Asymmetric digital subscriber line

Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data
communications technology that enables faster data transmission overcopper telephone lines than a
conventional voiceband modem can provide. ADSL differs from the less common symmetric digital subscriber
line (SDSL). Bandwidth (and bit rate) is greater toward the customer premises (known as downstream) than the
reverse (known as upstream). This is why it is called asymmetric. Providers usually market ADSL as a service for
consumers to receive Internet access 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.

Overview
ADSL works by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice telephone call. A splitter, or DSL filter, allows a
single telephone connection to be used for both ADSL service and voice calls at the same time. ADSL can
generally only be distributed over short distances from the telephone exchange (the last mile), typically less than 4
kilometres (2 mi), but has been known to exceed 8 kilometres (5 mi) if the originally laid wire gauge allows for
further distribution.
At the telephone exchange the line generally terminates at a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM)
where another frequency splitter separates the voice band signal for the conventional phone network. Data carried
by the ADSL are typically routed over the telephone company's data network and eventually reach a
conventional Internet Protocol network.
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 to each other) 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.
The marketing reasons for an asymmetric connection are that, firstly, most uses of internet traffic will require less
data to be uploaded than downloaded. For example, in normal web browsing a user will visit a number of web sites
and will need to download the data that comprises the web pages from the site, images, text, sound files etc. but
they will only upload a small amount of data, as the only uploaded data is that used for the purpose of verifying the
receipt of the downloaded data or any data inputted by the user into forms etc. This provides a justification for
internet service providers to offer a more expensive service aimed at commercial users who host websites, and
who therefore need a service which allows for as much data to be uploaded as downloaded. File sharing
applications are an obvious exception to this situation. Secondly internet service providers, seeking to avoid
overloading of their backbone connections, have traditionally tried to limit uses such as file sharing which generate
a lot of uploads.

Operation

DSL SoC

Currently, most ADSL communication is full-duplex. Full-duplex ADSL communication is usually achieved on a wire
pair by either frequency-division duplex (FDD), echo-cancelling duplex (ECD), or time-division duplex (TDD). FDD
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.

Frequency plan for ADSL Annex A. Red area is the frequency range used by normal voice telephony
(PSTN), the green (upstream) and blue (downstream) areas are used for ADSL.
With commonly deployed ADSL over POTS (Annex A), the band from 26.075 kHz to 137.825 kHz is used for
upstream communication, while 138 kHz 1104 kHz is used for downstream communication. Under the
usual DMT scheme, each of these is further divided into smaller frequency channels of 4.3125 kHz. These
frequency channels are sometimes termed bins. During initial training to optimize transmission quality and speed,
the ADSL modem tests each of the bins to determine the signal-to-noise ratio at each bin's frequency. Distance
from the telephone exchange, cable characteristics, interference from AM radio stations, and local interference
and electrical noise at the modem's location can adversely affect the signal-to-noise ratio at particular frequencies.
Bins for frequencies exhibiting a reduced signal-to-noise ratio will be used at a lower throughput rate or not at all;
this reduces the maximum link capacity but allows the modem to maintain an adequate connection. The DSL
modem will make a plan on how to exploit each of the bins, sometimes termed "bits per bin" allocation. Those bins
that have a good signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will be chosen to transmit signals chosen from a greater number of
possible encoded values (this range of possibilities equating to more bits of data sent) in each main clock cycle.
The number of possibilities must not be so large that the receiver might incorrectly decode which one was
intended in the presence of noise. Noisy bins may only be required to carry as few as two bits, a choice from only
one of four possible patterns, or only one bit per bin in the case of ADSL2+, and very noisy bins are not used at all.
If the pattern of noise versus frequencies heard in the bins changes, the DSL modem can alter the bits-per-bin
allocations, in a process called "bitswap", where bins that have become more noisy are only required to carry
fewer bits and other channels will be chosen to be given a higher burden.
The data transfer capacity the DSL modem therefore reports is determined by the total of the bits-per-bin
allocations of all the bins combined. Higher signal-to-noise ratios and more bins being in use gives a higher total
link capacity, while lower signal-to-noise ratios or fewer bins being used gives a low link capacity. The total

