Lecture Objectives

• To provide an overview of DSL access

technology.
• To discuss the benefits of using xDSL
technologies.
• To explain how ASDL works.
• To explain the basic concepts of signaling
and modulation
• To identify and discuss different types of
digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies

1
 Introduction to DSL
• Digital Subscriber Line provides high speed
Internet access using regular telephone
lines.
• It has the ability to move data over the
phone lines typically at speeds from 64-640
kbps to 1.5Mbps – up to 25 times quicker
than the fastest analog modems available
today (56kbps)

2
 Digital Subscriber Line
(DSL)
• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology is
a modem technology that uses existing
twisted-pair telephone lines to transport
high-bandwidth data, such as multimedia
and video, to service subscribers

3
 Why ordinary modems
supports low data rates?
• Telephones were invented for carrying
human voice not for data
• At the end point of local loop in the end
office, the wire runs through a filter that
attenuates all frequencies below 300 Hz and
above 3400Hz, almost 4KHz band
• Data are thus also restricted to this narrow
bandwidth.

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 What DSL does?
• When a DSL customer subscribes, the
incoming line is connected to a different
kind of switch at the end office, one that
does not have this filter, thus making the
entire capacity of local loop available

5
 What DSL does?
Standard phone service limits the frequencies that the
switches, telephones and other equipment can carry.
Human voices can be carried in a frequency range of 300 to
3,400 Hertz
In most cases, the wires themselves have the potential to
handle frequencies of up to several-million Hertz.
Modern equipment that sends digital (rather than analog)
data can safely use much more of the telephone line's
capacity, and DSL does just that.

6
 DSL Design
Considerations
• A few Design considerations were:
– Service must work over existing infrastructure
(local loops)
– It must not effect the customers telephone and
fax machines
– It must be much faster than 56 Kbps
– It should always be on, with just a monthly
charge but no per-minute charge.

7
 How does it Works?
• ADSL works by splitting the phone line into
2 frequency ranges .
– Voice Traffic (below 4KHz)
– Data Traffic (above 4KHz)
• Upstream
• Downstream
• This makes it possible to use the line for
phone calls and data network access at the
same time.

8
 DSL Equipment
• ADSL uses two pieces of equipment:
– DSL Modem / Transceiver
• At customer end
• point where data from the user's computer or
network is connected to the DSL line.
– DSLAM (DSL Access Multiplexer)
• At the service provider end (end office)
• DSLAM takes connections from many customers
and aggregates them onto a single, high-capacity
connection to the Internet.

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 DSL Modem
• DSL Modem
– At the customer's location, there is a DSL transceiver,
which may also provide other services.
– Most residential customers call their DSL transceiver a
DSL modem.
– The DSL transceiver or modem can connect to a
customer's equipment in several ways, though most
residential installation uses USB or 10BaseT Ethernet
connections.

10
 DSLAM
• A DSLAM is a network device, usually at a
telephone company central office, that
receives signals from multiple customer
DSL connections and puts the signals on a
high-speed backbone line using
multiplexing techniques.
• Depending on the product, DSLAM
multiplexers connect DSL lines with some
combination of ATM, Frame Relay, or IP
networks.

11
 DSL
• DSL is a technology that allows high speed data
transmission over normal telephone lines at low
cost.
• There is minimal load on the CO
• The ISPs can provide multimedia services using the
much higher speeds than offered by normal
modem connections.
• There are many flavors of DSL, the higher the
frequency the greater the effect of distance and
crosstalk.
DSL is a distance-sensitive technology
As the connection's length increases, the signal
quality and connection speed decrease

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 Factors Affecting
Transmission Speed
• Local Loop capacity depends on a number
of factors:
– Length
– Thickness
– General Quality
• Whether DSL service is symmetric or
asymmetric connection

13
 ADSL vs. SDSL
• A DSL service can be symmetric, in which
the downstream and upstream speeds are
identical (SDSL), or asymmetric in which
the downstream speed is faster than the
upstream speed (ADSL).

