Chapter Five

Introduction to Digital
Subscriber Line Technologies

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Lecture outlines
 Introduction
 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
 Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
 High-Bit-Rate Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL)
 Single-Line Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL)
 Very-High-Rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL)
 Overview of packet switched networks
 Local loops and its access mechanisms.

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 Introduction
 After traditional modems reached their peak data
rate, telephone companies developed another
technology called DSL, to provide higher-speed
access to the Internet.

 Digital subscriber line (DSL) technology is one of

the most promising for supporting high-speed
digital communication over the existing local
loops.

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 Digital Subscriber Line
(DSL)
DSL provides:
broadband services over existing local loop
• DSL utilizes the same cabling used for normal telephones
• DSL modem: Employ special modulation and encoding methods
• FDM is used to share the same line for data & analog traffic
• Data and speech are separated at the local exchange site
• DSL often referred to as xDSL
• Where x can be replaced by A, V, H, or S

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 Digital Subscriber Line
(DSL) . . .
• High data rate Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL): the first product
• Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL): follows HDSL
• Very high data rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL)
• xDSL includes two main branches
• Symmetric DSL: Identical data rates upstream and downstream
• Asymmetric DSL: Lower rates upstream but higher rates downstream

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xDSL Variants

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 Characteristics of DSL
• High capacity: Up to 50 MBit/s by using VDSL
• Uses the whole spectrum a copper cable can transfer
• DSL works on the unused (high) frequencies of the telephone line
• Data rate depends on distance to the switching center and
the cable quality (signal weakening )
• The greater the distance, the lower the data rate and vice versa
• DSL is a distance-sensitive technology.
• Uses efficient modulation and line-coding techniques
• E.g., DMT or CAM

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 High Data Rate Digital Subscriber
Line (HDSL)
• HDSL is the oldest of the DSL techniques
• Goal: Replace old repeater-based T1 or E1 line by a repeater-less system
• Commonly used by telecom to provision T-1 or E-1 services
• No repeater up to 4 km on standard 24 gauge (0.5 mm) TP wire
• However, to allow longer distance repeaters can be used
• No repeaters => Less costly
• HDSL: Provisions digital services to business premises.
• Supports symmetric data rate and full duplex

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HDSL Configuration

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 Symmetric DSL (SDSL)
• In the wider sense
• SDSL is a DSL technologies that offer symmetric rate in upstream and downstream
and also full-duplex services
• In the narrow sense
• SDSL is a variant of HDSL that supports data only on a single pair of copper wire
with a maximum range of 5.5. km
• SDSL supports multiple data rates.
• Offer speeds ranging from 192 kbit/s to 2.3 Mbit/s
 So you can subscribe to varying bandwidths
• Application: Video conferencing
• SDSL, unlike ADSL, can't co-exist with a conventional
voice service on the same pair
• I.e., it takes over the entire bandwidth
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SDSL Configuration

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 Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL)
• ADSL: Developed in 1989 by Bell core Labs
• Was intended to permit the local exchange carriers to compete with
the cable television companies
• Driver: The much-anticipated deployment of video-on-demand
• Provide up to 8 Mbps connectivity
• ADSL higher downstream data rate than upstream rate
• Hence asymmetric
• E.g., File downloads requires greater downstream BW than upstream
• ADSL-Distance vs. Speed

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Bandwidth division of ADSL

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ADSL Configuration

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 Advantages vs. Disadvantages
• Advantages
• Doesn’t need new wiring
• Connection open and still use the phone line for voice calls
• Regular modem(1.5 Mbps vs. 56 Kbps)
• Disadvantages
• Better connection if closer to the provider’s
• Faster receiving than sending data
• Not available everywhere
• Modulations Used in ADSL
1. Discrete Multitone Technology (DMT)
2. Carrier less AmplitudeTelecom
Modulation (CAM)
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 Applications of ADSL

• To support Internet access and remote LAN access

• Voice over DSL (VoDSL) presents potential opportunities
• Video-on demand

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 Very High Bit-Rate Digital
Subscriber Line (VDSL)
• VDSL: Delivers very high-speed data over a single twisted
copper pair
• However, it operates over extremely short distances
• The loop length range from 300 to 1,500 meters
• VDSL is everyone's dream medium
• At longer distance, VDSL provides 13Mbps downstream
and maybe 1.5Mbps upstream
• At lower distance, it might be capable of providing up to
52Mbps downstream and around 6 Mbps upstream.

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VDSL Configuration

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Very High Bit-Rate Digital
Subscriber Line (VDSL) . . .

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Summary of DSL Technology

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 Overview of packet switched
networks
Introduction
• Networks are used to interconnect many devices.

• Since the invention of the telephone, circuit switching has been the
dominant technology for voice communications.