maximum capacity derived from summing the bits-per-bin is reported by DSL modems and is sometimes
termed sync rate. This will always be rather misleading, as the true maximum link capacity for user data transfer
rate will be significantly lower; because extra data are transmitted that are termed protocol overhead, reduced
figures for PPPoA connections of around 84-87 percent, at most, being common. In addition, some ISPs will have
traffic policies that limit maximum transfer rates further in the networks beyond the exchange, and traffic
congestion on the Internet, heavy loading on servers and slowness or inefficiency in customers' computers may all
contribute to reductions below the maximum attainable. When a wireless access point is used, low or unstable
wireless signal quality can also cause reduction or fluctuation of actual speed.
In fixed-rate mode, the sync rate is predefined by the operator and the DSL modem chooses a bits-per-bin
allocation that yields an approximately equal error rate in each bin.[3]In variable-rate mode, the bits-per-bin are
chosen to maximize the sync rate, subject to a tolerable error risk.[3] These choices can either be conservative,
where the modem chooses to allocate fewer bits per bin than it possibly could, a choice which makes for a slower
connection, or less conservative in which more bits per bin are chosen in which case there is a greater risk case of
error should future signal-to-noise ratios deteriorate to the point where the bits-per-bin allocations chosen are too
high to cope with the greater noise present. This conservatism, involving a choice of using fewer bits per bin as a
safeguard against future noise increases, is reported as the signal-to-noise ratio margin or SNR margin.
The telephone exchange can indicate a suggested SNR margin to the customer's DSL modem when it initially
connects, and the modem may make its bits-per-bin allocation plan accordingly. A high SNR margin will mean a
reduced maximum throughput, but greater reliability and stability of the connection. A low SNR margin will mean
high speeds, provided the noise level does not increase too much; otherwise, the connection will have to be
dropped and renegotiated (resynced). ADSL2+ can better accommodate such circumstances, offering a feature
termed seamless rate adaptation (SRA), which can accommodate changes in total link capacity with less
disruption to communications.

Frequency spectrum of modem on ADSL line

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 problems
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.
ADSL initially existed in two versions (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 installations 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.
Interleaving and fastpath
ISPs (rarely, users) have the option to use interleaving of packets to counter the effects of burst noise on the
telephone line. An interleaved line has a depth, usually 8 to 64, which describes how many ReedSolomon
codewords are accumulated before they are sent. As they can all be sent together, their forward error
correction codes can be made more resilient. Interleaving adds latency as all the packets have to first be gathered

(or replaced by empty packets) and they, of course, all take time to transmit. 8 frame interleaving adds 5 ms roundtrip-time, while 64 deep interleaving adds 25 ms. Other possible depths are 16 and 32.
"Fastpath" connections have an interleaving depth of 1, that is one packet is sent at a time. This has a low latency,
usually around 10 ms (interleaving adds to it, this is not greater than interleaved) but it is extremely prone to errors,
as any burst of noise can take out the entire packet and so require it all to be retransmitted. Such a burst on a
large interleaved packet only blanks part of the packet, it can be recovered from error correction information in the
rest of the packet. A "fastpath" connection will result in extremely high latency on a poor line, as each packet will
take many retries.

