Oct 4, 2004 12:00 PM,

CRITICAL TELECOM GETS VIRTUAL WITH NEW DSLAM PRODUCT

Vince Vittore

Critical Telecom this week is introducing a new DSL AM that adds to a growing list of equipment aimed at remote applications and high-bandwidth services like IP video.

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The 24-port GEmini is an environmentally hardened unit that will provide ADSL2+ speed with gigabit Ethernet connectivity on the upstream path. However, the biggest innovation in the product is a middleware-like element that Critical Telecom is calling a Virtualization Layer.

That layer allows carriers to get out of their current quandary whereby they are boxed in to providing only a small set of services, said Mark Labbe, chief technical officer of Critical Telecom.

“The virtualization layer lets us map the physical layer to the feature layer,” he said.

From an infrastructure perspective, the approach is aimed at heading off what Labbe believes will be a major issue when carriers want to bring broadband remote access server (B-RAS) capability closer to the customer.

The Canadian vendor, which previously concentrated on the DSL extension market, joins a quickly growing roster of companies including Pedestal Networks, Paradyne and Adtran targeting the remote DSLAM market. That market is expected to dominate future access spending by carriers and has become a focus for newer entrants since the central office DSLAM market has largely been saturated by larger vendors (see figure). In fact, developing lower line count DSLAMs has become something of a trend for some.

In July, Charles Industries launched a 12-port line-powered mini-DSLAM specifically for the independent telco market.

“We think [the economics] work well even with one or two subscribers,” said Mark Huntzinger, director of Charles' access and transmission business unit.