BellSouth Gigabit DSLAMs

Telephony mag writes about High-Speed networks with CoS (Class of Service).

BellSouth is in the process of upgrading its DSLAMs from ATM to Gigabit Ethernet, and once that process is completed, it will be able to offer COS features over DSL, said Nimesh Shah, senior director of data product management of business markets for BellSouth. Today, the company offers a mid-band Ethernet product over copper lines that includes that function, albeit at a higher price than DSL, and it offers a private DSL service that doesn't touch the Internet but is still best effort, Shah said. The challenge to deploying COS-based DSL is getting the requirements right and getting the technology deployed on a ubiquitous basis, he added. The upgrade to Gig-E involves both BellSouth's DSLAMs and the aggregation points that sit upstream from the DSLAMs, said Glenn Couper, senior director in BellSouth's DSL product planning and development department. One of the next steps, both men agreed, is for the product team to develop requirements for the network team.