14
Bandwidth vs. Distance
over Category 3 UTP for DSL

15
 Introduction to DSL
• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) gives you
broadband access over your existing copper
telephone wires
• A DSL connection to the Internet is a high-
speed, ‘always on’ (you don’t need to dial up
your ISP each time you want to connect)

16
 DSL standardization
• The ANSI T1E1.4 working group are responsible
for overseeing the development of the various DSL
technologies.
• The European Technical Standards Institute
(ETSI) also contribute from the European point of
view.

17
 xDSL
• xDSL services are dedicated, point-to-
point, public network access over twisted-
pair copper wire on the local loop (last mile)
between a network service provider's (NSP)
central office and the customer site
• Currently, most DSL deployments are
ADSL, mainly delivered to residential
customers.

18
 xDSL
• The term xDSL refers to a number of similar
yet competing forms of DSL technologies
– E.g. ADSL, SDSL, HDSL, HDSL-2, IDSL,
and VDSL.
• xDSL promises to deliver high-bandwidth
data rates to dispersed locations with
relatively small changes to the existing
Telco infrastructure.

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 ADSL
• Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL)
technology is asymmetric.
• It allows more bandwidth downstream—from
central office to the customer site—than upstream
from the subscriber to the central office.
• This asymmetry makes ADSL ideal for
Internet/intranet surfing, video-on-demand, and
remote LAN access.
• Users of these applications typically download
much more information than they send.

20
 ADSL
• ADSL service has a maximum distance of 18,000 feet (5,460
m) between the DSL modem and the DSLAM
• For speed and quality of service reasons, many ADSL
providers place an even lower limit on the distance.
• At the upper extreme of the distance limit, ADSL customers
may experience speeds far below the promised maximums,
whereas customers close the central office or DSL
termination point may experience speeds approaching the
maximum

21
 ADSL Frequency Bands
• The ADSL divides the 1.1 MHz spectrum
available on the local loop into 3 frequency
bands:
– POTS
– Upstream
– Downstream
• This is achieved using FDM
• ADSL is a physical layer standard

22
 Splitting of Signals
• DSL technologies use sophisticated modulation
schemes to pack data onto copper wires.
• Two competing and incompatible standards are
there for ADSL
– Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT)
– Carrier-less amplitude/phase (CAP)

23
 Line Coding Methods of
ADSL
• DMT
– DMT is the official ANSI standard
– DMT is theoretically capable of more speed than
CAP.
• CAP
– Used for early implementations of ADSL
– Divides the bandwidth into 3 widely separated
channels

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 Signaling and Modulation
• CAP and DMT Modulated ADSL
– DMT and CAP are line-coding methods for
modulating the electrical signals sent over the
copper wire in the local loop. Carrier-less
Amplitude and Phase (CAP) is a common line-
coding method. CAP is a well-understood
technology because of its similarity with QAM.
– CAP is a single carrier technique, while DMT is a
multiple carrier technique

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 CAP
• CAP operates by dividing the signals on the
telephone line into three distinct bands:
– POTS, upstream and downstream
• Early implementation used CAP
• This system, with 3 widely separated
channels, minimizes the possibility of
interference between the channels on one
line or among different lines

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 DMT (Discrete Multi-
Tone)
• DMT also divides the signals into separate
channels, but doesn’t use two fairly broad
channels for upstream and downstream
data
• Instead, DMT divides the data into 256
separate channels, each 4KHz wide

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 DMT
• Channel 0 is used for POTS
• Channel 1-5 are not used, to keep the voice signals
and data signals from interfering with each other.
• Remaining 250 channels , one is used for
upstream control, one for downstream control
• Rest are available for data (upstream and
downstream) up to the provider to determine.
• 6-30 channels are used for upstream
• 31-255 channels used for downstream

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 DMT
• DMT is designed such that if problems occur at a
particular frequency such as interference on the
wire path, then only one or two sub-channels
become affected, data can still be carried on the
unaffected sub-channels.
• Each channel is monitored and if quality is too
impaired, the signal is shifted to another channel
• This system constantly shifts signals between
different channels, searching for the best channels
for transmission and reception.

