DSL Forum: We’re About More Than Just Copper-Based Access

DSL is now an undisputed success, with 67 percent of broadband market share, deployment in every region of the world and 128,000 new users of the technology coming online every day. So it would seem The DSL Forum’s work is done, right? Wrong, said The DSL Forum, which now is expanding its work to include fiber access and promoting its activities that go beyond pure access.

“Our focus is now on redefining what it means to have end-to-end solutions,” said Laurie Gonzalez, marketing director for The DSL Forum.

For example, she said, service providers are integrating fiber into their networks, and so are looking for a common management platform through which to manage both copper and fiber access. The DSL Forum aims to address that need, Gonzales said.

Service providers are also seeing requirements for new, more intelligent devices so the network can trigger events to happen when users invoke applications on the network, she said. The DSL Forum is also addressing that.

Gonzalez also mentions that one of the biggest new categories of products coming down the pike is dual-mode phones, which she added will require an immense amount of smarts to manage traffic. The DSL Forum is also addressing that, she continued.

The DSL Forum’s history and strong membership positions it well to address networking requirements all the way from the end user and application to the service provider. Part of all this work involves communicating with consumer electronics vendors as well as service providers and, possibly, third-party application or content providers, Gonzalez said, adding that consumer electronics equipment vendors want to design gear that is access-agnostic.

To emphasize the breadth of work going on at The DSL Forum, the group this week unveiled what it calls the BroadbandSuite. Richard Cardone, DSL Forum marketing vice chair and consul, explained the BroadbandSuite is “the formalization of … three discrete areas and recognition within the industry that we’re expanding beyond just access, although we’ve already been addressing some of these nonaccess areas for some time.” Those three discrete areas include control, access and home.

Cardone, who is also director of marketing for TAZZ Networks, explained that The DSL Forum continues to stage interoperability and compatibility testing related to home networking, and expects to expand its plugfests. On the control front, he said, the forum is working on a policy control framework aimed to ensure resources on the network can support various applications.

While the forum has had activities going in these “three discrete areas” for some time, Gonzalez said the BroadbandSuite “is an alert to the industry that this type of work is going on within the forum.”

The forum, she added, continues to evolve with its members, which Gonzalez said remains strong. “We’re aligning with that growth and evolution we’re seeing in our membership,” she said. “And that’s strengthening our membership, so members don’t need to go off and form new” groups to address their concerns.

To help lead many of these activities, Robin Mersh has been named COO of The DSL Forum, said Cardone, adding that the forum has immediate plans to change its name to reflect better the expanded focus it’s trying to promote.

DSL Forum www.dslforum.org

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