How DSL Works

by Curt Franklin
Browse the article How DSL Works

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A DSL modem uses telephone lines for high-speed Internet connections. See
more internet connection pictures.
Photo courtesy HowStuffWorks Shopper
Introduction to How DSL Works
When you connect to the Internet, you might connect through a regular modem,
through a local-area network connection in your office, through a cable modem or
through a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection. DSL is a very high-speed
connection that uses the same wires as a regular telephone line.
Here are some advantages of DSL:
You can leave your Internet connection open and still use the phone line for voice
calls.
The speed is much higher than a regular modem
DSL doesn't necessarily require new wiring; it can use the phone line you already
have.
The company that offers DSL will usually provide the modem as part of the
installation.
But there are disadvantages:
A DSL connection works better when you are closer to the provider's central
office. The farther away you get from the central office, the weaker the signal
becomes.
The connection is faster for receiving data than it is for sending data over the
Internet.
The service is not available everywhere.
In this article, we explain how a DSL connection manages to squeeze more
information through a standard phone line -- and lets you make regular telephone
calls even when you're online.
Telephone Lines
If you have read How Telephones Work, then you know that a standard telephone
installation in the United States consists of a pair of copper wires that the phone
company installs in your home. The copper wires have lots of room for carrying
more than your phone conversations -- they are capable of handling a much
greater bandwidth, or range of frequencies, than that demanded for voice. DSL
exploits this "extra capacity" to carry information on the wire without disturbing the
line's ability to carry conversations. The entire plan is based on matching
particular frequencies to specific tasks.
To understand DSL, you first need to know a couple of things about a normal
telephone line -- the kind that telephone professionals call POTS, for Plain Old
Telephone Service. One of the ways that POTS makes the most of the telephone
company's wires and equipment is by limiting the frequencies that the switches,
telephones and other equipment will carry. Human voices, speaking in normal
conversational tones, can be carried in a frequency range of 0 to 3,400 Hertz
(cycles per second -- see How Telephones Work for a great demonstration of
this). This range of frequencies is tiny. For example, compare this to the range of
most stereo speakers, which cover from roughly 20 Hertz to 20,000 Hertz. And
the wires themselves have the potential to handle frequencies up to several
million Hertz in most cases.
The use of such a small portion of the wire's total bandwidth is historical --
remember that the telephone system has been in place, using a pair of copper
wires to each home, for about a century. By limiting the frequencies carried over
the lines, the telephone system can pack lots of wires into a very small space
without worrying about interference between lines. Modern equipment that sends
digital rather than analog data can safely use much more of the telephone line's
capacity. DSL does just that.
A DSL internet connection is one of many effective communication tools for
keeping employees in touch with the office.

DSL signals can't pass throughfiber-optic cables.
Photo courtesy Corning
Asymmetric DSL
Most homes and small business users are connected to an asymmetric
DSL (ADSL) line. ADSL divides up the available frequencies in a line on the
assumption that most Internet users look at, or download, much more information
than they send, or upload. Under this assumption, if the connection speed from
the Internet to the user is three to four times faster than the connection from the
user back to the Internet, then the user will see the most benefit most of the time.
Precisely how much benefit you see from ADSL will greatly depend on how far
you are from the central office of the company providing the ADSL service. ADSL
is a distance-sensitive technology: As the connection's length increases, the
signal quality decreases and the connection speed goes down. The limit for ADSL
service is 18,000 feet (5,460 meters), though for speed and quality of service
reasons many ADSL providers place a lower limit on the distances for the service.
At the extremes of the distance limits, ADSL customers may see speeds far
below the promised maximums, while customers nearer the central office have
faster connections and may see extremely high speeds in the future. ADSL
technology can provide maximum downstream (Internet to customer) speeds of
up to 8 megabits per second (Mbps) at a distance of about 6,000 feet (1,820
meters), and upstream speeds of up to 640 kilobits per second (Kbps). In
practice, the best speeds widely offered today are 1.5 Mbps downstream, with
upstream speeds varying between 64 and 640 Kbps. Some vast improvements to
ADSL are available in some areas through services called ASDL2 and ASDL2+.
ASDL2 increases downstream to 12 Mbps and upstream to 1 Mbps, and ASDL2+
is even better -- it improves downstream to as much as 24 Mbps and upstream to
3 Mbps.
You might wonder -- if distance is a limitation for DSL, why is it not also a
limitation for voice telephone calls? The answer lies in small amplifiers
called loading coils that the telephone company uses to boost voice signals.
Unfortunately, these loading coils are incompatible with ADSL signals, so a voice
coil in the loop between your telephone and the telephone company's central
office will disqualify you from receiving ADSL. Other factors that might disqualify
you from receiving ADSL include:
Bridge taps - These are extensions, between you and the central office, that
extend service to other customers. While you wouldn't notice these bridge taps in
normal phone service, they may take the total length of the circuit beyond the
distance limits of the service provider.
Fiber-optic cables - ADSL signals can't pass through the conversion from analog
to digital and back to analog that occurs if a portion of your telephone circuit
comes through fiber-optic cables.
Distance - Even if you know where your central office is (don't be surprised if you
don't -- the telephone companies don't advertise their locations), looking at a map
is no indication of the distance a signal must travel between your house and the
office.
Next, we'll look at how the signal is split and what equipment DSL uses.

