ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA (07/11/2000) - Netopia Inc. has an easier way for service providers to give DSL customers a fast link to the Internet and corporate intranets.
The company is introducing multilink PPP (MLPPP) support for its customer-site DSL routers, making it possible to turn up to four individual DSL lines into a single, logical connection.
The feature is available now for ISDN-based DSL (IDSL) connections, giving customers the ability to create a single 576K bit/sec link. A single IDSL line can handle 144K bit/sec.
This new capability makes it easier for ISPs and other carriers to deliver higher bandwidth DSL services to end users, says Harold Anthony, product marketing manager for Florida Digital, an Orlando-based ISP that has tested and plans to use the MLPPP feature to support new services.
Rather than calling for a DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) that can bond two DSL lines together between the customer site and the carrier network, MLPPP bonds them at the customer site and any MLPPP-enabled router. For example, an ISP such as Florida Digital can install an MLPPP DSL router at a customer site, connect multiple DSL lines to it and bond them together at a Florida Digital point of presence.
The customer traffic travels through the local phone company network to get to the Florida Digital POP, but no bonding equipment is necessary in the local carrier's network. This makes it much easier to set up a DSL bonded service for customers, Anthony says.
By avoiding use of a DSLAM, MLPPP makes it possible to supply larger connections to sites served by remote phone company terminals that are too small to house DSLAMs. In some areas, that is more than half the customers served by the phone company.
Bonding is available on Netopia's R-Series routers and requires a firmware upgrade to existing models. Later this year, Netopia will introduce bonding for symmetric and asymmetric DSL routers.
Netopia: www.netopia.com.