An Example of Estimation of Twisted Pair
Channel Capacity in DSL Environment
Alen Begovic, Namir Skaljo
Department of Access Networks
BH Telecom, J.S.C. Sarajevo, Directorate Zenica
Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina
alen.begovic@bhtelecom.ba; namir.skaljo@bhtelecom.ba
Abstract — This paper analyses an example of estimation and
calculation of channel capacity of twisted pair channel in DSL
environment, from point of view of provider, instead of
commonly used point of view of manufacturers of terminal
equipment. A brief overview of twisted pair as communication
channel was given. The channel capacity end-to end with
primary parameters as variables was introduced. The results of
measurement on real cable in commercial exploitation and its
comparison with introduced theoretical approach were shown.
The 20-pair, 1000-meter-long cable, completely buried, which
had been occupied by 100% by DSL signals and operating in
rural conditions, was used.
Keywords — access network; channel capacity; digital
subscriber line; primary parameters; spectral efficiency; signal to-
noise ratio; transfer function; transmission line; twisted pair.
I. INTRODUCTION
It is a well-known fact that number of broadband users has
increased rapidly in recent years. Digital subscriber line
remains the most popular broadband access technique,
especially in the Europe [1]. DSL technology in distribution
part of access network has been using “old-fashion” copper
based cables, developed for narrowband technologies only, so
it is necessary to identify if a twisted pair is suitable for a
certain DSL applications, with satisfied QoS and QoE levels.
However, channel capacity is global quantity which may be
used in order to evaluate such suitability.
There are many papers that propose various methods of
estimation or analysis of twisted pair channel capacity in DSL
environment. For example, capacity of twisted pair channel,
with appropriated simulation was analysed in [2], while [3]
describes a frequency domain approach of channel capacity
estimation, followed with nice results of laboratory
measurements. Bandwidth and spectral efficiency of a twisted
pair channel are considered and supported by experimental
results [4] also. A numerical method for characterizing the rate
region achievable with frequency-division multiple accesses
for a channel with intersymbol interference is introduced in [5].
Besides mentioned articles, in [6] were analysed measurement
methods of twisted pair properties. All of articles from this
paragraph consider channel capacity problem in respect to,
among others, transfer function, but not impact of primary
parameters on it. Also, none of them consider real cable in
commercial exploitation.
978-1-4673-2821-0/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
Nermin Goran
Department of Access Networks
BH Telecom, J.S.C. Sarajevo, Directorate Travnik
Travnik, Bosnia-Herzegovina
nermin.goran@bhtelecom.ba
However, there are papers which were closer to observing
primary parameters, like modelling the series impedance of a
quad cable for DSL Applications [7], or evaluation of transfer
function by introducing a method of balancing star-quad [8].
They do not place primary parameters in focus of interest,
indeed.
The goal of this paper is try to estimate twisted pair channel
capacity related to primary parameters of that pair. This
estimation was done on real cable in commercial exploitation.
The observed cable was operating in maximum load condition,
i.e. all pairs were occupied by active triple-play ADSL2+
signals. Such cable was an ordinary cable, with no xDSL
improvements [9].
A theoretical analysis is introduced at the beginning.
Simplified mathematical calculations, based mainly on
Shannon formula were done. Then, the transfer function of
twisted pair related to its primary parameters was introduced.
By simplification, the spectral efficiency, instead of channel
capacity, was used. The worst condition case was assumed.
After theoretical analysis, the results of measurement on
observed object were given. The discussion both theoretical
and practical results, and its comparison was done, followed by
the most important conclusions.
II. THEORETICAL APPROACH
In order to calculate the capacity of single twisted pair, we
shall consider, at first, a transmission line connected to the
source of electromotive force ES and impedance ZS, loaded
with impedance ZL, as shown in Figure 1.
IS IL
+
ZS
VS VL ZL
ES
l
Figure 1. Twisted pair as transmission line
 Let us assume that system in Figure 1 operates in real DSL (secondary) parameters [11] from whatever source or load
environment, with presence of Gaussian noise. That means that point of view.
observed system operates with several discrete-multi-tone
(DMT) signals, which are frequently placed into a number of IS Z IL
subcarriers. According to introduced assumption, the signals

