Assia launches new DSL diagnostic tools

ASSIA , a developer of DSL management products, today announced a new release of its DSL Expresse diagnostic tool. The new offering, DSL Expresse Release 2.5, aims to increase field technician efficiency by reducing the time required to service a DSL connection by 50%, said Jerome Joanny, senior director of product management for ASSIA , in an interview.

Other capabilities from ASSIA announced today include Expresse Pro, which enables smartphones and other mobile devices to “invoke and display” key DSL Expresse features and reports, along with VDSL Predictor, which aims to predict VDSL performance of an ADSL line. Expresse Pro initially will run on devices supporting iOS 4 but eventually will work on iOS 5, as well as certain Blackberry and Android platforms.

Diagnostic capabilities

DSL Expresse Release 2.5 enables field technicians to use point-and-click functionality to obtain diagnostic details about a DSL line. The offering “can tell the technician the type of defect” involved and can call up a 24-hour history of the line, explained Joanny.

“Now you can have an intelligent [conversation] with the customer,” said Joanny. If for example a wiring problem began within the last 24 hours, the technician can ask the homeowner if the modem was relocated during that time.

The technician also can see a display on a local map of all customers served from the same remote terminal. By using filters, the technician can determine if other people served from the remote terminal also are experiencing the same problem and based on that information, can determine whether to go to the home or to the remote terminal to address the problem.

Service prediction

ASSIA ’s Service Recommender capability helps service providers estimate the maximum bit rate that a DSL line can support before the service is installed. The company’s VDSL Predictor provides similar functionality for service providers that are rolling our VDSL from ADSL networks.

Unlike tools from some other manufacturers that estimate the ability of a line to support DSL based on loop length, ASSIA ’s tools are more accurate because they can also recognize the amount of noise on a line, Joanny said.

ASSIA , which has also focused on dynamic spectrum management technology (CP: Assia gets carrier funding to make DSL faster, more polite), claims a market share in the range of 85% to 90% among U.S.-based DSL providers. The company was founded by DSL pioneer John Cioffi. Privately held, ASSIA is funded primarily by network operators and has very little venture capital funding, said Steve Timmerman, senior vice president for ASSIA .