Fast Guide to DSL (Digital

Subscriber Line)
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DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is a technology for bringing
high- bandwidth information to homes and small businesses oer ordinary
co!!er tele!hone lines" #DSL refers to di$erent ariations of DSL% such as
ADSL% &DSL% and RADSL" Assuming your home or small business is close
enough to a tele!hone com!any central o'ce that o$ers DSL serice% you
may be able to receie data at rates u! to (") megabits (millions of bits)
!er second (of a theoretical *"++* megabits !er second)% enabling
continuous transmission of motion ideo% audio% and een ,-D e$ects"
-ore ty!ically% indiidual connections will !roide from )".++ -b!s to .)/
0b!s downstream and about )/* 0b!s u!stream" A DSL line can carry
both data and oice signals and the data !art of the line is continuously
connected" DSL installations began in )11* and will continue at a greatly
increased !ace through the ne#t decade in a number of communities in
the 2"S" and elsewhere" Com!a3% 4ntel% and -icrosoft wor5ing with
tele!hone com!anies hae deelo!ed a standard and easier-to-install
form of ADSL called6"Lite that is accelerating de!loyment" DSL is
e#!ected to re!lace 4SD7 in many areas and to com!ete with the cable
modem in bringing multimedia and ,-D to homes and small businesses"
How It Works
8raditional !hone serice (sometimes called P98S for :!lain old tele!hone
serice:) connects your home or small business to a tele!hone com!any
o'ce oer co!!er wires that are wound around each other and
called twisted !air " 8raditional !hone serice was created to let you
e#change oice information with other !hone users and the ty!e of signal
used for this 5ind of transmission is called an analog signal" An in!ut
deice such as a !hone set ta5es an acoustic signal (which is a natural
analog signal) and conerts it into an electrical e3uialent in terms of
olume (signal am!litude) and !itch (fre3uency of wae change)" Since
the tele!hone com!any;s signalling is already set u! for this analog wae
transmission% it;s easier for it to use that as the way to get information
bac5 and forth between your tele!hone and the tele!hone com!any"
8hat;s why your com!uter has to hae a modem - so that it can
demodulate the analog signal and turn its alues into the string of < and )
alues that is called digital information"
=ecause analog transmission only uses a small !ortion of the aailable
amount of information that could be transmitted oer co!!er wires% the
ma#imum amount of data that you can receie using ordinary modems is
about .( 0b!s (thousands of bits !er second)" (>ith 4SD7 % which one
might thin5 of as a limited !recursor to DSL% you can receie u! to )/*
0b!s") 8he ability of your com!uter to receie information is constrained
by the fact that the tele!hone com!any ?lters information that arries as
digital data% !uts it into analog form for your tele!hone line% and re3uires
your modem to change it bac5 into digital" 4n other words% the analog
transmission between your home or business and the !hone com!any is a
bandwidth bottlenec5"
Digital Subscriber Line is a technology that assumes digital data does not
re3uire change into analog form and bac5" Digital data is transmitted to
your com!uter directly as digital data and this allows the !hone com!any
to use a much wider bandwidth for transmitting it to you" -eanwhile% if
you choose% the signal can be se!arated so that some of the bandwidth is
used to transmit an analog signal so that you can use your tele!hone and
com!uter on the same line and at the same time"
Splitter-based vs. Splitterless DSL
-ost DSL technologies re3uire that a signal s!litter be installed at a home
or business% re3uiring the e#!ense of a !hone com!any isit and
installation" &oweer% it is !ossible to manage the s!litting remotely from
the central o'ce" 8his is 5nown as s!litterless DSL% :DSL Lite%: 6"Lite% or
2niersal ADSL and has recently been made a standard"
odulation !ec"nologies
Seeral modulation technologies are used by arious 5inds of DSL%
although these are being standardi@ed by the 4nternational