Splitting the Signal
The CAP System
There are two competing and incompatible standards for ADSL. The
official ANSI standard for ADSL is a system called discrete multitone, or DMT.
According to equipment manufacturers, most of the ADSL equipment installed
today uses DMT. An earlier and more easily implemented standard was
the carrierless amplitude/phase (CAP) system, which was used on many of the
early installations of ADSL.
CAP operates by dividing the signals on the telephone line into three distinct
bands: Voice conversations are carried in the 0 to 4 KHz (kilohertz) band, as they
are in all POTS circuits. The upstream channel (from the user back to the server)
is carried in a band between 25 and 160 KHz. The downstream channel (from the
server to the user) begins at 240 KHz and goes up to a point that varies
depending on a number of conditions (line length, line noise, number of users in a
particular telephone company switch) but has a maximum of about 1.5 MHz
(megahertz). This system, with the three channels widely separated, minimizes
the possibility of interference between the channels on one line, or between the
signals on different lines.
The DMT System
DMT also divides signals into separate channels, but doesn't use two fairly broad
channels for upstream and downstream data. Instead, DMT divides the data into
247 separate channels, each 4 KHz wide.

One way to think about it is to imagine that the phone company divides your
copper line into 247 different 4-KHz lines and then attaches a modem to each
one. You get the equivalent of 247 modems connected to your computer at once.
Each channel is monitored and, if the quality is too impaired, the signal is shifted
to another channel. This system constantly shifts signals between different
channels, searching for the best channels for transmission and reception. In
addition, some of the lower channels (those starting at about 8 KHz), are used as
bidirectional channels, for upstream and downstream information. Monitoring and
sorting out the information on the bidirectional channels, and keeping up with the
quality of all 247 channels, makes DMT more complex to implement than CAP,
but gives it more flexibility on lines of differing quality.
Filters
CAP and DMT are similar in one way that you can see as a DSL user.

If you have ADSL installed, you were almost certainly given small filters to attach
to the outlets that don't provide the signal to your ADSL modem. These filters
are low-pass filters -- simple filters that block all signals above a certain
frequency. Since all voice conversations take place below 4 KHz, the low-pass
(LP) filters are built to block everything above 4 KHz, preventing the data signals
from interfering with standard telephone calls.

DSL Equipment
ADSL uses two pieces of equipment, one on the customer end and one at the
Internet service provider, telephone company or other provider of DSL services.
At the customer's location there is a DSL transceiver, which may also provide
other services. The DSL service provider has a DSL Access
Multiplexer (DSLAM) to receive customer connections.
The Transceiver
Most residential customers call their DSL transceiver a "DSL modem." The
engineers at the telephone company or ISP call it an ATU-R. Regardless of what
it's called, it's the point where data from the user's computer or network is
connected to the DSL line.

