Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)

• After traditional modems reached their peak data

rate, telephone companies developed another
technology called DSL to provide higher-speed
access to the internet.
• DSL is a family of point-to-point technologies to
provide high-speed data transmission over
traditional telephone lines. These technologies
are ADSL, VDSL, HDSL and SDSL.
 Using existing local loops
• DSL uses existing local loops. But the question arises
how does DSL reach a data rate that was never
achieved with traditional modems??
• The answer is that twisted-pair local loop is actually
capable of handling bandwidths up to 1.1 MHz. But the
filters installed at the end of the line by the telephone
company limits the bandwidth to 4 KHz (sufficient for
voice communication.
• Therefore conversion for POTS to DSL usually requires
just changing the equipment and removing the filter at
the exchange and not the wiring of the local loop. This is
the factor which makes DSL technology so attractive.
 Equipment used in DSL
• Only the equipment at the subscriber end and at
the exchange are replaced for DSL. The wiring
remains the same.
• At the subscriber’s end:
• Line Splitter: It splits up the voice and data
transmission for telephone and DSL modem
respectively. It may consist of just a low-pass
and bandpass filter. Thus voice transmission
continues even if the data equipment fails.
 DSL Equipment
• DSL Modem: It usually uses Ethernet
10BaseT data format so that it can be
connected to an Ethernet port of a PC,
router or hub etc. DSL modem does not
convert analog to digital signals or vice
versa. It just converts the incoming data
into Ethernet format and vice versa. So in
reality, its not a modem in a strict sense. It
just converts one standard into another.
 Equipment at the Local Carrier’s
End
• Main Distribution Frame (MDF): Using local
loop, many customers get connected to the Main
Distribution Frame/Facility (MDF) which acts as
a splitter. It sends voice traffic to the Voice
Telephone Network and data traffic to DSLAM.
• DSLAM: DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM)
converts the data into the ATM (Asynchronous
Transfer Mode) data format to be transmitted to
the ATM switch which distributes it to the ISPs
(Internet Service Providers) for access to the
Internet.
 High-Bit-Rate Digital Subscriber
Line (HDSL)
• HDSL was designed as an alternative to the T-1
line (1.544 Mbps).
• Standard T1 line uses alternate mark inversion
coding (AMI) which occupies a bandwidth of 1.5
MHz and is very susceptible to attenuation. This
limits the length of the line to 1km and repeaters
have to be used for longer distances.
• HDSL uses the 2B1Q coding scheme to provide
a data rate of 2 Mbps over 2 twisted pair lines
within a bandwidth that extends only up to about
196 kHz. This enables a range of about 3.7 km
to be achieved.
 HDSL
• A long string of 0s in the case of AMI might de-
synchronize the receiver. Another advantage of
2B1Q is that it also includes timing information in
the data being transmitted which means that in
2B1Q, there are transitions in the signal that alert
the receiver to the beginning, middle or end of the
pulse. If the receiver’s clock is out of
synchronization, these alerting points can reset the
clock.
Bipolar AMI Encoding
 Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line
(SDSL)
• SDSL uses the same coding scheme as
HDSL i.e. 2B1Q.
• As the name suggests, its symmetric (like
HDSL) i.e. it divides the available
bandwidth equally between the
downstream and upstream directions.
• SDSL was developed to provide the same
type of service as HDSL but over a single
twisted-pair line.
 Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL)
• ADSL, as the name suggests is asymmetric,
which refers to the fact that ADSL provides more
capacity downstream (from the carrier’s central
office to the customer’s site) than upstream
(from customer to carrier).
• Typically while using Internet, the user requires
far more capacity for downstream than for
upstream transmission. Thus, ADSL provides a
perfect fit for the Internet requirement.
• ADSL is carrier-based unlike HDSL or SDSL
which use coding.
 ADSL Design
• Frequency division multiplexing
– Lowest 25kHz for voice
• Plain old telephone service (POTS)
– Use echo cancellation or FDM to give two
bands (upstream and downstream).
– Use FDM within bands
• Range 5.5km
ADSL Channel Configuration
 Echo Cancellation in ADSL
• Echo cancellation is a signal processing
technique that allows transmission of digital
signals in both directions on a single
transmission line simultaneously. In essence, a
transmitter must subtract the echo of its own
transmission from the incoming signal to recover
the signal sent by the other side.
• When echo cancellation is used, the entire
frequency band for the upstream channel
overlaps the lower portion of the downstream
channel. This has 2 advantages:
 Echo Cancellation in ADSL
• Advantages
1.The higher the frequency, the greater the attenuation. With the use of
echo cancellation, more of the downstream bandwidth is in the
“good” part of the spectrum.
2.The echo cancellation design is more flexible for changing upstream
capacity. The upstream channel can be extended upward without
running into the downstream: instead the area of overlap is
extended.

• Disadvantage
The need for echo cancellation logic on both ends of the line adds to
the cost and complexity of the equipment.
 Discrete Multitone (DMT)
• Standard modulation technique for ADSL which
combines QAM and FDM.
• Multiple carrier signals at different frequencies
• Some bits on each channel
• 4kHz subchannels
• Send test signal and use subchannels with better signal
to noise ratio
• 256 downstream subchannels at 4kHz (60kbps)
– 15.36Mbps
– Impairments bring this down to 1.5Mbps to 9Mbps
DMT Transmitter
Very-High-Bit-Rate DSL(VDSL)
• An alternative approach to ADSL
• Uses DMT
• Bit rate of 50-55 Mbps downstream and
1.5-2.5 Mbps upstream.