Ikanos Introduces IPTV-Optimized, Multi-Mode VDSL2 Solutions

July 21, 2006 - Ikanos Communications, developer and provider of Fiber Fast™ broadband solutions, has recently introduced what they believe to be the industry’s first IPTV-optimized, multi-mode VDSL2 chipsets for Central Office (CO), Remote Terminal (RT) and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE).

These fifth generation chipsets are designed to provide the highest throughput and density, with the lowest power consumption per port. All chipsets offer integrated QoS capabilities as well as enhanced impulse noise protection schemes for optimal IPTV delivery.

The multi-mode products consist of:

• The Fx™100100-5 CO/RT chipset and the Fx100100S-5 CPE chipset, which support all VDSL2 profiles – 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 12a, 12b, 17a and 30a – and are optimized for 30 MHz spectrum operation to offer 100/100 Mbps performance

• The Fx10050-5 CO/RT chipset and the Fx10050S-5 CPE chipset, which supports VDSL2 profiles – 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d, 12a, 12b and 17a – and are optimized for 17.6 MHz spectrum utilization to offer 100/50 Mbps performance.

True Plug-and-Play Multi-Mode

All chipsets comply with features of the VDSL2 (ITU-T G.993.2) standard. Both CO and CPE chipsets also support VDSL1 (ITU-T G.993.1), ADSL (ITU-T G.992.1), ADSL2 (ITU-T G.992.3) and ADSL2+ (ITU-T G.992.5) and offer true plug-and-play multi-mode operation per port. The chipsets support all band plans that are defined in the standards for their respective profiles. Additionally, in anticipation of future carrier requirements, these chipsets are believed to be the first in the industry that potentially support all the band plans that are being defined in European, North American and Asian standards groups.

“Ikanos’ fifth generation chipsets offer highly differentiated features that are essential to deploy triple play services and IPTV,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst, Broadband and IPTV, Infonetics Research. “Ikanos continues to raise the bar by developing and offering compelling products that simplify the deployment of complex bundled services and enhance subscribers’ interactive broadband experience.”

The pin-compatible Fx100100-5 and Fx10050-5 CO/RT chipsets consist of:

• An 8-port Burst Mode Engine (BME) with all relevant interfaces (RMII, SMII, SS-SMII, POS-PHY-L2 and POS-PHY-L3) for interworking with 10/100 Ethernet switch chips or high-performance network processors, allowing system vendors to maintain their current architecture and minimize development costs and time to market;

• A 4-port Analog Front End (AFE) with high-performance, low-power, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters;

• A 4-port Integrated Front End (IFE) with on-chip filters and amplifiers; and

• A 2-port line driver with integrated adaptive hybrid that supports all transmit power requirements (11.5, 14.5, 17.5 and 20.5 dBm) of VDSL2 profiles.

The four-chip architecture enables 48 ports, in small form-factor, power-constrained line cards. Pin compatibility between chipsets is a feature designed to ensure that system vendors can develop one platform for worldwide deployment, thus reducing their development costs and time to market.

The pin-compatible Fx100100S-5 and Fx10050S-5 CPE chipsets include the following:

• A single-chip BME with MII, RMII and Utopia interfaces for use in standalone bridge modems, as well as processor-based gateways and routers;

• An Integrated Front End (IFE) with on-chip ADC and DAC, amplifiers and filters for long-range operation; and

• A line driver with low-noise amplifier (LNA).

All chipsets use the Ikanos Programmable Operating System (iPOS), which consists of firmware and OS-independent APIs to enable fast time-to-market. All CO chipsets are designed to be fully backward compatible with previous-generation deployed CPE and all CPE chipsets are designed to be fully backward compatible with previous-generation deployed CO equipment.

“NEC-Magnus has successfully used Ikanos products and technology for over four years,” said Yuji Kubota, General Manager, Network Access Products Business, NEC Magnus Communications, Ltd. “We selected the Fx100100-5 and Fx100100S-5 chipsets for our next generation platforms as they offer the industry’s best features, performance and flexibility for delivering VDSL2 and triple play services.”