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networkZONE Products for the week of May 5, 2008
Ikanos Communications Says…
Highly Integrated Multi-mode VDSL2/ADSL2+ Triple Play Residential Gateways with Single-Chip Integrated Front End
DSL Forum compliant solution integrates xDSL Line driver to support cost effective, low-power designs
Ikanos Communications, Inc. has announced the availability of the FXS60IF1, the industry’s first single-chip Integrated Front End (IFE) that enables cost effective, low power, multi-mode VDSL2/ADSL2+ triple play residential gateways. The FXS60IF1 is designed to allow gateways to deliver Ikanos’ market-leading VDSL2 performance and simultaneously meet DSL Forum’s stringent ADSL2+ and ADSL performance specifications (TR-100 and TR-067 respectively). By integrating the xDSL line driver, the FXS60IF1 reduces external components and power consumption compared to existing solutions in the market.
“Carriers that are upgrading their networks for deployment of triple play services over VDSL2 would benefit from a single residential gateway (RG) platform that offers multi-mode VDSL2/ADSL2+ capabilities. This RG can be used in ADSL2+ or ADSL mode to support today’s subscribers, and can be upgraded through software to support subscriber migration to triple play services over VDSL2, eliminating future truck rolls and equipment upgrades,” said Aileen Arcilla, senior semiconductor analyst at IDC. “Such a multi-mode VDSL2/ADSL2+ RG potentially can reduce the carrier’s capex and recurring operating expenses."
The FXS60IF1, in conjunction with a residential gateway processor such as the Fusiv Vx180, delivers a best-in-class solution for a multi-mode triple play residential gateway. This solution meets the ITU-T standards for VDSL2, ADSL2+, ADSL2 and ADSL. It also offers Ikanos’ superior physical layer technology features – such as high levels of impulse noise protection, Rapid Rate Adaptation (RRA), on-chip quality of service (QoS) and wire-speed network processor performance – to improve consumers’ triple play experience.
“Ikanos has a long history of providing the cutting-edge technology that serves as the foundation of our broadband access devices,” said Jorson Tsai, chief technology officer of Gemtek Technology Co. Ltd. “The availability of a high performance multi-mode residential gateway solution with the FXS60IF1, which supports both VDSL2 and ADSL2+, will enable us to develop a single design that can effectively meet the majority of our customers needs. More importantly, the technology’s compliance with DSL Forum standards will ease the qualification process with many of our largest carrier customers.”
“By combining advanced capabilities into a single, low power solution with a small footprint, Ikanos is leading the market in terms of performance and integration for multi-mode xDSL residential gateways,” said Michael A. Ricci, president and CEO of Ikanos. “Ikanos is meeting the needs of service providers today by delivering the industry’s first multi-mode VDSL2/ADSL2+ residential gateway solution that offers high performance VDSL2 and meets DSL Forum’s requirements for ADSL2+/ADSL.”
EN-Genius Says…
Ikanos FXS60IF1 IFE features digitally-controllable A/D, D/A, line drivers and filters that can be configured via an in-band management channel to deliver the sampling rates, filter parameters, and drive levels needed to support any kind of DSL service you need. When paired with their powerful multi-core Vx180 broadband gateway chip (reviewed here April 2007), you get a cost-effective platform with any-standard/any-service capability and enough processing power to support most custom applications that you’re likely to want. This represents a significant breakthrough because manufacturers can now produce a single CPE platform that delivers anything from basic ADSL to full VDSL 2 with only a firmware change. Carriers will really appreciate the fact that they can perform truck roll-free upgrades to their CPE, allowing faster speeds and more advanced services (such as IPTV, FMC, VoIP) to be added on demand.
Most of the challenges Ikanos encountered developing a part capable of multi-mode operation had to do with the lower SNRs and higher noise floors that exist at the higher frequencies of VDSL2 operation. To meet these new performance demands, the FXS60IF1 uses a receiver architecture with two signal paths. The first one has characteristics suited for the lower, narrower operating range of ADSL, ADSL2+ while the other is designed to handle the multi-band environment that VDSL2 plays in.
As with their earlier IFEs, filtering is done with a mix of both analog and digital techniques that keeps the digital signal processing load to a sensible level while limiting the number of on-chip and off chip filter elements. Designers (and their bean-counting managers) will appreciate the fact that, despite its sophisticated analog guts, it requires only two power supplies (5.25 V and 2.5 V).
I’m inclined to believe Ikanos' claims that the lower noise, higher linearity, and superior filtering of the FXS60IF1 gives their platform far better reach for ADSL 2+ service than the standard requires and also supports VDSL2 service to reach beyond 4 k feet in real-world wiring plants. This additional performance should enable many carriers to deploy VDSL instead of ADSL in new installations and retrofit existing ADSL customers with new plug-and-play CPE that can be upgraded later as the market allows. When combined with their Rapid Rate Adaptation technology (first rolled out by Ikanos in October 2007), you get a robust, flexible, multi-standard xDSL platform that can deliver the advanced services that carriers are counting on to boost their flagging revenue streams to a much larger portion of their customers.
In production , the pricing for the Vx180 + IFE-6 chipset .is $22 in 10k-unit lots.
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