PDF of this tutorialDefinition
Digital loop carriers (DLCs) consolidate the voice traffic of remotely located customers onto a few transport lines running back to the central office (CO), thus reducing the cost and space requirements of serving those customers. Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology is used to transport large amounts of data traffic over existing copper telephone lines—up to 8 Mbps downstream and 640 kbps upstream—while simultaneously supporting plain old telephone service (POTS).
Overview
This tutorial discusses the process of delivering ADSL services to remote end-users fed by DLC systems. With increasing suburbanization, areas outside urban centers are experiencing a rapid growth in both businesses and new residential communities. These new populations are prime candidates for high-speed data services such as ADSL. Therefore, as demand for high-speed data access grows, being able to cost-effectively deliver ADSL to these outlying areas, which typically receive their communications services via DLC systems, becomes increasingly important. Delivering ADSL to DLC–fed end-users is a difficult challenge to meet because ADSL does not work with DLC systems without some sort of infrastructure upgrade. However, solutions are being developed, and some of these are quite promising. This tutorial provides a brief background of the challenge of delivering ADSL to DLC–fed end users, as well as a number of ways this challenge is being addressed. The tutorial places particular emphasis on remote access multiplexer (RAM) solutions.