• packet switching has evolved substantially for digital data

communications. It was designed to provide a more efficient facility
than circuit switching for busty data traffic.

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witched Communications Networks
• Long distance transmission between stations (called “end devices”) is
typically done over a network of switching nodes.
• Switching nodes do not concern with content of data. Their purpose is
to provide a switching facility that will move the data from node to
node until they reach their destination (the end device).
• A collection of nodes and connections forms a communications
network.
• In a switched communications network, data entering the network
from a station are routed to the destination by being switched from
node to node.
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Simple Switching Networks . . .

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 Types of switching
Technologies
1. Circuit switching:
– There is a dedicated communication path between two stations (end-to-end)

– The path is a connected sequence of links between network nodes. On each physical

link, a logical channel is dedicated to the connection.

• Communication via circuit switching has three phases:

– Circuit establishment (link by link)

• Routing & resource allocation (FDM or TDM)

– Data transfer

– Circuit disconnect

• DE allocate the dedicated resources

• The switches must know how to find the route to the destination and how to allocate

bandwidth (channel) to establish a connection.

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 Circuit Switching Properties
• Inefficiency
– Channel capacity is dedicated for the whole duration of a
connection
– If no data, capacity is wasted
• Delay
– Long initial delay: circuit establishment takes time
– Low data delay: after the circuit establishment, information is
transmitted at a fixed data rate with no delay other than the
propagation delay. The delay at each node is negligible.
• Developed for voice traffic (public telephone network) but can also
applied to data traffic.
– For voice connections, the resulting circuit will enjoy a high
percentage of utilization because most of the time one party or the
other is talking.

– But how about data connections?

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Public Circuit Switched Network

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2. Packet Switching
• Problem of circuit switching

– designed for voice service

– Resources dedicated to a particular call

– For data transmission, much of the time the connection is idle

(say, web browsing)
– Data rate is fixed

• Both ends must operate at the same rate during the entire
period of connection
• Packet switching is designed to address these problems.

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 Basic Operation
• Data are transmitted in short packets
– Typically at the order of 1000 bytes
– Longer messages are split into series of packets
– Each packet contains a portion of user data plus some control info
• Control info contains at least
– Routing (addressing) info, so as to be routed to the intended
destination.
• Store and forward
– On each switching node, packets are received, stored briefly
(buffered) and passed on to the next node.

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 Advantages of Packet
Switching
• Line efficiency
– Single node-to-node link can be dynamically shared by many packets
over time
– Packets are queued up and transmitted as fast as possible
• Data rate conversion
– Each station connects to the local node at its own speed
• In circuit-switching, a connection could be blocked if there
lacks free resources.
• On a packet-switching network, even with heavy traffic,
packets are still accepted, by delivery delay increases.
• Priorities can be used
– On each node, packets with higher priority can be forwarded first.
They will experience less delay than lower-priority packets.

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 Packet Switching Technique

• Station breaks long message into packets

• Packets sent one at a time to the network sequentially, one at a time
• Packets handled in two ways
– Datagram
– Virtual circuit

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 Datagram
• Each packet is treated independently, with no reference to packets
that have gone before.
– Each node chooses the next node on a packet’s path.

• Packets can take any possible route.

• Packets may arrive at the receiver out of order.

• Packets may go missing.

• It is up to the receiver to re-order packets and recover from missing

packets.
• Example: Internet

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Datagram Diagram

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 Virtual Circuit
• Preplanned route established before any packets sent

• Call request and call accept packets establish connection (handshake).

• Each packet contains a virtual circuit identifier instead of destination

address.
• No routing decisions required for each packet.

• Clear request to drop circuit.

• Not a dedicated path.

• Example: X.25, Frame Relay, ATM

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 Virtual Circuit Diagram

 A route between
stations is set up prior
to data transfer.
 All the data packets
then follow the same
route.
 But there is no
dedicated resources
reserved for the
virtual circuit!
Packets need to be
stored-and-forwarded.

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 Virtual Circuits vs. Datagram
• Virtual circuits
– Network can provide sequencing (packets arrive at the same order)
and error control (retransmission between two nodes).
– Packets are forwarded more quickly
• Based on the virtual circuit identifier
• No routing decisions to make
– Less reliable
• If a node fails, all virtual circuits that pass through that node fail.
• Datagram
– No call setup phase
• Good for bursty data, such as Web applications
– More flexible
• If a node fails, packets may find an alternate route
• Routing can be used to avoid congested parts of the network

