Friday, April 13, 2007

What is BRAS ?

A broadband remote access server (BRAS) routes traffic to and from the digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAM) on an Internet service providers (ISP) network.

The BRAS sits at the core of an ISPs network, and aggregates user sessions from the access network. It is at the BRAS that an ISP can inject policy management and IP Quality of Service (QoS).
The specific tasks include:
- Aggregates the output from DSLAMs
- Provides user
PPP sessions or IP over ATM sessions
- Enforces quality of service (
QoS) policies
- Routes traffic into an
Internet service provider’s backbone network


A DSLAM collects data traffic from multiple subscribers into a centralized point so that it can be uploaded to the router over a Frame Relay, ATM, or Ethernet connection.

The router provides the logical termination for PPP sessions. These may be PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE) or PPP over ATM (PPPoA) encapsulated sessions. By acting as the PPP termination point, the BRAS is responsible for assigning session parameters such as IP addresses to the clients. The BRAS is also the first IP hop from the client to the Internet.

The BRAS is also the interface to authentication, authorization and accounting systems

Sunday, April 1, 2007

What is DSLAM ?

A Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) allows telephone lines to make faster connections to the Internet. It is a network device, usually located at a telephone company central office (CO), that connects multiple customer Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)s to a high-speed Internet backbone line using multiplexing techniques. The DSLAM creates a network similar to a LAN but not subject to Ethernet distance limits, thus providing an Internet connection for the subscribers.

Hardware details
Customers connect to the DSLAM through ADSL modems or DSL routers, which are connected to the PSTN network via typical unshielded twisted pair telephone lines. Each DSLAM has multiple aggregation cards, and each such card can have multiple ports to which the customers lines are connected. Typically a single DSLAM aggregation card has 24 ports, but this number can vary with each manufacturer. The most common DSLAMs are housed in a telco-grade chassis, which is supplied with (nominal) 48 Volts DC. Hence a typical DSLAM setup may contain power converters, DSLAM chassis, aggregation cards, cabling, and upstream links. The most common upstream links in these DSLAMs use gigabit ethernet or multi-gigabit fiber optic links. read more...


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from DSLAM)

Sunday, March 25, 2007

What is broadband ?

Traditional Internet is called dial-up, because it works through dialing the phone to access the internet . Broadband internet acess provides a higher speed of transmitting the data to the user. The line carrying the data can therefore carry more information to the user than dial-up. The new and latest consumer broadband implementations of up to 30 Mbits per second are considerably faster and more economical than the ones that were available when the Internet first became popular such as the ISDN and 56 kbits per second. They are also different prices charged depending on the geographical locations, spread over different countries. The main reason for naming these fast connections as broadband Internet is because of the unusually high speeds of transmitting data, which in turn, is due to being able to send different amounts of data concurrently. In general electronics and telecommunications, any signal or circuit that consists of or handles a broad range of frequencies is known as broadband. This is a term that is used relatively and is best understood in the context of wide frequencies.

Will I Be Able To Get Broadband?
The sad truth about todays broadband Internet technology is that not everyone has easy access to affordable broadband. People in rural areas must often resort to expensive satellite broadband if they are going to have broadband availability. The government feels that broadband should be available to all Americans, and several agencies are taking steps to ensure that this occurs in the near future.

What Kind Of Broadband Options Do I Have?
When it comes to broadband Internet, there are actually several different options you have to choose from, including: DSL, cable, and satellite, as being the most recommended. DSL, or digital subscriber line, uses a phone line to carry digital signals directly, without having to convert them over to an analog signal first. Through DSL, you can attain much higher data rates than with a regular modem, your connection will always be on which means that you will not have to dial-up every time you wish to use the Internet, and as well, because of the fact that the copper wire is split at the exchange, you can even use your home phone while you’re also using the Internet, which is an incredibly useful factor. There are a number of different options available to users with a broadband connection, whereby they can connect according to varied needs. Some people may ask if it is possible to connect two PCs to a broadband connection or if its possible to have more than two computers connected to the same broadband connection. The answer in short, is yes.

Where Can I Get Broadband?
Getting broadband access can be the difference between surfing the Internet the old way and engaging in its remarkable content the new way. It will change the way you surf the web and change the way you engage yourself, making the Internet a whole new playground to embark on wonderful journeys on. Broadband access is generally available from most Internet companies for a fee that differs depending on the value of the service and the connectivity options. Be sure to consult your local provider for more information.

What Is Broadband Cable?
Traditionally, computers communicate using baseband transmissions, which mean transmissions that only send one signal per wire. When your computer talks to your printer, it is using a baseband transmission. The same goes for your computer and your monitor. Broadband transmission allows one wire to carry many signals at the same time. Cable TV uses broadband technology and because of this, you can get your Internet access through the broadband cable without disrupting your viewing of cable channels.

What Does A Broadband Accelerator Do?
The primary purpose of a broadband accelerator is to sit between that of your broadband connection and your router, and most of these devices use DHCP, and consume an IP address which is generated by your router. Generally all you have to do here is leave it set to the auto-detect mode and let it run on its own without any sort of required assistance, and overall a broadband accelerator does have the same effect in reducing lag when playing over the Internet, until of course you begin to really saturate the network.

