NEWSLETTER FEBRUARY 2003

Expanding access to the home

High-speed, broadband access to the home and small offices is growing strongly worldwide. The impact of this type of entry is important in terms of both consumer demand and value-added service provision. It has led to growing pressures to improve the data-handling capacity of the existing local telephone loop connecting the home to the Internet backbone, and the need for new types of customer premises equipment (CPE) ? in particular residential ?gateways? that are able to simplify access to multiple personal computer (PC) installations, entertainment terminals and even intelligent domestic appliances.

Broadband access can be supplied by either cable modem or xDSL (digital subscriber line) technologies and the trends in market share show a roughly 50/50 split in Europe with perhaps a slightly higher share for cable in the USA. By mid 2002, nearly 26 million DSL lines had been installed worldwide with 6.5 million lines in North America, 6.4 million lines in Europe, over a million lines in China and Hong Kong, 3.3 million lines in Japan and a staggering 5.7 million lines in South Korea, where the market is approaching saturation.

Industry observers forecast that broadband access using xDSL services will reach more than 60 million lines worldwide by 2004, with Europe accounting for nearly 40% of the DSL lines installed. ADSL (asynchronous DSL) has already established an important market share in the USA, Japan and in Europe. And higher speed xDSL technologies are advancing apace as semiconductor manufacturers develop faster and more integrated chipsets ? making it crucial for Europe to succeed in these technologies to allow it to compete successfully on a global scale in this strategic market.

MEDEA, the predecessor programme of MEDEA+, already made significant contributions to DSL within the frame of its project A114. MEDEA+ identified xDSL as an important area for further R&D to make much better use of the existing copper local loop. The two-year A106 Integrated Network Copper Access (INCA) project ? one of the first MEDEA+ projects to finish ? set out to produce innovative, inexpensive and low-power system-on-chip (SoC) and IC devices for VDSL (very high speed DSL) and enhanced VDSL. Depending on the type of technology ? ADSL, ADSL-Lite, SDSL, SHDSL or VDSL ? the data rates possible range from between 0.5 and 8 Mbit/s for long distance up to several kilometres, to 50 Mbit/s for short distance of a few hundred metres.

Key objectives of INCA were: to develop new components and systems for advanced xDSL systems; to build a strong European consortium able to leverage acceptance by standards bodies such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU); to bring chipsets and systems to the open market; and to position the European semiconductor, equipment manufacture and telecommunications industries at the leading edge of this key market area worldwide.

The consortium combined chipmakers already experienced in ADSL chipset fabrication, multimedia equipment manufacturers and telecommunications operators. Altogether there were 13 partners in five countries. Major emphasis was placed throughout the project on developing IC architectures that offered flexibility, scalability, reconfigurability and intellectual property (IP) reuse to meet a range of applications from large businesses to individual users.

Results of the project have been particularly useful. On the system and algorithm side, a C++ simulation tool was developed based on four libraries and delivered to consortium partners. ADSL and VDSL chips were realised in both 0.35-?m BiCMOS and 0.18-?m CMOS technologies. And an ADSL-CPE prototype modem was developed, as were a voice-over-DSL platform and two generations of VDSL prototype platforms.

Overall, this important MEDEA+ project has helped Europe to influence DSL standardisation, created strategic partnerships and alliances between key European participants and helped push European chipmakers, equipment manufacturers and telecommunications operators into leading positions in the global xDSL business. However, continued R&D investment is essential to maintain this status and to help develop the new DSL standards.