To hell with ADSL - Ethernet me baby

GoneShootin

Interesting article. Of course I'll be too old and senile to use it by the time this damn county get's up to speed!

http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/ID/81918/BrowsingType/Features

Local access networks for low-cost broadband services

Telecommunications advances in the last few years has meant that the local access network’s ability to host high-capacity, broadband services has been tested as never before. In response researchers are working on developing a network architecture that supports the delivery of low-cost broadband services to users.

The MUSE project consortium aims to develop a local-access network able to underpin the delivery of low-cost, broadband services to users across Europe. Beginning in January 2004, the IST-funded project research focused on local-access network architectures, developing local-access and EDGE node functions, finding new approaches to the perennial ‘first mile’ bandwidth constraints, and interworking with home and small office/home office networks.

“What is different about MUSE is that – for the first time – we have all the major European players in the industry in one consortium,” says project coordinator Peter Vetter of Alcatel Research & Innovation in Belgium. “At the end of the first phase [February 2006], we have been able to reach a consensus on the access architecture, and to give input to the standards bodies, in particular to ETSI, the DSL Forum and the Home Gateway Initiative.”

The participants have agreed a network architecture based on Ethernet protocols, and have developed appropriate security, configuration and Quality of Service mechanisms to accompany the proposed architecture. “The end-phase trials were very successful,” Vetter says. “We proved the architecture concept, and the network operators were able to supply useful feedback to the equipment vendors for further research.”

The advantage of Ethernet technology, Vetter explains, is its promise of supplying very wide markets at low cost, compared to the Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology used by most big telecom providers today. The trials at the end of phase one tested services such as video telephony and conferencing, video-on-demand, IP telephony and high-speed internet services. They also included successful tests of time-shift TV, with caching in the local access node so that the broadband need is created closer to the end-user.

Research in the present MUSE phase two concentrates on embedding new service enablers into the access network elements to create added value for multimedia applications, preparing the fixed-access architecture to support fixed/mobile convergence, comparing new concepts such as distributed architectures and increasing the reach of the access network. “We want to distribute more of the network intelligence and functions closer to the end-user – within the roadside cabinets for example,” says Vetter.

He is confident that by the end of the project, the participants will have developed the means to increase the reach of the access network from the present 10 to 20 Km up to as much as 100 Km. “This is for bit rates of 10 Gb/second downstream and 2.5 Gb/second upstream,” he says.

However he emphasises that the real achievements within MUSE are those made possible by the new embedded service enabler technology. “Imagine being able to maintain a single video connection, continuously and without a break, from when you start inside your home in the morning, to your journey on the bus or train [at lower quality], to when you arrive inside your office [at higher quality]. That is the kind of service we are talking about.”