Alcatel-Lucent has announced that its research arm, Bell Labs, has successfully demonstrated a technology that boosts the transmission speeds achievable over just two digital subscriber lines (DSL).

In a lab test of “DSL Phantom Mode,” Bell Labs achieved downstream transmission speeds of 300 Mbps over distances up to 400 meters (or 100 Mbps at 1km).

At its core, DSL Phantom Mode involves the creation of a virtual or “phantom” channel that supplements the two physical wires that are the standard configuration for copper transmission lines. Bell Labs’ innovation and the source of DSL Phantom Mode’s dramatic increase in transmission capacity lies in its application of analog phantom mode technology in combination with industry-standard techniques: vectoring that eliminates interference or “crosstalk” between copper wires, and bonding that makes it possible to take individual lines and aggregate them.

“Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs’ DSL Phantom Mode lab test adds a whole new dimension to the ongoing ‘100 Mbps for all’ debate," said Kamalini Ganguly, analyst from Ovum, in a statement. "The fact that existing copper loops can facilitate 300 Mbps at 400 meters reshapes the whole next-generation broadband competitive environment – and will open up a wide range of new business opportunities for ‘traditional’ DSL players.”
 
Further research is being conducted to refine deployment models and determine a specific set of customer premises equipment (CPE)-models compatible with the DSL Phantom Mode technology.

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