Issued Friday June 29, 2001.

 The FS-VDSL Committee convened for its fourth plenary session hosted by eircom in Ennis, Republic of Ireland, June 11-13, 2001.

 117 delegates from 48 companies attended – an increase of over 20% since the last meeting in March.

 The FS-VDSL Committee is a group of over 50 companies who share a common vision for an end-to-end multi-service video-centric network platform based on FS-VDSL (Full-Service Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line). FS-VDSL enables the delivery of high quality digital video programming, high-speed data and voice services over traditional phone lines.

 Since this initiative was launched in Paris in July 2000, 12 network operators have joined representing North America, Europe and Asia; and involvement by vendors has grown by over 100%.

 The credibility of the FS-VDSL Committee has grown markedly in the past few months as the industry realises that it is the only forum where a full service video-centric network solution for telcos is being globally standardised to be interoperable end-to-end. The FS-VDSL efforts should help reduce overall cost and facilitate faster deployment. Minimising operational complexity is a key focus and lessons learned from DSL deployments are being captured to ensure that customer installations will be quick and efficient, and customers will experience the best possible service.  

 At the Ennis meeting, intensive technical discussions continued to progress key decisions on system architecture, customer premises equipment (CPE), VDSL specifications, and operations. To accelerate analysis and recommend solutions for the end-to-end system architecture a small group of the world's leading network architecture and protocol experts was set up in March, and has since been rapidly progressing the work. They met again on Sunday June 10, immediately preceding the main meeting. This expert group is tasked with identifying the information flows and protocol options which will enable different services with differing quality of service requirements (QoS) to be initiated and transported simultaneously across the network, including within the home, to deliver a compelling customer experience which is transparent to the access technology.  

 The roles of IP and ATM in facilitating efficient delivery of simultaneous multiple services with the required quality of service (QoS) were clarified. A significant insight generated during intensive discussions in Ennis was that the ATM-based DSL platforms already extensively deployed, deliver required full-service video-centric capability today, address required video QoS issues, and can be efficiently evolved towards an IP service multiplexing solution in the future. IP networks need to be engineered and configured to support QoS for voice and video services. FS-VDSL supports both ATM and IP architectures.

 The digital rights management expert group (DRM) led by Bell Canada also met in Ennis. The efforts of this group are directed towards identifying the main issues for the protection of digital content. They will provide advice on which elements of the end-to-end architecture and CPE must be specified with content security foremost in mind. The DRM expert group will also act to seek buy-in for the FS-VDSL solution amongst the content owners, particularly the Hollywood studios. To progress this aspect, Qwest Communications International will host a joint workshop later in the summer to involve content owners and key players within the content protection industry.

 Don Clarke, Head of VDSL Technology Development at BTexact Technologies and FS-VDSL Technical Director said: "The content industry is having to deal with the combined threat of the internet coupled with low cost copying devices bundled with personal computers. In recognition of these difficulties, we decided to address the vital issue of content protection right up front in our specification work. We will work with the content owners and related industries over the coming months to ensure that the inherent security of our platform is leveraged, and that the industry is comfortable that content delivery is secure end-to-end."

 At the last meeting in March, it was decided to progress end-to-end system interoperability demonstrations using equipment from different vendors during 2001. Our ambition is to demonstrate simultaneous delivery of broadcast TV, video on demand, fast internet and voice services, in a standards based end-to-end network configuration which follows the FS-VDSL target architecture. In Ennis a number of major vendors representing all the transport domains: Head-end, Access, CPE, Software and Operations confirmed their interest in being involved, and submitted proposals. Several vendor groupings and hosting operators were identified and follow-up discussions are now underway to plan this activity in detail. The target for the first phase of demonstrations is October-November this year.

 In Ennis, Equator Technologies, Myrio, Next Level Communications, Tut Systems and Virtual Access provided demonstrations of technologies relevant to our ongoing specification work, including: advanced video coding, set top box technology (STB), service management software, differentiated QoS delivery, and FS-VDSL (plan 998) compliant transport.

 In closing the meeting, Vickey Callen, Senior Vice President Broadband and Video Services at Qwest Communications International said: "Our goal is to make VDSL an attractive solution by creating interoperability, driving down cost and ensuring that operational systems are developed such that VDSL can co-exist with other architectural solutions in the telco environment. This meeting has been a turning point where the key foundation issues on which the commercial success of this work depends were brought out into the open and fully understood by members of the Committee. In consequence, I am confident that our work is firmly on track."

 The next plenary meeting will be hosted by Korea Telecom in Seoul-Korea, September 24-26, 2001.

 Organisations interested in the work of the FS-VDSL Committee should refer to our web site at www.fs-vdsl.net.

FS-VDSL Membership List

June 29, 2001

 * Observers.