8elecommunication 2nion ( 482 )" Di$erent DSL modem ma5ers are using
either Discrete -ultitone 8echnology ( D-8 ) or Carrierless Am!litude
-odulation ( CAP )" A third technology% 5nown as -ulti!le Airtual Line
( -AL nother !ossibility"
Factors #$ecting t"e %&perienced Data 'ate
DSL modems follow the data rate multi!les established by 7orth American
and Euro!ean standards" 4n general% the ma#imum range for DSL without
a re!eater is .". 5m ()*%<<< feet)" As distance decreases toward the
tele!hone com!any o'ce% the data rate increases" Another factor is the
gauge of the co!!er wire" 8he heaier /+ gauge wire carries the same
data rate farther than /( gauge wire" 4f you lie beyond the .". 5ilometer
range% you may still be able to hae DSL if your !hone com!any has
e#tended the local loo! with o!tical ?ber cable"
!"e Digital Subscriber Line #ccess ultiple&er (DSL#)
8o interconnect multi!le DSL users to a high-s!eed bac5bone networ5% the
tele!hone com!any uses a Digital Subscriber Line Access -ulti!le#er
( DSLA- )" 8y!ically% the DSLA- connects to an asynchronous transfer
mode ( A8- ) networ5 that can aggregate data transmission
at gigabit data rates" At the other end of each transmission% a DSLA-
demulti!le#es the signals and forwards them to a!!ro!riate indiidual DSL
connections"
W"o(s )$ering It W"en
DSL is now o$ered in most !arts of the 2nited States% in the 20% and
elsewhere" 8he aailability of DSL serice de!ends on whether a local
com!any has made the necessary inestment in e3ui!ment and line
reconditioning and on your own !ro#imity to the tele!hone com!any"
Com!anies o$ering DSL serice in arious !arts of the 2nited States
include =ellSouth% Coad% Primary 7etwor5% Bwest% S=C Communications%
and Aeri@on" 4n general% a faster and more e#!ensie is o$ered for
business users"
!*pes o+ DSL
#DSL
8he ariation called ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is the form
of DSL that will become most familiar to home and small business users"
ADSL is called :asymmetric: because most of its two-way
or du!le# bandwidth is deoted to the downstream direction% sending data
to the user" 9nly a small !ortion of bandwidth is aailable for u!stream or
user-interaction messages" &oweer% most 4nternet and es!ecially
gra!hics- or multi-media intensie >eb data need lots of downstream
bandwidth% but user re3uests and res!onses are small and re3uire little
u!stream bandwidth" 2sing ADSL% u! to (") megabits !er second of data
can be sent downstream and u! to (+< 0b!s u!stream" 8he high
downstream bandwidth means that your tele!hone line will be able to
bring motion ideo% audio% and ,-D images to your com!uter or hoo5ed-in
8A set" 4n addition% a small !ortion of the downstream bandwidth can be
deoted to oice rather data% and you can hold !hone conersations
without re3uiring a se!arate line"
2nli5e a similar serice oer your cable 8A line% using ADSL% you won;t be
com!eting for bandwidth with neighbors in your area" 4n many cases% your
e#isting tele!hone lines will wor5 with ADSL" 4n some areas% they may
need u!grading"
,DSL
CDSL (Consumer DSL) is a ersion of DSL% trademar5ed by Roc5well Cor!"%
that is somewhat slower than ADSL () -b!s downstream% !robably less
u!stream) and has the adantage that a :s!litter: does not need to be
installed at the user;s end" Roc5well no longer !roides information about
CSDL at its >eb site and does not a!!ear to be mar5eting it"
G.Lite or DSL Lite
6"Lite (also 5nown as DSL Lite% s!litterless ADSL% and 2niersal ADSL) is
essentially a slower ADSL that doesn;t re3uire s!litting of the line at the
user end but manages to s!lit it for the user remotely at the tele!hone
com!any" 8his saes the cost of what the !hone com!anies call :the truc5
roll": 6"Lite% o'cially 482-8 standard 6-11/"/% !roides a data rate from
)".++ -b!s to ( -!bs downstream and from )/* 0b!s to ,*+ 0b!s
u!stream" 6"Lite is e#!ected to become the most widely installed form of
DSL"
HDSL
&DSL (&igh bit-rate Digital Subscriber Line)% one of the earliest forms of
DSL% is used for wideband digital transmission within a cor!orate site and
between the tele!hone com!any and a customer" 8he main characteristic
