Unified DSL Standards To Enable Competitive Video Services From Telecom Providers

A high-bandwidth DSL technology that is backward compatible with operators' current infrastructures has been developed by Texas Instruments. It makes possible the addition of competitive video service revenue to existing data and voice services.

Uni-DSL (UDSL) technology raises the bandwidth of DSL to the level necessary to deliver High Definition Television (HDTV) and other advanced video services, as well as voice and data, throughout the home with limited fibre deployment. The backwards compatibility will allow operators to deploy a menu of services using ADSL and VDSL standards from a single line card design in the office or home gateway.

UDSL-based equipment will be targeted at neighbourhood service cabinets, sometimes called cross connects or primary connection points that are located four to six kilofeet (Kft) from the user.

Operators can then deploy fibre to this connection point and use existing copper to deliver speeds between 50–100Mb/s to users.

This will eliminate the need to deploy fibre to the home or the curb and still enable operators to deliver the speeds required to provide multiple high-definition video streams to consumers

The UDSL approach and technology will support speed rates of 200Mb/s aggregate throughput for
one line of DSL, which can be used to provide 100Mb/s symmetric or an asymmetric service, such as 150Mb/s downstream-50Mb/s upstream in shorter-loops. Additionally, since UDSL is backwards-compatible with all DMT standards (ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+ and VDSL, as well as the future VDSL2 standard), operators will be able to support multiple DSL service options using one solution.

Short and long-loop In short-loop markets in Europe, UDSL will provide bandwidths up to 200Mb/s aggregate to deliver multiple channels of high definition video like HDTV. As the industry has seen with VDSL, TI expects that short-loop markets will also adopt video over DSL and high-bandwidth services more rapidly than in longer-loop markets. This is because shorter-loops enable higher bandwidths allowing for VDSL-type delivery with additional infrastructure build-out.

For the long-loop markets that operate in certain parts of Europe, the ultra-high speed bandwidths provided by UDSL require additional infrastructure into neighbourhoods such as fibre.

DSPs offer lowest standby power In addition to its Broadband announcements, TI has also unveiled three new low-power digital signal processors (DSP) which, it believes, provides the industry's lowest standby power spec. TI has also made available its eXpressDSP power design tools. The design tools show detailed and modular power information of a DSP chip core, memory and peripherals and a methodology for measuring power running under real-world conditions.

The new TMS320C5503, TMS320C5507 and TMS320C5509A DSPs offer a combination of low power, performance, memory and peripherals for mobile, portable and other low-power, real-time signal processing applications. These devices enable low power consumption via:

• a standby power of 0.12mW
• a low core/memory operating power – for example, 58 mW at 108 MHz
• dynamic voltage/frequency scaling
• multiple standby modes with ability to turn individual peripherals and internal functional units on and off
• multiple SRAM options (64, 128 and 256 KB RAM) for efficient code fit.

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