FREMONT, Calif. — Ikanos Communications Inc. has a chip set that unifies discrete multitone (DMT) coding for asymmetric digital subscriber line, very high-bit-rate DSL and "Ethernet in the first mile" applications. The SmartLeap 8800 allows soft configuration of ports.
Broadcom Corp. and Infineon Technologies have pushed quadrature amplitude modulation coding for VDSL. But Ikanos' chip set represents the most straightforward way to mix and match DSL services, said marketing vice president Richard Sekar.
The SmartLeap 8800 A/VDSL offering comprises three chips. The IK21208-L burst-mode engine combines a 150-Mips DSP with Reed-Solomon forward error correction, framer, deframer and fast Fourier engines. The IK31102-L analog front end includes high-power line drivers and amps. The IK51101-L integrated front end includes a variable-gain amp, low-noise amp, filters and other discretes.
The Ikanos Programmable Operating System (iPOS), an embedded software suite that includes protocol stacks and application programming interfaces, ships with the chip set. In addition to ADSL and VDSL support, the offering will support the emerging ADSL+ standard.
Because the 8800 supports quality-of-service prioritization for multiple line pairs, it can be used to establish service-level agreements between carriers and to adapt to loop conditions without using separate line-test equipment.
The real advantage in automated provisioning comes in the remote terminal, Sekar said. Mini DSL access multiplexers inside a remote terminal can be configured with Ikanos chips on the line card to support changing DSL mixes without a truck roll to the terminal.
The SmartLeap 8800 will sample in the first quarter at $30 to $80 per port, depending on the configuration.