Installation problems
ADSL deployment on an existing plain old telephone service (POTS) telephone line presents some problems
because the DSL is within a frequency band that might interact unfavourably with existing equipment connected to
the line. It is therefore necessary to install appropriate frequency filters at the customer's premises to avoid
interference between the DSL, voice services, and any other connections to the line (for example intruder alarms,
like "RedCARE" in the UK). This is desirable for the voice service and essential for a reliable ADSL connection.
In the early days of DSL, installation required a technician to visit the premises. A splitter or microfilter was
installed near the demarcation point, from which a dedicated data line was installed. This way, the DSL signal is
separated as close as possible to the central office and is not attenuated inside the customer's premises. However,
this procedure was costly, and also caused problems with customers complaining about having to wait for the
technician to perform the installation. So, many DSL providers started offering a "self-install" option, in which the
provider provided equipment and instructions to the customer. Instead of separating the DSL signal at the
demarcation point, the DSL signal is filtered at each telephone outlet by use of a low-pass filter for voice and a
high-pass filter for data, usually enclosed in what is known as a microfilter. This microfilter can be plugged by an
end user into any telephone jack: it does not require any rewiring at the customer's premises.
Commonly, microfilters are only low-pass filters, so beyond them only low frequencies (voice signals) can pass. In
the data section, a microfilter is not used because digital devices that are intended to extract data from the DSL
signal will, themselves, filter out low frequencies. Voice telephone devices will pick up the entire spectrum so high
frequencies, including the ADSL signal, will be "heard" as noise in telephone terminals, and will affect and often
degrade the service in fax, dataphones and modems. From the point of view of DSL devices, any acceptance of
their signal by POTS devices mean that there is a degradation of the DSL signal to the devices, and this is the
central reason why these filters are required.
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 (that is, POTS telephone-like) devices are connected to the line. Once a line has had DSL enabled, the
DSL signal is 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 household telephone wiring, it is rarely done. It is usually much easier to
install filters at each telephone jack that is in use.
DSL signals may be degraded by older telephone lines, surge protectors, poorly designed microfilters, Repetitive
Electrical Impulse Noise, and by long telephone extension cords. Telephone extension cords are typically made
with small-gauge, multi-strand copper conductors which do not maintain a noise-reducing pair twist. Such cable is
more susceptible to electromagnetic interference and has more attenuation than solid twisted-pair copper wires
typically wired to telephone jacks. These effects are especially significant where the customer's phone line is more
than 4 km from the DSLAM in the telephone exchange, which causes the signal levels to be lower relative to any
local noise and attenuation. This will have the effect of reducing speeds or causing connection failures.

Transport protocols
ADSL defines three "Transmission protocol-specific transmission convergence (TPS-TC)" layers

Synchronous Transport Module (STM), which allows the transmission of frames of the Synchronous
Digital Hierarchy (SDH)
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Packet Transfer Mode (starting with ADSL2, see below)

In home installation, the prevalent transport protocol is ATM. On top of ATM, there are multiple possibilities of
additional layers of protocols (two of them are abbreviated in a simplified manner as "PPPoA" or "PPPoE"), with
the all-important TCP/IP at layers 4 and 3 respectively of the OSI model providing the connection to the Internet.

ADSL standards

POTS/ISDN

Version

Frequency plan for common ADSL standards and annexes.

Legend
Guard Band
Upstream
Downstream ADSL/ADSL2
Additional Downstream ADSL2+

Standard name

Common name

Downstream rate

Upstream rate

Approved in

ADSL

ANSI T1.413-1998 Issue 2

ADSL

8.0 Mbit/s

1.0 Mbit/s

1998

ADSL

ITU G.992.2

ADSL Lite (G.lite)

1.5 Mbit/s

0.5 Mbit/s

1999-07

ADSL

ITU G.992.1

ADSL (G.dmt)

8.0 Mbit/s

1.3 Mbit/s

1999-07

ADSL

ITU G.992.1 Annex A

ADSL over POTS

12.0 Mbit/s

1.3 Mbit/s

2001

ADSL

ITU G.992.1 Annex B

ADSL over ISDN

12.0 Mbit/s

1.8 Mbit/s

2005

ADSL2

ITU G.992.3 Annex L

RE-ADSL2

5.0 Mbit/s

0.8 Mbit/s

2002-07

ADSL2

ITU G.992.3

ADSL2

12.0 Mbit/s

1.3 Mbit/s

2002-07

ADSL2

ITU G.992.3 Annex J

ADSL2

12.0 Mbit/s

3.5 Mbit/s

2002-07

ADSL2

ITU G.992.4

splitterless ADSL2

1.5 Mbit/s

0.5 Mbit/s

2002-07

ADSL2+

ITU G.992.5

ADSL2+

24.0 Mbit/s

1.4 Mbit/s

2003-05

ADSL2+

ITU G.992.5 Annex M

ADSL2+M

24.0 Mbit/s

3.3 Mbit/s

2008

ADSL2++

(up to 3.75 MHz)

ADSL4

52.0 Mbit/s ?

5.0 Mbit/s ?

In development