+
+
both on source-port and load-port are random processes ξ(t)
and η(t), with appropriate power spectral densities Sξξ(ω) and ZS
Sηη(ω), respectively. In that sense, the noise is also random US Y UL ZL
process n(t) with corresponding power spectral density (PSD)
Snn(ω).
ES
If Ck is capacity of kth (k = 0, 1, 2, …, n-1, n – total number
of subcarriers) subcarrier from observed DMT system, and if
we, for simplification, neglect adjacent-channel interference,
then the total capacity is
Figure 2. Twisted pair end-to-end as two-port network

n 1 In this paper, we considered the problem from twisted pair

 Ctotal   Ck 
k 0
Based on introduced assumptions, the capacity of arbitrary
subcarrier can be obtained by Shannon’s formula

point of view. The object of our consideration was evaluation
of twisted pair transfer function end-to-end only, not partial
segments. That means that we could observe twisted pair as a
one-cell two-port network, Figure 2, so the transfer function
was introduced based on RLCG (primary) parameters [12], as

k
2
Z L  


 1  S       H     
Ck  log 2 1  k  d
 Snn    Z L    1  Z L   Y     Z S    Z   
2  k 
k
1
where underbars denote complex quantities, and where we
where ωk1 and ωk2 are the lowest and the highest frequencies on defined the total series impedance and shunt admittance of
kth subcarrier. twisted pair end-to-end,

In such application of DMT systems where 2πBk = ωk2 – ωk1

is lot lower than any frequency between ωk1 and ωk2, so (2), in  Z  ω  R  jωL Y  ω  G  jωC  
ideal case, becomes
In (6) R, L, G and C are total (not per unit of length)
resistance, inductance, conductance and capacitance of
 S  observed twisted pair, respectively.
 Ck  Bk log 2 1  k   Bk log 2 1  SNR k   
 Snn 
 k  Now, we shall take back into consideration an arbitrary
subcarrier. If we let X(ωk) = Xk in (5), and assume that both
Capacity from (3) is theoretical maximum. It depends on source and load impedance are frequency independent, we
signal-to-noise ratio on observed appropriate subcarrier. In obtain
practice, there are some factors which narrow the channel
capacity, and further, some correction techniques are
implemented which impact channel capacity, too. These factors  ZL  
Hk 
are commonly labelled by Γ. The label Γ includes Shannon gap Z L  1  Z LY k  Z S  Z k 
and, if present, coding gain and noise margin [10].
Based on given discussion, and taking into consideration It is well-known, by theory of telecommunications [13],
that in ADSL systems Bk = B0 = 4.125 kHz for each subcarrier, that
equation (3) can be rewritten as:
 Sk  H k2 Sk  

  SNR k  
Ck  B0 log 2 1   so, after substitution (8) in (4), it follows that
 k 

Now, we shall take into consideration a transfer function of  Sk 

observed system, and try to estimate its influence on channel  Ck  B0 ld 1  H2  
capacity. There are various models of channel transfer function   k Snn k 
 k 
estimation, and most of them are developed based on ABCD
 When we observe a real, already implemented, DSL The following tables and figures represent a part of the
system, with predefined equipment both on DSLAM (DSL results of measurement on the observed object, described
access multiplexer) and CPE (customer premises equipment), above.
then all of quantities from (9), but transfer function, are
constant, so we can analyse, by combining (1), (6), (7) and (9), TABLE I. THE VALUES OF CONSIDERED QUANTITIES ON SINGLE PAIR
a capacity of twisted pair channel related to its primary
parameters. quantity measured catalogue
We often use a spectral efficiency (called bit load too) of R [Ω/km] max 280 300
subcarrier instead of the channel capacity
L [mH/km] max N.A. 0,6
1/G [GΩ·km] min 10 5
C  Sk 
 bk  k  log 2 1  H k2    C [nF/km] max 42 45
 