of &DSL is that it is symmetricalC an e3ual amount of bandwidth is
aailable in both directions" &DSL can carry as much on a single wire of
twisted-!air cable as can be carried on a 8) line (u! to )".++ -b!s) in
7orth America or an E) line (u! to /"<+* -b!s) in Euro!e oer a
somewhat longer range and is considered an alternatie to a 8) or E)
connection"
IDSL
4DSL (4SD7 DSL) is somewhat of a misnomer since it;s really closer to 4SD7
data rates and serice at )/* 0b!s than to the much higher rates of ADSL"
'#DSL
RADSL (Rate-Ada!tie DSL) is an ADSL technology from >estell in which
software is able to determine the rate at which signals can be transmitted
on a gien customer !hone line and adDust the deliery rate accordingly"
>estell;s Ele#Ca!/ system uses RADSL to delier from (+< 0b!s to /"/
-b!s downstream and from /F/ 0b!s to )"<** -b!s u!stream oer an
e#isting line"
SDSL
SDSL (Symmetric DSL) is similar to &DSL with a single twisted-!air line%
carrying )".++ -b!s (2"S" and Canada) or /"<+* -b!s (Euro!e) each
direction on a du!le# line" 4t;s symmetric because the data rate is the
same in both directions"
-DSL
2DSL (2nidirectional DSL) is a !ro!osal from a Euro!ean com!any" 4t;s a
unidirectional ersion of &DSL"
.DSL
ADSL (Aery high data rate DSL) is a deelo!ing technology that !romises
much higher data rates oer relatiely short distances (between .) and
.. -b!s oer lines u! to )%<<< feet or ,<< meters in length)" 4t;s
enisioned that ADSL may emerge somewhat after ADSL is widely
de!loyed and co-e#ist with it" 8he transmission technology (CAP% D-8% or
other) and its e$ectieness in some enironments is not yet determined"
A number of standards organi@ations are wor5ing on it"
&/0DSL
#/GDSL is a modem from ,Com that su!!orts .( 0b!s modem
communication but is u!gradeable through new software installation to
ADSL when it becomes aailable in the user;s area" ,Com calls it :the last
modem you will eer need":
# DSL Su11ar* !able
DSL
Type
Description
Data Rate
Downstream;
Upstream
Distance
Limit
Application
IDSL ISDN Digital
Subscriber Line
128 Kbps 18,000 feet
on 24 gauge
Similar to the ISDN
BI ser!ice but "ata
onl# $no !oice on the
%ire same line&
CDSL 'onsumer DSL
from oc(%ell
1 )bps
"o%nstream* less
upstream
18,000 feet
on 24 gauge
%ire
Splitterless home an"
small business ser!ice*
similar to DSL Lite
DSL Lite
(same as
G.Lite)
+Splitterless+
DSL %ithout the
+truc( roll+
,rom 1-.44 )bps to
/ )bps
"o%nstream,
"epen"ing on the
subscribe" ser!ice
18,000 feet
on 24 gauge
%ire
0he stan"ar" 1DSL*
sacrifices spee" for not
ha!ing to install a
splitter at the user2s
home or business
G.Lite
(same as
DSL
Lite)
+Splitterless+
DSL %ithout the
+truc( roll+
,rom 1-.44 )bps to
/ )bps , "epen"ing
on the subscribe"
ser!ice
18,000 feet
on 24 gauge
%ire
0he stan"ar" 1DSL*
sacrifices spee" for not
ha!ing to install a
splitter at the user2s
home or business
HDSL 3igh bit4rate
Digital
Subscriber Line
1-.44 )bps "uple5
on t%o t%iste"4pair
lines*
2-048 )bps "uple5
on three t%iste"4pair
lines
12,000 feet
on 24 gauge
%ire
01671 ser!ice bet%een
ser!er an" phone
compan# or %ithin a
compan#*
81N, L1N, ser!er
access
SDSL S#mmetric DSL 1-.44 )bps "uple5
$9-S- an" 'ana"a&*
2-048 )bps
$7urope& on a single
"uple5 line
"o%nstream an"
upstream
12,000 feet
on 24 gauge
%ire
Same as for 3DSL but
re:uiring onl# one line
of t%iste"4pair
ADSL 1s#mmetric
Digital
Subscriber Line
1-.44 to /-1 )bps
"o%nstream*
1/ to /40 Kbps
upstream
1-.44 )bps
at 18,000
feet*
2-048 )bps
at 1/,000
feet*
/-;12 )pbs
at 12,000
feet*
8-448 )bps
at <,000 feet
9se" for Internet an"
8eb access, motion
!i"eo, !i"eo on
"eman", remote L1N
access
RADSL ate41"apti!e
DSL from
8estell
1"apte" to the line,
/40 Kbps to 2-2
)bps "o%nstream*
Not Similar to 1DSL
2=2 Kbps to 1-088
)bps upstream
pro!i"e"
UDSL 9ni"irectional
DSL propose" b#
a compan# in
7urope
Not (no%n Not (no%n Similar to 3DSL
VDSL >er# high Digital
Subscriber Line
12-< to .2-8 )bps
"o%nstream*
1-. to 2-; )bps
upstream*
1-/ )bps to 2-;
)bps "o%nstream
4,.00 feet at
12-</ )bps*
;,000 feet at
2.-82 )bps*
1,000 feet at
.1-84 )bps
10) net%or(s*
,iber to the
Neighborhoo"