Atlanta -- Comtrend, a maker of digital subscriber line equipment, claimed it is the first U.S. customer premises equipment vendor to license Broadcom’s PhyR (pronounced “fire”) impulse noise protection technology.
The PhyR data-retransmission system sits at the DSL physical layer. According to Broadcom, the technology can boost impulse noise resilience by as much as 10 times while also lowering residual bit-error rate (BER) or packet loss.
Comtrend intends to integrate PhyR into its entire lineup of ADSL2+ and VDSL2 routers and gateways. The goal is to let telcos ensure quality of service as well as extend their network service area without losing video quality.
“PhyR is a true breakthrough because it significantly reduces the burden on DSL networks that would otherwise use a higher-layer retransmission scheme, thereby increasing efficiency and enabling the high bit-rate IPTV requires,” Comtrend director of technology Joe Maier said, in a prepared statement.
Other purported PhyR benefits: It eliminates premises-based tuning, making network provisioning easier; it allows remote firmware upgrades; and it doesn’t affect network and upper-layer applications “in any way,” according to Comtrend.
Comtrend is currently testing its PhyR-based equipment and expects to begin deployments in early 2008.
