Advanced DSL management

Abstract

Today's digital subscriber line deployments are often conservatively engineered to function in a statistically worst case environment. Crosstalk is treated as unknown and uncontrollable random noise, even though it is manmade. Other impairments are often treated by simply adding margin to crosstalk. While this simplistic practice currently suffices, it often provisions unnecessarily low bit rates. This article shows methods that can increase these bit rates and decrease DSL failure rates. Data can be collected about individual telephone lines and cables from loop databases, by automated test equipment, or from DSL modems. This data may then be fed into an advanced DSL management system with a database of DSL loop and noise characteristics, and an analysis engine that tailors DSL deployments to the actual individual line characteristics, to increase provisioned DSL bitrates while simultaneously increasing reliability and lowering maintenance costs. The maximum service can be provisioned with high accuracy, eliminating many service activation failures. Automated maintenance routines can even isolate faults before a customer experiences them. Dynamic spectrum management (DSM) treats crosstalk as the manmade noise it is, and jointly optimizes DSL transmit spectra and signals to minimize crosstalk and maximize received signals, allowing substantially higher DSL speeds than current practice. This opens the door for new services, including symmetric enterprise services and full video service, with minimal physical plant upgrade.