Alcatel-Lucent's research arm Bell Labs has demonstrated a technology that boosts the transmission speeds achievable over just two digital subscriber lines (DSL). In a lab test of 'DSL Phantom Mode', Bell Labs achieved downstream transmission speeds of 300 Mbps over distances of up to 400 meters (or 100 Mbps over 1 kilometre). At these speeds, Alcatel-Lucent says service providers will be able to maximise the ability of the existing copper infrastructure. At its core, DSL Phantom Mode involves the creation of a virtual or 'phantom' channel that supplements the two physical wires that are the standard configuration for copper transmission lines. Bell Labs' innovation and the source of DSL Phantom Mode's increase in transmission capacity lies in its application of analogue phantom mode technology in combination with industry-standard techniques: vectoring that eliminates interference or 'crosstalk' between copper wires, and bonding that makes it possible to take individual lines and aggregate them. Further research is being conducted to refine deployment models and determine a specific set of customer premises equipment models compatible with the DSL Phantom Mode technology.
