FS-VDSL Committee

4-6 December 2000

The FS-VDSL Committee convened for its second meeting in Portland, Oregon, December 4-6, 2000.

This Committee is a group of network operators and vendors who share a common vision for a multi-service delivery platform based on FS-VDSL (Full-Service Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line). It aims to complete an end-to-end network specification by the end of 2001, thereby accelerating competitive implementation and commercial deployment. FS-VDSL enables the delivery of digital video programming, high-speed data and voice services over traditional phone lines. The first meeting of the Committee was hosted by Bell Canada in Toronto-Ontario, October 11-13, 2000.

The Committee is formed as a not for profit association under Swiss law and was registered to the court of commerce of Geneva on 15^th November, 2000 by its three Directors, Clayton Mangione of Bell Canada, Don Clarke of British Telecommunications (BT) and Bernard Marti of France Telecom. In Portland, the Board of Directors was finalised with the election of Vickey Callen, VP Video & Multimedia at Qwest, as Vice-President, and Manfred Froedrich of Deutsche Telekom, Woonha Kim of Korea Telecom and Ralph Ballart of SBC as directors.

In his keynote address, Clayton Mangione, President said: "The high bit rates achieved by VDSL will enable us deliver the complete range of broadband services to the consumer and SME markets. These include Broadcast TV, Pay per View, Video on Demand, and Interactive TV. It will also simultaneously deliver high speed Internet access (beyond 2 Mb/s), which will allow for streaming video and on-line interactive gaming. Derived voice services, including Voice over IP will also be supported in addition to standard telephony. We anticipate VDSL will also drive an expansion of home networking which will lead to a diversity of connected appliances in the home, all supported by the FS-VDSL system."

The President, Clayton Mangione of Bell Canada during his keynote address. Sitting on his left, the Technical Director Don Clarke of BT

Qwest's Vickey Callen in her keynote address as Vice-President stressed the importance of FS-VDSL for the future multimedia operations of Qwest who already have significant commercial services deployed using this technology. "The main objective of this Committee should be to help operators reduce costs and operational complexity associated with this platform, including the customer premises equipment. The customer premises equipment represents 30-40% of the total cost and should therefore be one of the key concerns of the vendors, because it will be, for operators, the key to success."

Vickey Callen (Qwest), Vice President and host of the next meeting, with other VDSL experts during the Chairman's address

Don Clarke, Technical Director outlined how the objectives of the Committee will be achieved, pointing out that: "The FS-VDSL Committee is the only place where all key elements of an end-to-end full service network based on VDSL are being progressed towards a single combined specification. Network operators will maximise commonality of requirements for service capability and agree a common system architecture. Four working groups are now working to rapidly progress the key technical specifications for all elements, leveraging existing international standards where applicable. To promote early implementation, our results will be promptly and freely published and communicated to relevant external bodies to help focus their work."

FS-VDSL is co-ordinated by a Management Committee, which is responsible for technical strategy and resolving technical disputes. The Management Committee is chaired by the Technical Director, and members are individuals nominated by Bell Canada, BT, Deutsche Telekom, Eircom, France Telecom, Korea Telecom, Qwest, SBC, Swisscom, and Telecom Italia

The achievements of the Portland meeting included key agreements on Service Requirements, and Reference Models for System Architecture, Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), and VDSL. A key early objective is to decide the roles of IP and ATM in the end-to-end transport of multiple services. The target for completion of the specification was brought forward to December 2001 in recognition of the importance of this work.

The co-ordination between the four technical working groups devoted to System Architecture, VDSL Specifications, CPE, and Operations, Administration and Maintenance is a key function of the plenary sessions. But progress is also being enhanced through interim technical meetings and regular teleconferences.