Uplink between FTTC DSLAM and Exchange.

Now that they seem to be enabling my Local Cab, My Interest has been peeked around FTTC.

I see that a DSLAM (possibly a Huawei MA5616 ) is installed in the cab, the Copper to your house is then cross linked to the DSLAM via the old cab. This copper connection uses VDSL.
The DSLAM is then connected to the exchange via fibre, this is where I am stuck, is the fibre connection via IP (say a 10G Ethernet interface) or SDH (an STM-1/4 etc...). Also is the fibre a single run or will it go by fibre junction boxes / switches?


The MA5616 says it has GPON and GE ports which both seem to be Gig Ethernet.

Does this mean we have Ethernet all the way to the DSLAM, Will we IP route via the DSLAM.

Point to point 1 Gigabit Ethernet or multiples of, from DSLAM to handover site

In your case Mr Biscuit that will be the Hunslet exchange itself, it's a handover site.

Where is cabinet 42 if you don't mind my asking, doesn't seem to be near 40 or 43, one of which is getting enabled under BDUK and the other added to the commercial rollout by someone who was high at the time.

In reply to a post by Ribble:

Point to point 1 Gigabit Ethernet or multiples of, from DSLAM to handover site

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

In your case Mr Biscuit that will be the Hunslet exchange itself, it's a handover site.

Excellent thanks both, so I am guessing this part of the connection is going to be "transit" then.
e.g. My IP will not see it as part of its route.

Moving further down the chain is this right?
As there is no LLU for Zen at the Hunslet exchange. I would get "backhaled" to a Zen pop for example the Manchester one. (This would be the next IP hop I see for my IP)

In reply to a post by RichTea23:

As there is no LLU for Zen at the Hunslet exchange. I would get "backhaled" to a Zen pop for example the Manchester one. (This would be the next IP hop I see for my IP)

Where there is no LLU it your connection normally goes into the BT Wholesale WBC/WBMC "cloud" just like your ADSL2+ with Zen. Emerging onto Zen backhaul at a specific WBC node. The normal first hop you see after your own router is the ISP gateway connected to the handover MSIL at the node.

In reply to a post by RichTea23:

Excellent thanks both, so I am guessing this part of the connection is going to be "transit" then.
e.g. My IP will not see it as part of its route.

Moving further down the chain is this right?
As there is no LLU for Zen at the Hunslet exchange. I would get "backhaled" to a Zen pop for example the Manchester one. (This would be the next IP hop I see for my IP)

Your connection is tunneled to Zen and their network is the first thing you see on a traceroute.

You'll go through the BT Wholesale network and reach Zen that way. It won't be direct link you'll go via a few routers in BT land, again none of which will show on a traceroute as your IP traffic is tunnelised.

In reply to a post by RichTea23:

Now that they seem to be enabling my Local Cab, My Interest has been peeked around FTTC.

I see that a DSLAM (possibly a Huawei MA5616 ) is installed in the cab, the Copper to your house is then cross linked to the DSLAM via the old cab. This copper connection uses VDSL.
The DSLAM is then connected to the exchange via fibre, this is where I am stuck, is the fibre connection via IP (say a 10G Ethernet interface) or SDH (an STM-1/4 etc...). Also is the fibre a single run or will it go by fibre junction boxes / switches?


The MA5616 says it has GPON and GE ports which both seem to be Gig Ethernet.

Does this mean we have Ethernet all the way to the DSLAM, Will we IP route via the DSLAM.

As someone else has mentioned the 'link' from the exchange to the FTTC DSLAM is 1 Gigabit Ethernet or multiples of. E.g. a larger DSLAM serving a larger area may have 2 x 1Gbps Ethernet Interfaces over Fibre.