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 Local Loops and its Access Mechanisms.
•A wireless alternatives to the local loop, e.g., in urban areas
where copper wiring is not available
 Called Wireless Local loop (WLL)
•Millimeter wave-based alternative
 Wider frequency range to provide broadband service
•Small-scale Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
 WLANs link personal computers within a small area e.g., building
 WLANs can be connected to the public network wirelessly or
wired

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 Wireless Local loop (WLL)

 Systems in which WLL is based

Satellite
Microwave
Cellular

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 Satellite-based WLL Setup
A wireless configuration inside a home

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Microwave-based WLL

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Cell-based WLL Setup

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 Wireless Local Loop (WLL) Solutions

1. Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)

2. Multi Channel Multipoint Distribution Services (MMDS)
3. Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS)
4. Free Space Optics

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 Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)

 DBS is one of the first approaches to provide broadband

wireless Internet access
 Also called direct-to-home system
 DBS is a mini-dish, which is a parabolic surface
 Focuses incoming signals into Feed Horn
 Reflects outgoing signals into narrow beam
 Main part consists of Low Noise Block Converter (LNB)

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 DBS for Digital TV
Typical System
 Can support up to 150 digital TV channels
 Operates in upper Ku Band (12 GHz to 14 GHz)
 Operates in one way: Provides high-speed downstream service
Proprietary equipment needed, i.e.,
 a set-top box
 Encryption
 Smart Card
 Uses MPEG-2 for video
compression-decompression
 Fixed Satellite Service (FSS)
Operates in C-Band
(3.4 GHz to 7 GHz)

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 DBS for Data Service
 Only high-speed downstream service available Users must rely
on the telephone line or cable connection as a return channel
 New DBS systems will include Ka-band (i.e., 20-30 GHz)
satellites and will support two-way high-speed data flows

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 Multi channel Multipoint Distribution Services (MMDS)
 In 1970s, MMDS was used to broadcast one-way 6MHz television channels
 MMDS is sometimes called wireless cable
 Since 1998, MMDS offers interactive two-way services for the Internet

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 Multi channel Multipoint Distribution Services (MMDS)
 MMDS: Is a fixed broadband wireless technology
 Uses terrestrial line-of-sight microwave
 It operates in the 2GHz to 3GHz range.
 Penetration, vegetation and rain moderately well
 Can transmit video, voice, or data signals at 1.5 to 2 Mbps
downstream and 320 Kbps upstream
 At distances of up to 55 kms., which is a wide coverage
 Its long reach and throughput makes it a good match for
residential and rural applications
 Can broadcast 300 channels
 It requires a digital set-top box that incorporates MPEG-2 for
video
compression and decompression
 Internet access using MMDS is a very good an alternative to cable
modems and DSL service

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 Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS)
 LMDS is a fixed broadband wireless technology

 Operates in 10GHz to 45GHz range, depending on where you

are in the world

 US: 24GHz, 28GHz, 31GHz, 38GHz, and 39GHz

 UK: 10GHz, and the rest of Europe uses 25GHz
 Carriers in Asia-Pacific are conducting trials in the 24GHz to
26GHz and 38GHz ranges

 Much higher frequency band than MMDS

Highly directional: Hence clear line-of-sight between roof top
antennas and towers
Rain and trees absorb them

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 LMDS Configuration
 Typical LMDS installation: Central BS with omnidirectional antenna

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 LMDS
 LMDS provides a wide variety of wireless services
 High-speed Internet access
 Real-time multimedia file transfer
 Remote access to local area networks
 Interactive video, video-on-demand, video conferencing
Telephone service
 Transmit from 51 to 155 Mbps downstream and 1.54 Mbps
upstream and covers a distance of up to 8 kms.

 Architecture Cells (like a cellular telephone system)

 LMDS is a fixed wireless technology for buildings that operates
over microcells of 1 to 5 kms. serving 5,000 to 10,000 homes

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 Advantages and disadvantages of LMDS

 Advantages:
 Relatively high data rates
 Capable of providing video, telephony, and data
 Relatively low cost in comparison with cable alternatives

 Disadvantages of LMDS
 LMDS requires a direct line of sight between buildings
 LMDS signals are susceptible to interference from rain
and fog

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 Free Space Optics (FSO)
 FSO: Transmits data via laser beams, i.e., uses infrared (IR)
 FSO is optical, point-to-point, and line-of-sight broadband technology
 Transmissions are sent by low-powered invisible IR beams through the air

 Excellent alternative to high-speed fiber-optic cable

 Can transmit up to 2.5 Gbps at around 4 kms. in full-duplex mode

 FSO is a line-of-sight technology

 There are two categories of
Free Space Optics:
 Point-to-point: Provide high-speed
connection between two buildings
 Multiple high-speed connections:
Operate over much shorter distances,
either in a point-to-multipoint
or meshed architecture

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FSO Deployment

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End of Slide

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