High-Speed Broadband: Get Ready for IPTV!
posted by Philip Bednarz
Executive Vice President of Product Development, ASSIA Inc
July 27th, 2011
The explosion in the popularity of Internet applications and bandwidth-intensive services, such as IPTV or OTT content, as well as the dramatic increase in the number of in-home internet connected devices, continues to create a huge demand for high-speed broadband. Today’s tech-savvy consumer expects and demands always-on, fast and reliable Internet connectivity.
There are currently more than 1.2 billion copper subscriber lines around the world, already delivering two-thirds of global consumer broadband through DSL and offering a tremendous cost advantage over competing broadband technologies: the ability to leverage existing lines and plant.
Still, service providers face many challenges in effectively managing DSL networks and achieving the speeds necessary for next-generation services. Physical defects, noise and interference along the loop as well as crosstalk between lines all can hamper speed, reach, and stability. Service providers face substantial operational costs to handle customer complaints, diagnose problems, and dispatch technicians.
The lack of sophisticated network diagnostic and optimization tools also prevent the service provider from up-selling customers to higher service levels and the snazzy new bandwidth-intensive applications they crave.
The latest release of ASSIA DSL Expresse® software, version 2.3, offers advanced features that let DSL operators extend the performance and reach of their lines, while ensuring service quality and minimizing costs. It offers the “now, easy and cheap” access to next-generation IP services that consumers want.
ASSIA DSL Express is designed for the most challenging DSL deployments, providing a number of unique features that help turn existing DSL copper infrastructure into modern, high-speed networks.
These powerful features include:
Neighborhood Analysis: Sophisticated diagnostic tools in this module help improve dispatch productivity and reduce truck roll costs through deep insight into DSL networks across small communities of users. Now it’s easy to identify fault patterns that effect single homes or issues that impact larger groups. The flexible software architecture is easily adapted to many cable and binder distribution schemes.
Real-Time Performance Evaluation: Real-Time Web-based graphical analysis helps pinpoint and diagnose network issues in the field or on the fly in the technical call center, through advanced integration with interactive voice response (IVR) systems. Technicians can receive detailed feedback on repairs in real-time improving the effectiveness of your workforce.
Automatic High Speed Re-profiling/Automatic Repair: ASSIA DSL Expresse is run automatically on all lines in an operator’s network regardless its size, on a daily basis and is proactively adjusting all lines to their highest possible stable speed. Line optimization with DSL Expresse is proven to improve the user experience of broadband services and thereby reduces customer care and technician dispatch expenses.
Service Recommender: The characteristics of all DSLs in the network are analyzed to identify up-sell opportunities far more accurately than loop-length or attenuation based schemes. The Service Recommender module uncovers additional revenue opportunities for high-value, high-rate services.
Power Management: Based on industry-first Dynamic Spectrum Management level 2 technologies, this energy-saving feature can help substantially reduce the power consumption of central office DSL equipment and remote terminals, while maintaining or even increasing DSL rate/reach and service stability.
ASSIA software solutions are field-proven across ADSL1/2/2+ and VDSL deployments in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America, where ASSIA serves a broad set of telecommunication service provider customers.
In these deployments, DSL Expresse has yielded significant and compelling financial results by reducing customer calls, the need for technician dispatches, and customer churn. At the same time, DSL Expresse enables high value services such as IPTV to be offered to a greater number of customers.
Increasingly, service providers worldwide are realizing that DSL with the help of Dynamic Spectrum Management is the best and fastest economic path to lower operating costs, increased revenues and satisfied customers.