I think one problem was that the VDSL MSANs that support vectoring weren't available until 2011-2012, after which time Openreach had already begun its commercial rollout.

For them to introduce a completely new MSAN, they would have had to go through months of testing to ensure they fully worked with their network and that of their customers.

I suppose you are always going to be in this position because technology is changing so quickly. By the time Openreach introduce vectoring nationwide, other VDSL technologies like G.Fast will be commercially available.

that is openreach's problem, they are incapable of reacting quickly to changing technology, their testing is clearly excessive and they still release bodged products.

maybe they are leasing the equipment in which case the inherit costs of new hardware is less, but if its purchased its a messy situation.

if I were in charge I would likely have suspended ECI rollout pending a report of the V41's, eg. my ECI was installed in late 2012. After the release of the V41's.

Edited by Chrysalis (Wed 26-Mar-14 12:42:49)

I disagree.

What should Openreach have done? Stopped their FTTC rollout when ECI/Huawei introduced their vectoring MSANs?

They cannot just suddenly start installing completely new equipment without testing it first. It's not a simple process when you have different manufacturer's equipment in the exchange like the OLT/L2 Switch. It takes months of testing to ensure that once rolled out nationwide, there are no issues.

There is also the commercial justification - what if the new MSANs were significantly more expensive?

All the cabinets on our local exchanges are all ECI, they started installing them in February 2012.

The fact is we just do not know the terms of the contract between Openreach and ECI. However, the CEO of ECI stated (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&t...):

Through a future-proof network proposition, we partner with Openreach in this first-of-its-kind project to guarantee high-speed infrastructure and a viable business model. We support Openreach�s goal for cost-effective high-speed infrastructure offerings without compromising quality, security or competitiveness in such an open access environment.

This indicates to me that there will be some kind of upgrade option in the contract.

Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Mar-14 13:33:24)

In reply to a post by AndyHCZ:

This indicates to me that there will be some kind of upgrade option in the contract.

Let's hope BT were shrude enough to do that.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

Isn't "node-level" when the boards within one node co-operate, while "system-level" is where multiple nodes on one site co-operate. And both of them require the backplane capability.

No Sir, a system is a single DSLAM, a node is an access node comprised of a single or multiple systems.

http://pr.huawei.com/en/news/hw-093919-nlv-prototype...

Well, you live & learn... ta.

However, both both system and node level vectoring still need the speedy backplane, while board level doesn't. So...

MA5603T: 1.5Tbit/s backplane capacity, 48G/480G bit/s
switch capacity, 20G bit/s slot bandwidth

...this bit confused me. I was refering to the listed use of the MA5616 DSLAM, not the MA5603T. I wondered why you mentioned the 5603.

Then I saw...

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

The Huawei 288 cabinets are MA5603s as far as I know? 6 line card slots, 48 VDSL 2 ports per card?

... and the maths certainly makes sense.

So the larger Huawei cabinets seem like they have the backplane capacity, while the smaller ones might have the capacity - and quite probably do.

Presumably, though, they might all still need a hardware change, if BT's trials determine that they need the ASIC hardware rather than the FPGA.

An interesting graph is contained in this article, showing the relative strengths of various vendors on vectoring: http://broadbandtrends.com/blog1/2012/11/30/demand-f...

That places ECI way behind.

Edit: It is an old report, though.

Edited by deleted (Wed 26-Mar-14 15:56:36)

I can't say I've seen many ECI cabinets at all. Everything seems to be a Huawei.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

From openreach point of view they could quite easily enable vectoring on Huawei cabinets, leave it off on ECI and still market both as the same product.

That assumes they market it at all.

It is quite possible it could be deployed, and the full product range left as-is.