Alcatel-Lucent 7300/7301 ASAM
Alcatel-Lucent’s ASAM series remains the most extensively deployed DSLAM worldwide, accounting for the majority of the company’s installed DSL lines, but the ISAM series has displaced the ASAM as Alcatel-Lucent’s fixed access flagship platform. (4/8/2009)
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Alcatel-Lucent 7302 ISAM
Alcatel-Lucent’s ASAM series remains the most extensively deployed DSLAM worldwide, accounting for the majority of the company’s installed DSL lines, but the ISAM series has displaced the ASAM as Alcatel-Lucent’s fixed access flagship platform. (4/8/2009)
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ECI Telecom Hi-FOCuS 5
ECI Telecom’s Hi-FOCuS 5 series, the company’s flagship fixed access platform, offers very high bandwidth/throughput capacity as well as FTTx/GPON support, making it a strong candidate for operators looking to deploy IPTV/multi-play services. (4/8/2009)
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Ericsson EDA 1200
Ericsson’s EDA 1200 system offers a number of compelling features, including the most incrementally scalable system architecture on the market, but Ericsson needs to leverage the 1200 series’ differentiators into additional market traction. (4/9/2009)
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Ericsson EDA 2500
The EDA 2500 effectively combines DSLAM/MSAN capabilities on a common platform, leveraging common silicon and network management functions with the EDA 1200 to generate a compelling and competitive DSL/PON access proposition. (4/9/2009)
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Huawei SmartAX MA5600
Huawei’s SmartAX MA5600 platform has played a key role in the company’s long-time leadership of the IP DSLAM market, and has enabled Huawei to establish increasing traction in multiple geographies worldwide, including the critical EMEA region. (4/8/2009)
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Nokia Siemens Networks SURPASS hiX 5635
Nokia Siemens Networks, following its retreat from the GPON market in 2008, has bet heavily on the IP DSLAM sector. With robust platforms such as the hiX 5635, NSN is well-positioned to remain a strong contender in the global fixed access market. (4/8/2009)
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UTStarcom iAN8K Series
The iAN8K series sustains UTStarcom’s established market presence in the growing IP DSLAM segment, aiding UTStarcom’s competitiveness within the overall DSLAM market and the related IPTV realm. (4/8/2009)
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Zhone Raptor 300/700 Modular DSLAMs
Zhone’s Raptor series is a flexible DSLAM platform with high subscriber port density and a solid array of feature/service support. However, the Raptor 700’s comparatively low backplane/throughput capacity is its Achilles’ heel. (4/7/2009)
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ZTE FSAP 9800 Series
The FSAP 9800 integrated access platform anchors ZTE’s impressive gains within the overall DSLAM market space, including support for IP interworking versatility, but the DSLAM competition remains tough. (4/7/2009)
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• Sections
  
• - Current Perspective Rating
• - Product Strengths & Weaknesses
• - Product Buying Criteria
• - Product Metrics

Top

• Buying Criteria
  • Scalability
    • Scalability is the capability of a system to expand to meet growing needs of users or service providers. This can be viewed in terms of port density and usually references capacity in either a single chassis or a 7' rack.
  • DSL Standards
    • Different 'flavors' of DSL support different services and thus define what markets service providers are targeting. ADSL is typically targeted at consumer services, while HDSL and SDSL services are usually targeted at enterprise or small-to-medium business users.
  • QoS Support
    • The type of quality of service a system supports directly impacts the ability to support performance-sensitive applications such as video and voice.
  • Price
    • Price reflects the equipment cost of interfacing a user, or community of users, to the switch and is usually expressed in terms of price per DSL port.
    Backplane Capacity/Throughput