DSL modem
Photo courtesy Allied Telesyn
The transceiver can connect to a customer's equipment in several ways, though
most residential installation uses USB or 10 base-T Ethernet connections. While
most of the ADSL transceivers sold by ISPs and telephone companies are simply
transceivers, the devices used by businesses may combine network routers,
network switches or other networking equipment in the same platform.
The DSLAM
The DSLAM at the access provider is the equipment that really allows DSL to
happen. A DSLAM takes connections from many customers and aggregates them
onto a single, high-capacity connection to the Internet. DSLAMs are generally
flexible and able to support multiple types of DSL in a single central office, and
different varieties of protocol and modulation -- both CAP and DMT, for example -
- in the same type of DSL. In addition, the DSLAM may provide additional
functions including routing or dynamic IP address assignment for the customers.
The DSLAM provides one of the main differences between user service through
ADSL and through cable modems. Because cable-modem users generally share
a network loop that runs through a neighborhood, adding users means lowering
performance in many instances. ADSL provides a dedicated connection from
each user back to the DSLAM, meaning that users won't see a performance
decrease as new users are added -- until the total number of users begins to
saturate the single, high-speed connection to the Internet. At that point, an
upgrade by the service provider can provide additional performance for all the
users connected to the DSLAM.
For information on ADSL rates and availability in the United States, go
to Broadband Reports. This site can provide information on ADSL service
companies in your area, the rates they charge, and customer satisfaction, as well
as estimating how far you are from the nearest central office.
ADSL isn't the only type of DSL, and it's not the only way to get high-speed
Internet access. Next, we'll look at ADSL alternatives.

Alternatives to ADSL
There are lots of variations in DSL technology -- many of them address DSL's
distance limitations in one way or another. Other types of DSL include:
Very high bit-rate DSL (VDSL) - This is a fast connection, but works only over a
short distance. It is capable of handling Internet access, HDTV and on-demand
services at rates of 52 Mbps downstream and 12 Mbps upstream.
Symmetric DSL (SDSL) - This connection, used mainly by small businesses,
doesn't allow you to use the phone at the same time, but the speed of receiving
and sending data is the same.
Rate-adaptive DSL (RADSL) - This is a variation of ADSL, but the modem can
adjust the speed of the connection depending on the length and quality of the line.
ISDN DSL (IDSL) - This is a combination of the Integrated Services Digital
Network (ISDN) and DSL technology. ISDN was the solution to dial-up Internet --
it allowed voice, text graphics, video and other data to share one telephone line.
This made it possible to talk on the phone and use the Internet at the same time.
IDSL is faster than ISDN connections but slower than DSL. It can travel a longer
distance of 5 to 6 miles, so it is usually a good option for people who can't get
DSL in their area.
Universal DLS (Uni-DSL) - This emerging technology, developed by Texas
Instruments, is backwards compatible with all existing versions of DSL. It offers
somewhat of a middle ground between ASDL and VDSL -- at longer distances, it
can reach the speeds of ASDL, but it can provide greater speeds than VDSL at
shorter distances. In some locations, Uni-DSL can provide four times the amount
of speed as VDSL.
Alternatives to DSL
With DSL's distance limitation and lower availability, what are some other
options? There are two major alternatives to DSL -- cable and wireless.
Cable and DSL are the two big rivals in the world of broadband. Cable isn't limited
by distance like DSL -- cable wires reach most neighborhoods, and signal
strengths don't weaken over long distances. While DSL allows you to use the
telephone and Internet simultaneously, cable lets users watch television and surf
the Internet at the same time. Many cable companies are also beginning to
bundle services with cable TV, Internet and digital telephone on one bill. Although
cable and DSL speeds are about the same, the one disadvantage with cable is
bandwidth -- connection speeds can slow down if too many people are using a
cable service at the same time.
A new technology, known as WiMax or 802.16, looks to combine the benefits of
broadband and wireless. WiMax will provide high-speed wireless Internet over
very long distances and will most likely provide access to large areas such as
cities. WiMax technology will be available in most American cities in 2008.
To learn more about DSL and other topics, read on to the next page.