RAD Enhances Award-Winning Demarc Portfolio with VDSL2 and GPON

RAD, the manufacturer of Service Assured Access (SAA) solutions that can transport any service over any physical media, has now become the only vendor to offer VDSL2 (including bonding/vectoring) and GPON – in addition to active fiber, SDHSL and PDH – in a Layer 2/Layer 3 demarcation device.

The company has announced the availability of two new modules for its MEF CE 2.0-certified ETX-2 and ETX-2i routers and Carrier Ethernet demarcation devices. A VDSL2 module enables the transmission of up to 400 Mbps of traffic over bonded copper links while providing the same service level (SLA) guarantees that otherwise would be available over fiber optic infrastructure. A GPON module enables the transmission of up to 1Gbps of traffic over passive optical Ethernet.

“VDSL2 is a logical alternative for supplying high bandwidth for large business customers and mobile backhaul networks in areas unserved or underserved by fiber, while GPON enables fiber to be utilized economically where it does exist,” states Ulik Broida, RAD’s Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. “With these modules, service providers will be able to reach more end-customers and markets that until now have been untapped, while guaranteeing Ethernet quality of service (QoS) and simplifying their operations,” he adds. “For their part, of course, end users will benefit from higher bandwidth delivered with full service assurance.”

Lowers TCO
An additional benefit for service providers is the ability to reduce total cost of ownership by optimizing stock. “Deployment of the same vendor solution for fiber and copper significantly lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) by simplifying training, integration and management,” Broida adds. “In typical projects, these savings can reach millions of dollars, and that’s welcome news for any service provider.”

“GPON has been highly successful in many markets as an access technology for both FTTH and as backhaul for fast copper such as VDSL2,” concurs Simon Sherrington, Contributing Analyst with Heavy Reading. “Both technologies will continue to be important for many years in business as well as residential deployments as bandwidth demands grow and operators look to leverage the capacity of installed copper and fiber plant and reach new customers.”

The introduction of VDSL2 and GPON into RAD’s CE 2.0-certified Layer 2/Layer 3 demarcation devices expands the scope of its SAA solutions, which help business service providers, wholesale carriers and mobile operators increase their revenues and lower TCO throughout the service lifecycle. Based on a rich set of tools, SAA facilitates the planning, deployment, provisioning, and maintenance of existing and new services, allowing operators to offer a resilient, always-on service with predictable QoS and better QoE.