Top

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• Product Metrics
  • Port Density Per 7' Rack
    • The number of DSL ports in a standard 7-foot tall (or 84") telecom Central Office rack. (See NEBS compliance section below.) The DSL port density per rack defines the total number of physical connections a rack will support, calculated by the number of systems that can be fit into a typical 7' rack.
  • Maximum Ports via Subtend
    • The total number of DSL ports in a single system, also known as a network element. Subtending is simply the linking of chassis (and racks) together. This metric indicates how many total DSL ports can be managed as a single network element.
  • DSL Flavors Supported
    • Digital Subscriber Line technologies, all with different speed and reach capabilities. ADSL = Asymmetric; DMT = Discreet Multi Tone ADSL; G.Lite = splitterless ADSL; G.shdsl = Symmetric High-Speed; HDSL = High-Speed (Symmetric, 1.5 to 2 Mbps, over 4 wires); HDSL2 = same as HDSL over 2 wires; IDSL = Integrated (ISDN 2B1Q coding, 144 Kbps over 1 copper pair); SDSL = Symmetric, up to 768 Kbps; VDSL = Very High Speed, up to 52 Mbps speed).
  • List Price Per Port
    • Price, in U.S. dollars, per DSL port.
  • Card Port Density
    • The number of ports on a single line card. The greater number of ports on a card, typically the lower the price per port the system will offer. Number of ports per cards also directly impacts the port density of a chassis.
  • Port Density Per Chassis
    • The number of DSL ports in a chassis. The DSL port density defines the total number of physical connections a system will support. Each physical connection, however, can support numerous logical connections, thus maximum number of DSL ports may not reflect total number of subscribers a system can support.
  • Network Interfaces
    • The type of interfaces through which the DSLAM connects to the WAN, other DSLAMs (in subtended configurations), Gateways, Switches, or network management systems. The type of network interface a system supports generally defines the range of speeds that the system can support.
  • Transport Protocol
    • The underlying transport used by switch fabric for data transport in the DSLAM; sometimes "backplane architecture.
  • PVC/SVC Support
    • Permanent Virtual Circuits/Switched Virtual Circuits. PVCs are predetermined paths through the network that must be set up by network operators, while SVCs are paths through the network that can be automatically setup by the user, thus offering a greater degree of connection flexibility without overburdening operational systems.
  • QoS Rates
    • ATM Quality of service bit rates. ABR = Available, CBR = Constant, VBR = Variable, UBR = Unspecified; GFR = Guaranteed Frame Rate. The -rt and -nrt suffixes stand for real time and non-real time. The type of quality of service a system supports directly impacts its ability to support performance sensative applications such as video and voice.
  • VCCs/VPCs Supported
    • Virtual Circuit Connections/Virtual Path Connection. This is the ATM equivelent to PVC/SVC support. The number indicates the how many different user sessions or destinations can be simultaneously supported by this system.
  • Redundancy
    • Indicates ability of specific components of DSLAM (CPUs, fans, line cards, switching fabric, power supply) to continue to function in event of failure. The level of redundancy a system supports directly impacts the 'availablity' of a system, usually expressed as a percentage: 99.999%. In order to reach 'five nines' reliability, a system needs to offer complete redundancy of its power, disk, interface, backplane, and processing components.
  • Chassis Dimensions
    • Physical measurements of single DSLAM chassis in inches. Note: Chassis exceeding 19" width and/or 12" depth do not meet NEBs Level 3 Telco rack requirements. Chassis dimensions determine how many systems can fit into an equipment rack (in addition to power and cooling constraints).
  • Backplane Capacity
    • Usually measured in Gigabits per second (Gbps), an indicator of total data throughput. This parameter is a key factor in the overall scalability of the system in question, and defines how much data or voice traffic can be switched from one card in the system to another, in aggregate.
  • Slots (for Cards, Total)
    • The number of slots in a chassis for line cards and switch fabric modules. The more slots available in a system to accept either processor or interface cards, generally the greater the scalability of the system. More card slots mean the ability to support more ports or greater processing power to enable more applications.
  • Customers
    • Customers are the ultimate validation of a product's competitiveness and readiness for deployment.
  • Standards Compliance
    • Network Equipment Building Standards for central offices; formerly BellCore, now Telcordia, Level 3 standards for chassis maximum dimensions, power requirements, temperature hardening, etc. NEBS compliance and certification is required for installation of network equipment in a regulated carrier's central office, but is also an indication of compliance with safety and operational requirements.
  • Availability
    • Date that the product was/is available to customers. Availability of the system can be several months after the initial product announcement, thus this date indicates how 'real' the product is or how long it has been available on the market