B0   k Snnk  [dBm] [mW]

which is measured by bit/s/Hz. Source power min 21,4 140

Noise power max – 47,7 0,00002
III. RESULTS OF MEASUREMENT
In order to evaluate a subservience of twisted pair channel Table 1 shows the values of above quantities on single pair
introduced above, we need to take into consideration a real from observed cable core. Only the worst values were shown.
cable in conditions of commercial exploitation of DSL However, the rest of the measured values do not vary
systems. The cable type TK 59-45 GM 20×2×0.4 [14] was significantly from those shown in Table 1, so there was not
used as the object of measurement. This is a low-band need to introduce them in above table. We see that all of
subscriber cable with: copper wires of 0.4 mm diameter; jelly measured quantities remain numerical values not over
filled foamed polyethylene insulation; aluminium shield and catalogue limits, so we can conclude that observed cable is
twisted pairs as stranding elements. The capacity of cable core valid.
is twenty pairs, bounded in two ten-pair elementary groups.
Such cable types have been being used for a long time in South TABLE II. COMPARATIVE VALUES OF OBTAINED BIT LOAD
– East Europe, i.e. in countries formed by dissolution of SFR
Yugoslavia. Ch.№ Freq. case1 case2 case3 case4 case5
The observed cable operates in following conditions: 25 107,8 18 14 12 13 12
completely buried (no overhead sections nor placed in duct
sections); rural area; developed as hard topology (there are no 50 215,6 14 12 10 11 10
connection points between MDF and distribution point). Every 75 323,4 12 11 9 10 9
single one of all twenty pairs from cable core carries ADSL 2+
signal with triple play service (Data + VoIP + IPTV). The 100 431,3 11 9 7 9 7
length of each pair is approximately 1000 meters. 125 539,1 9 8 6 8 6
The procedure of measurement was as follows: at first, we 150 646,9 8 7 6 7 6
measured series resistance, shunt capacitance and insulation 175 754,7 8 7 5 7 5
resistance of each pair. Then, we were establishing line
conditions on each pair, when all the rest were operating. We 200 862,5 7 6 4 6 4
measured, among others, these quantities: broadband noise, 225 970,3 6 5 4 5 4
impulsive noise, signal-to-noise ratio, quiet line noise, total
source power, etc. Based on obtained results, we calculated 250 1078,1 6 5 3 5 3
total noise power on observed system. Finally, we considered 275 1185,9 5 4 3 4 3
the worst condition case, on the worst pair, placed obtain 300 1293,8 5 4 2 4 2
results to equation (10), and calculated both spectral efficiency
and achieved bit-rate (i.e. channel capacity). For predetermined 325 1401,6 4 4 2 4 2
bit error rate BER = 10-7, we assumed that Shannon gap, 350 1509,4 4 3 2 3 2
coding gain and noise margin are frequency independent, all
values of 9.8 dB, 2 dB and 6 dB, respectively [15]. After 375 1617,2 3 3 1 3 1
recalculation from logarithmic to power units [16], we obtained 400 1725,0 3 3 1 3 1
Γk = Γ ≈ 25 for each k.
425 1832,8 3 2 1 2 1
Irrespective of the procedure from previous paragraph, we 450 1940,6 2 2 1 2 1
made a direct measurement of both spectral efficiency and
achieved bit rate on pairs from observed cable core. These 475 2048,4 2 2 1 2 1
results will be used for comparison with theoretical ones. 500 2156,3 2 0 0 0 0
 Table 2 shows spectral efficiency, obtained by
22
measurement, on several channels from ADSL 2+ band. The
Pair OK frequency unit is kHz, and bit load one is bit/s/Hz. The
20 False G columns labelled “case 1” to “case5” are related to valid pair,
False C shunt conductive disturbance, shunt capacitive disturbance,
False R
18
False G&C series resistive disturbance and simultaneous shunt conductive
and capacitive disturbance, respectively
16
bitload [b/s/Hz]