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ADSL using DMT

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 Low Pass Filters
• CAP and DMT are similar in one way that you can see as a DSL
user.
• If you have ADSL installed, you were almost certainly given small
filters to attach to the outlets that don't provide the signal to your
ADSL modem.
• These filters are low-pass filters -- simple filters that block all
signals above a certain frequency.
• Since all voice conversations take place below 4 KHz, the low-pass
(LP) filters are built to block everything above 4 KHz, preventing the
data signals from interfering with standard telephone calls.

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32
 Role of Splitters
• Splitter are used in DSL technology to separate the
voice and data traffic at both ends of the local loop
• At each end, (if required) a splitter is used to
separate out the voice traffic from the high speed
data traffic.
• The voice traffic is diverted to the voice switch and
the data traffic is fed into a xDSL modem to
convert the DSL signals into a form recognized by
the computer.

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ADSL Equipment
Configuration

34
 Microfilters
• Microfilters are installed
on telephones to improve
voice call quality when
voice and data equipment
are using the same
telephone line (twisted
pair).

35
 POTS Splitters
• A POTS splitter (also
called simply a splitter) is
installed on a telephone
line that is connected to
both data (high-frequency)
and voice (low-frequency)
devices. The splitter
routes the high-frequency
and low-frequency signals
on the telephone line to
the correct device.

36
 Splitters
• Customer premises equipment (CPE) POTS splitters and
filters allow DSL and POTS to function simultaneously over a
single pair of copper wires. These essential elements to any
DSL deployment separate the voice signal from the data
signal, eliminating the risk of data frequencies interfering
with telephone services.  
– http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/794/splitters.html

37
 DSL vs. T1/E1 lines
• T1 uses a four-wire loop and DSL a two-wire loop)
• Traditional copper wire technologies used for digital data and
voice transmission such as T1 and E1 are low-speed
technologies
• DSL gives higher data rates
• DSL uses existing infrastructure
• It is a cost effective solution as compared to T1 lines
• T1 lines are not distance sensitive as DSL

38
 xDSL
• DSL Connection lets you use your telephone lines for making
and receiving calls and for Internet access simultaneously

• DSL is also known as xDSL, with the ‘x’ standing for various
kinds of DSL technologies.

• These technologies differ in the connect speed and

connection (asymmetric or symmetric) they provide

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 DSL Technologies
• SDSL
• HDSL
• HDSL-2
• G.SHDSL
• ISDN Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
• VDSL

40
 SDSL
• Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) is
a rate-adaptive version of HDSL and, like
HDSL, is symmetric.
• It allows equal bandwidth downstream from
an NSP's central office to the customer site
as upstream from the subscriber to the
central office.
• SDSL supports data only on a single line
and does not support analog calls.

41
 DSL Advantages
1. Static IP Address (this is an assigned number
that is the signaling method used for all
communication over the Internet)
2. Surf and talk on the phone at the same time
3. Up to 140 times faster than analog modems
4. “Always On” connection (No waiting to “dial in”)
5. Unlimited Internet Access
6. Your home has its own dedicated connection
7. Your connection is highly reliability
8. Your connection is highly secure

42
 DSL Disadvantages
1. No current standardization
2. Expensive
3. Distance dependence
4. Access
5. Asymmetry
6. Limited availability
7. Very new technology
8. Low or no CIR  (Committed Information
Rate).

43
 DSL Summarized
Features
Time
Users save time from faster downloads and 'always on'
connectivity; the former is important for large file
transfers. DSL is 'always on', so messages arrive in real
time.
Convenience
'Always on' is a major convenience advantage, which
simplifies work (and other applications) and changes the
way people live.
Quality
The Technical quality of connectivity is substantially
increased because of high-speed access, which reduces
wait times and enables application such as video
conferencing.

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 DSL Summarized
Control
Features
DSL enables workers and organizations to configure work
flexibly; flexible production is the most significant change in
approaches to organizational life.
Access
DSL provides access of workers to corporate LANs and WANs,
and expands the customer reach for small and large
businesses alike.

45
 References
• TCP/IP Protocol Suite
– 2nd Edition, Behrouz A. Forouzan, McGraw-Hill
Inc.
• Computer Networks
– 4th Edition, Andrew S. Tananbaum
• Data Communications and Computer
Networks
– Curt M. White

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