Copper networks can provide High-speed broadband – Huawei

The latest technology in the communication sector is the deployment of fibre. Formerly to lay down their network, broadband providers made use of copper and now it is being replaced by fibre as part of upgrading.

This being the case, a few weeks back, BT announced that they are going to use their copper networks to provide high-speed broadband services to its customers. BT’s director of strategy, policy and portfolio, Mr Sean Williams explained this during the Westminister e-Forum. He told that there are people in the UK who prefer copper telephony to broadband and as such the company has decided not to shut down its copper networks. He admitted that copper is the permanent feature of their network.

Following BT, Huawei, the Chinese communications giant, has practically showed that copper could be used to achieve gigabits. It requires something more than the regular copper networks. In order to achieve an overall upstream and downstream rate of a gigabit of a single twisted pair, time division duplexing is required. Only up to a distance of a hundred meters such speeds are achievable.

The providers need not lay down new cables while connecting homes to provide them high speed broadband services, once this technology is made use of. In their press release the company stated that Huawei’s Giga DSL protype reduces power consumption and radiation interference as low-power spectral density in-signal transmission is used. It provides a rate of one Gb/s for both upstream and downstream with in 100 metres and 500 Mb/s plus with in 200 metres. For telecom operators building ultra-broadband access networks, it is a cost-effective option.

The press release also stated that Huawei has announced the successful development of NLV (Node Level Vectoring) protype. It said that it is the first NLV in the world. Over a single twisted pair in FTTC/FTTB Huawei’s NLV can provide 100 Mbps access. This has been tested and many telecom operators have commercially conducted trials. NLV coupled with the company’s prototype Giga DSL makes it clear that the DSL (digital subscriber line) technology has great prospective to meet the needs of broadband users in the long run.