MARCH 6, 2008 -- Alcatel-Lucent (search for Alcatel-Lucent) has announced what it claims is an important extension to its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) portfolio of DSL and fiber access products. Company representatives say the ISAM's new fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) capabilities complement this product family's existing central office (CO) and cabinet equipment.
The ISAM FTTB portfolio allows operators to deliver up to 100 Mbits/sec over copper in multi-dwelling unit (MDU) environments, in which it can be difficult to introduce fiber. DSL service providers in markets that use the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) standards can thus complement their CO and cabinet deployments and bring fiber closer to the subscriber whenever the installation of street cabinets is not an option.
Alcatel-Lucent says its ISAM FTTB portfolio encompasses four new products, all delivering very high-speed DSL (VDSL) services over the copper twisted pair in MDUs. All products share the ISAM family's DSL technology and are managed by the 5520 Access Management System (AMS), covering all ISAM copper and fiber access products.
The ISAM FTTB portfolio not only includes products with standard Gigabit Ethernet and GPON network aggregation links, but also supports what Alcatel-Lucent calls its "distributed DSLAM" model--a network architecture whereby the remote DSLAMs are managed as remote line cards, connected to a central host. With this model, service providers have up to 24 times fewer nodes to manage, says the company, resulting in lower aggregation capital expenditures as well as more cost-effective operations, thanks to fewer software upgrades, re-use of line cards, and fewer systems to configure and maintain.
"Alcatel-Lucent recognizes that many of our customers are seeking a 'fiber to the most economical point' approach to deliver cost-effective, high-quality services to their customers," notes Luis Martinez Amago, president of Alcatel-Lucent's fixed access activities. "Our FTTB portfolio is an optimized, scalable solution that offers service providers quick time to market in areas where the deployment of street cabinets is not economically feasible."
Alcatel-Lucent's FTTB portfolio will officially be introduced at CeBIT, in Hanover, Germany, March 4 - 9, 2008.
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