Alcatel Unleashes Flurry of New DSL Features

Leading DSL equipment vendor Alcatel (www.alcatel.com) added Internet protocol (IP) functionality to, introduced business services features for and unveiled two European versions of its 7300 Advanced Services Access Manager (ASAM) digital subscriber line (DSL) product.

"We're enhancing our main product with capabilities aimed at two issues facing service providers," says Jay Fausch, senior director of marketing. "One is minimizing operating expenses of acquiring customers and keeping services operational.

"The other is going beyond basic residential services," he says. "And the enhancements are being done to let them be extended into networks in place today."

To decrease DSL service providers' operating costs, Alcatel introduced an IP line card called the Internet Protocol Services Module (ISM) and associated software, which carriers can plug into to their existing ASAMs to aggregate ATM virtual circuits at the edge of the network over IP, Fausch explains.

"The IP link also provides another source of connectivity for the DSLAM," he says. "If you have content server from an IP network, you could interface directly to that." Service providers could potentially offer DSL directly over IP, he adds.

Alcatel also now offers new software to enable service providers to offer ATM-based quality of service for their DSL services. Features such as guaranteed frame rate (GFR) from Alcatel could help service providers offer new premium business level DSL services and deliver related service level agreements, if desired.

The two new European versions of the Alcatel 7300 ASAM include a compact version that is a self-contained single shelf solution for indoor environments, and an outdoor version supporting up to 192 lines and designed for a controlled environment vault or street-side cabinet.

The enhanced Alcatel 7300 ASAM offers double density asymmetric and symmetric DSL line cards to optimize the product's footprint. It can support up to 1152 lines per 300mm ETSI rack or 1296 lines per 12-inch ANSI rack.

All new products and features are available immediately.

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