A broadband internet service can change the way you look at your online capabilities. You can get faster download speeds and a more generous time of surfing thanks to fast connections enabled with broadband internet service. Some of the best service available online is available through a broadband internet conncetion, so ensure that you remain on the cutting edge of technology today and grab hold of a broadband internet service package before the deals run out

By David Mcfarlane
Article Source :
http://www.superfeature.com

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmittion over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can privide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are noemally not used by a voice telephone call, in particular, frequencies higher than normal human hearing. This signal will not travel very far over normal telephone cables, so ADSL can only be userd over short distance, typically less than 5 km. Once the signal reaches te telephone company's local office, the ADSL signal is stripped off and immediately routed onto a conversational internet network, while any voice - frequency signal is switched into the conventional phone network. This allows a single telephone connection to be used for both ADSL service and voice calls at the same time.

Explanation
The distinguishing characteristic of ADSL over other forms of DSL is that the volume of data flow is greater in one direction than the other, i.e. it is asymmetric. Providers usually market ADSL as a service for consumers to connect to the Internet in a relatively passive mode: able to use the higher speed direction for the "download" from the Internet but not needing to run servers that would require high speed in the other direction.

There are both technical and marketing reasons why ADSL is in many places the most common type offered to home users. On the technical side, there is likely to be more crosstalk from other circuits at the DSLAM end (where the wires from many local loops are close together) than at the customer premises. Thus the upload signal is weakest at the noisiest part of the local loop, while the download signal is strongest at the noisiest part of the local loop. It therefore makes technical sense to have the DSLAM transmit at a higher bit rate than does the modem on the customer end. Since the typical home user in fact does prefer a higher download speed, the telephone companies chose to make a virtue out of necessity, hence ADSL.

How ADSL works

On the wire
ADSL uses two separate frequency bands, referred to as the upstream and downstream bands. The upstream band is used for communication from the end user to the telephone central office. The downstream band is used for communicating from the central office to the end user. With standard ADSL (annex A), the band from 25.875 kHz to 138 kHz is used for upstream communication, while 138 kHz – 1104 kHz is used for downstream communication.

Each of these is further divided into smaller frequency channels of 4.3125 kHz. During initial training, the ADSL modem tests which of the available channels have an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio. The distance from the telephone exchange, noise on the copper wire, or interference from AM radio stations may introduce errors on some frequencies. By keeping the channels small, an error on one frequency thus need not render the line unusable: the channel will not be used, merely resulting in reduced throughput on an otherwise functional ADSL connection.

Vendors may support usage of higher frequencies as a proprietary extension to the standard. However, this requires matching vendor-supplied equipment on both ends of the line, and will likely result in crosstalk issues that affect other lines in the same bundle.There is a direct relationship between the number of channels available and the throughput capacity of the ADSL connection. The exact data capacity per channel depends on the modulation method used.
A common error is to attribute the A in ADSL to the word asynchronous. ADSL technologies use a synchronous framed protocol for data transmission on the wire.

Modulation
ADSL initially existed in two flavors (similar to VDSL), namely CAP and DMT. CAP was the de facto standard for ADSL deployments up until 1996, deployed in 90 percent of ADSL installs at the time. However, DMT was chosen for the first ITU-T ADSL standards, G.992.1 and G.992.2 (also called G.dmt and G.lite respectively). Therefore, all modern installations of ADSL are based on the DMT modulation scheme.

Annexes J and M shift the upstream/downstream frequency split up to 276 kHz (from 138 kHz used in the commonly deployed annex A) in order to boost upstream rates. Additionally, the "all-digital-loop" variants of ADSL2 and ADSL2+ (annexes I and J) support an extra 256 kbit/s of upstream if the bandwidth normally used for POTS voice calls is allocated for ADSL usage.While the ADSL access utilizes the 1.1 MHz band, ADSL2+ utilizes the 2.2 MHz band.

The downstream and upstream rates displayed are theoretical maximums. Note also that because Digital subscriber line access multiplexers and ADSL modems may have been implemented based on differing or incomplete standards some manufacturers may advertise different speeds. For example, Ericsson has several devices that support non-standard upstream speeds of up to 2 Mbit/s in ADSL2 and ADSL2+.

Installation issues
Due to the way it uses the frequency spectrum, ADSL deployment presents some issues. It is necessary to install appropriate frequency filters at the customer's premises, to avoid interferences with the voice service, while at the same time taking care to keep a clean signal level for the ADSL connection.

In the early days of DSL, installation required a technician to visit the premises. A splitter was installed near the demarcation point, from which a dedicated data line was installed. This way, the DSL signal is separated earlier and is not attenuated inside the customer premises. However, this procedure is costly, and also caused problems with customers complaining about having to wait for the technician to perform the installation. As a result, many DSL vendors started offering a self-install option, in which they ship equipment and instructions to the customer. Instead of separating the DSL signal at the demarcation point, the opposite is done: the DSL signal is "filtered off" at each phone outlet by use of a low pass filter, also known as microfilter. This method does not require any rewiring inside the customer premises.

A side effect of the move to the self-install model is that the DSL signal can be degraded, especially if more than 5 voiceband devices are connected to the line. The DSL signal is now present on all telephone wiring in the building, causing attenuation and echo. A way to circumvent this is to go back to the original model, and install one filter upstream from all telephone jacks in the building, except for the jack to which the DSL modem will be connected. Since this requires wiring changes by the customer and may not work on some (poorly designed) household telephone wiring, it is rarely done. It is usually much easier to install filters at each telephone jack that is in use.