[July 09, 2013]

Fourteen Companies Participate in Broadband Forum's Latest VDSL2 G.vector Interoperability Plugfest

Operators around the world are looking to the G.vector technologies to provide a boost to the VDSL2 subscriber data rates, thereby meeting the needs of multi-service home and business customers. G.vector will likely also be utilized in new network architectures and technologies being developed now inside the Broadband Forum and ITU-T, such as the Fiber to the Distribution Point (FTTdp) and G.fast. Interoperability is vital to the growth of this technology.

Fourteen companies met in Durham, NH, USA during the week of June 17, 2013, to participate in wide scale interoperability testing of equipment implementing the ITU-T VDSL2 G.vector technologies. This plugfest is part of a series of interoperability test events organized by the Broadband Forum, and hosted by the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), focused on detailed testing of G.vector functionality.

The participating companies were Actiontec Electronics, Inc., ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent, Broadcom, Calix, EXFO, Ikanos, JDSU (News - Alert), Lantiq, NETGEAR, Pace, Realtek Semiconductor, and Technicolor. Test and measurement equipment was provided by Telebyte.

Each plugfest offers an opportunity for industry leading companies to come together in a neutral environment to test their VDSL2 G.vector implementations. Testing was conducted according to the Broadband Forum's G.vector plugfest test plan, and initial results will be provided to the Broadband Forum membership in the coming weeks.

During the Friday testing, the participants participated in the industry's first multi-vendor G.vector test where many CPE and DSLAM vendors were able to successfully confirm the introperability of their implementations when operating in the same simulated cable binder.

"It's exciting to see the technology evolving and maturing," said Lincoln Lavoie, Senior Engineer at the UNH-IOL (News - Alert). "The plugfest events have grown from testing the basic operation of a single pair of transceivers to testing 8 pairs simultaneously, and this growth has happened in less than one year. We are looking forward to how future events will add to the testing and are currently helping the Forum draft the next series of test cases today."

"This is clearly a major step towards optimizing VDSL2 capabilities," added Robin Mersh, CEO of the Broadband Forum. "With these strides in G.vector interoperability, operators will have new tools to expand their deployment and offer super-fast broadband services to more customers."

The next G.vector interoperability events are scheduled to take place in autumn of 2013 at the UNH-IOL in Durham, NH, USA. Future events will continue to assess industry G.vector interoperability according to the Broadband Forum test plan and confirm the common functionality of the features and new developments being made within the ITU-T Recommendations. To participate in these plugfests, Broadband Forum members should contact [email protected].

About the Broadband Forum

The Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and faster broadband connections. Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device and service management tools, and is a key to redefining broadband. Our free technical reports and white papers can be found at www.broadband-forum.org.

For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or [email protected], or Dana Corson on +44 (0) 1827 830247 or +44 (0) 77956 15466 or by email to [email protected].

About the UNH-IOL

Founded in 1988, the UNH-IOL provides independent, broad-based interoperability and standards conformance testing for data, telecommunications and storage networking products and technologies. Combining extensive staff experience, standards body participation, and a 32,000+ square foot facility, the UNH-IOL helps companies efficiently and cost effectively deliver products to the market. For more information, visit http://www.iol.unh.edu/, or connect with the UNH-IOL on Facebook (News - Alert) at https://www.facebook.com/UNHIOL, on Twitter (News - Alert) at @UNH_IOL and on LinkedIn (News - Alert) at http://www.linkedin.com/company/unh-interoperability-lab.

For further information please contact Suzanne Snow, Marketing and Communications Manager, at +1-603-862-1694 or [email protected].

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