Figures 3-5 represent a graphical interpretation of part of

14 the results from Table 2.
12 By analysing obtained results, it is obvious that derogation
of galvanic parameters (series resistance and shunt
10 conductance) impacts more at lower channels than at higher
ones. At upper part of observed band there is almost no
8 difference between estimated spectral efficiency in cases of
valid pair and any kind of galvanic disturbance. It is because at
6
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 higher frequencies, reactive quantities (inductance and
channel number capacitance) take over upon themselves most of energy
conversion. When we compare galvanic disturbances only, we
Figure 3. Estimated bit load up to 100th channel
conclude that series disturbances make partially more impact
on spectral efficiency than shunt ones, but not too significantly.
We can also see that when a capacitive disturbance (no matter,
9 alone or together with other ones) exists, then it performs a
Pair OK
False G
case with the lowest spectral efficiency. This phenomenon
8
False C remains all over observed frequency band.
False R
16
7 False G&C Real system
14 RLGC Model
bitload [b/s/Hz]

6
12

5
10
bitload [b/s/Hz]

4 8

6
3

4
2
150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250
2
channel number

0
Figure 4. Estimated bit load from 151st to 250th channel
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
channel number
5
Pair OK
4.5 False G Figure 6. Comparison of estimated and achieved bit load
False C
4
False R Figure 6 shows a graphical comparison between spectral
False G&C
3.5 efficiency estimated by introduced model and obtained by
measuring on real object. As we see from Figure 6, there is
bitload [b/s/Hz]

3
significant mismatch between two graphs. It can be explained,
2.5 at first, by initial assumption that both source power and noise
2
power are constant all over frequency band. Also, we operated
with the worst case – the lowest source power and the highest
1.5 noise power. Since we know how DSL works, and according to
1 the fact that the assumptions do not remain in DSL system, we
could obviously expect noted difference, i.e. mismatch.
0.5

0
350 360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440 450 IV. CONCLUSION
channel number
Based on introduced theoretical approach and measurement
st th on real system in commercial exploitation, we can conclude
Figure 5. Estimated bit load from 351 to 450 channel
that the presented analysis may not be usable for estimation of
channel capacity in DSL systems indeed, but it may certainly
be usable for analysis of impact of twisted pair primary
parameters on channel capacity in observed system. The
providers can take advantage of obtained results and
conclusions in order to evaluate ability of its copper-based
access networks to provide broadband access with satisfied
level of QoS and QoE [17].
The primary parameter that mostly impacts on channel
capacity is shunt capacitance. Series resistance follows, and
finally shunt conductance. For example, derogation of
capacitance of twice decreases spectral efficiency like
derogation of conductance of several orders of magnitude. The
providers can and need to take into consideration these facts
when they perform operations on their access network
structure, e.g. maintenance and/or fault repair, which means
mounting, replacing or removing network elements, like cable
sections, joints, connection boxes, line sockets, etc.
The used cable type and length (20-pair, approximately 1
km) suggest that introduced analysis and results can be used at
least on cables up to 20-30 pairs and up to 1 km, which operate
in ADSL2+ systems. Such conditions are satisfied commonly
at rural and sub-urban areas, where connection points more
than 20-30 pairs and longer than 1 km distance from MDF are
rarity.
This paper did not take into consideration common
situation at urban areas – 50-pair and more cables and/or longer
than 1 km cables. Also, it did not consider a frequency band
higher than ADSL2+ one. Further work may observe noted
tasks. In addition, different real cable types (e.g. insulation
types, stranding elements, core bounding types, etc.) could be
analysing.
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