth and range goes. Copper is a very lossy media, and we already have better stuff out there like fiber optic, and even fiberless communications versus mutliplexed wavelengths (eg Lucent) or even things such as wireless LAN's (although with a more limited range).
The point is that what we need is something that is a complete departure from the paradigm of cable and DSL modems. That is the only thing that is going to allow us to ALL have broadband, and for the cheap, at very high speeds. I have no idea what it will be, though I think it will have to be some wireless technology. Until then, I think we are going to be stuck in this rut of a small number of broadband users who get to use a flawed and unsatisfactory system (except for those that just surf and check e-mail) due to speed constraints and whatnot.
Any ideas of a new system, or how long one might take to engineer? I'm guessing around 20-35 years.
I would imagine that telcos will start doing more of what they did for my neighborhood - install a box (looks like a large refridgerator on its side) that essentially functions as a mini Central Office. So even though we're 20,000 feet from the actual CO, we get DSL connections that are under 2,000 feet.
The telcos know they have to do something before they get their clocks cleaned by the cable companies and wireless T-1 providers (notwithstanding the limitations of those technologies - they do kick ass on price, which is all 85% of the market cares about). Expect to see more of these remote-CO things (pardon the technical description) in the future....
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Ha. I had that at first too, until the neighbors started yearning for the cool new thing. Now my ssh connections drop at least twice a day because there are 30 second periods where 0 packets get through. It's so annoying that I was inspired to write a graphical ping so I can see in real-time just how much my connection sucks. For instance, the connection just decided to punish me with 8 seconds of silence for complaining about it here.
The problem isn't really in the engineering or design, but the roll out.
The most significant bit of any telco's network is 'the last mile' where the copper leaves the exchange and gets to your office or home.
There is one heck of a lot of these local loops, and replacing them with another media is no small job. So the solutions that will succeed and can be rolled out in a reasonable time and at a cost the consumers will pay has to be ones that can make the best use of the established transmission media that goes past your house.
Now this means cable modems and ADSL.
Wireless has its own set of problems if it is to become ubiqoutous - do we have the bandwidth when we are all sharing it - maybe we can have local sub exchanges that feed signal to our houses by fibre?
I don't know the answers, but anything that involves replacing the media to every customers home is going to take a long period of time and money to roll out. Replacing the local loop physical media will not in anyway make broadband cheap, more likely the opposite.
Right now you can get fast reliable connections by buying in a T1 leased line - but most people can't because you have to bear the cost of the telco installing the dedicated line yourself.
We have plenty of technologies right now that can bring mega bit levels to your home - if we were starting from scratch.
I'm not convinced that there is enough frequency spectrum to get mega bit broadband wireless to all. My money would be on a hybrid structure pushing the fibre networks further out to your house as and when networks are updated, and using local nodes and short copper runs like cable modems, or ideally push fibre into your homes in metropolitan areas, moving to wireless links where replacing physical transmission media become cost ineffective.