Into the ether

The access market is teeming with digital subscriber line solutions hoping to steal market share from the cable modem contingent. But a quiet company called Elastic Networks, a subsidiary of Nortel Networks that will soon spin off on its own, proposes an alternative to both approaches. The solution is called EtherLoop, and it's a high-speed access technology that simultaneously supports voice and data on copper wire.

"It's Ethernet on a telephone line," said Phil Griffith, vice president of sales and marketing at Elastic Networks. The system comprises an end user bridge called the Elite Modem, which feeds into the Elastic Modem Multiplexer, or ELMo 8. The multiplexer strips off the data traffic and sends it to an Internet protocol network, while forwarding voice onto the central office equipment.

Like DSL, EtherLoop is an always-on, point-to-point service. It doesn't share bandwidth in the manner of cable modems. But unlike DSL, a continuous bit-rate technology, Ethernet is bursty, meaning data is sent only when requested. In between bursts of data, EtherLoop checks the entire cable bundle for interference.

"EtherLoop is a spectrally agile technology," Griffith said. "If it detects interference in its spectrum it will spectrally adjust away from that interference." That capability makes EtherLoop less susceptible to signal reflection points such as bridge taps than DSL.

The transmission speeds are good, too. The hitch is in distance; EtherLoop has a short range. EtherLoop can support 4 Mb/s up to 6000 feet, Griffith said. "After that, physics take over," he said. At 12,000 feet it operates in the 1.5 to 2 Mb/s range, and between 15,000 and 18,000 feet, EtherLoop achieves only 400 to 700 kb/s. DSL is touted to reach up to 7 Mb/s and travel up to 18,000 feet, although the farther you go, the weaker the signal. Elastic Networks aims to reach 6 Mb/s in the second half of the year.

One key draw is that EtherLoop offers flexible bandwidth. "DSL has fixed bandwidth constraints," Griffith said. "EtherLoop adapts based on the traffic. It's automatic, on-the-fly, dynamic, [and bandwidth is] based on the application of the users." For example, the full 4 Mb/s bandwidth pipe can be used to download a video transmission. But if a user wants to upload a file at the same time, EtherLoop will split the pipe to support transmission in both directions.

The technology, with its distance limitations, will likely be constrained to specific applications. The hospitality industry is a key target.

Sprint and Williams Communications have already signed on to sell the service. Sprint is implementing the service in a North Carolina hotel, where it is supplying the Elastic Networks hardware as well as Internet connectivity.

"We don't have a clean model for DSL [in a campus environment] like we do with EtherLoop," said Ken Heitland, senior product manager in Sprint's local telephone division business markets. "It has less interruption and less interference in areas of high concentrations, like you find in a hotel. EtherLoop allows the hotel to reduce the amount of long-duration traffic that goes through its PBX, and that's a cost savings for the hotel."

* THE RESIDENT SERVICE Covad Communications launched nationwide consumer asymmetrical DSL offerings, available through its ISP partners. The TeleSurfer service operates up to 384 kb/s upstream and 128 kb/s downstream, and the TeleSurfer Pro offers speeds of 768 kb/s upstream and 384 kb/s downstream.

* CLEARING THE WAY ClearWorks Technologies will compete indirectly with Qwest and MCI WorldCom by providing commercial, bundled digital services. ClearWorks also intends to acquire the systems integration firm, Archer Mickelson Technologies.