Upswing in Demand for IPTV and Broadband-based Video Services Stokes Growth in the World xDSL Test Equipment Market

Participants focus on enhancing QoS and QoE to activate demand for xDSL test equipment products

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Sept. 21, 2011 – The spike in demand for Internet protocol TV (IPTV) and broadband-based video service is a major factor spearheading growth in the world xDSL test equipment market. High bandwidth requirements for IPTV and customers’ higher expectations of service uptime are forcing service providers to purchase the latest test equipment and service monitoring tools.

The IPTV network infrastructure is complex with many protocol layers, including the physical layer, asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) layer, and IP layer, present between the video source and the subscriber’s TV. As the video stream passes through these various protocol layers, it is prone to audio drop-out, pixelization and distortion. Service providers understand the need to perform network testing to identify the exact location of faults in the network before those faults affect their customers.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan

(www.testandmeasurement.frost.com), World xDSL Test Equipment Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $279.0 million in 2010 and estimates this to reach $545.7 million in 2016.

“Simple DSL metrics are no longer sufficient to support QoE, which has resulted in an upsurge in demand for multilayer test equipment capable of testing the triple play architecture (voice, video and data) in real-time,” says Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst Srihari Padmanabhan. “Due to heavy competition in the service provider segment, QoE and QoS in the broadband service market will assume great importance in the future and enable growth in the xDSL test equipment market.”

Wireless broadband technology is witnessing significant activity. Factors such as convenience (mobility), cost of deployment, and bandwidth are pushing subscriber migration from DSL to wireless broadband technology. As network equipment manufacturers develop advanced routers and modems to optimize the reach of wireless technology, the DSL technology market is expected to be negatively impacted, restraining uptake of new xDSL test equipment.

As service providers mull significant capital expenditure (CAPEX) investment in evolving technologies, such as high bandwidth video-based services, market uncertainty necessitates careful analysis of the expected return on investment. Furthermore, a sudden demand shift for a specific DSL variant might affect a service provider’s business.

As the telecommunications space is witnessing fast-paced evolution, test equipment vendors must avidly invest in developing new products and technologies to cater to changing end-user requirements.

“The xDSL test equipment market is highly competitive, with many Tier-1 companies active in the market,” says Padmanabhan. “This leaves manufacturers with little control over pricing, which results in reduced profit margins.”

Due to pricing pressure from customers, test equipment vendors must revise their own pricing. To be successful in such a scenario, participants must perform a careful analysis of the expected return on investment and leverage their market intelligence information to tap opportunities that lie latent in the market.

If you are interested in a virtual brochure for this study, please send an email to Sarah Saatzer, Corporate Communications, at sarah.saatzer@frost.com, with your full name, company name, job title, telephone number, company email address, company website, city, state and country.

World xDSL Test Equipment Market is part of the Test & Measurement Growth Partnership Service program, which also includes research in the following markets: World Network Performance Monitoring and Management Solutions Market for Enterprises, World SONET/SDH Related Test Equipment Market, World Fiber Optic Test Equipment Markets, and World Wireless Protocol Analyzers and Network Monitoring Systems Market. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

Sunrise Telecom Sunset xDSL Test Set

Hand-held Test Set that supports modules for many different transmission technologies, including ADSL, IDSL, SDSL, HDSL, Voice Frequency, and Datacom

Frederick Engineering ParaScope mPA VDSL2 IPTV/Copper Bundle

Advanced handheld chassis with 7″ touch screen high-resolution display, dual 10/100 Ethernet ports, USB port, SD card port, VGA port. Includes VDSL2/ADSLx module, IPTV Analysis Suite and Copper Module Bundle.

OSP Frontline Triple-Play

The OSP FrontLine Triple-Play is an advanced modular test set developed for installation, maintenance and troubleshooting of VDSL2, ADSL, ADSL2 and ADSL2+Triple-Play services.

Columbia Engineers Control Light Propagation in Photonic Chips — Major Breakthrough in Telecommunications Field

New York, NY – Researchers at Columbia Engineering School have built optical nanostructures that enable them to engineer the index of refraction and fully control light dispersion. They have shown that it is possible for light (electromagnetic waves) to propagate from point A to point B without accumulating any phase, spreading through the artificial medium as if the medium is completely missing in space. This is the first time simultaneous phase and zero-index observations have been made on the chip-scale and at the infrared wavelength.

The study was led by Chee Wei Wong, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Serdar Kocaman, electrical engineering PhD candidate, both at Columbia Engineering, in collaboration with scientists at the University College of London, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Institute of Microelectronics of Singapore.

“We’re very excited about this. We’ve engineered and observed a metamaterial with zero refractive index,” said Kocaman. “What we’ve seen is that the light disperses through the material as if the entire space is missing. The oscillatory phase of the electromagnetic wave doesn’t even advance such as in a vacuum — this is what we term a zero-phase delay.”

This exact control of optical phase is based on a unique combination of negative and positive refractive indices. All natural known materials have a positive refractive index. By sculpturing these artificial subwavelength nanostructures, the researchers were able to control the light dispersion so that a negative refractive index appeared in the medium. They then cascaded the negative index medium with a positive refractive index medium so that the complete nanostructure behaved as one with an index of refraction of zero.

“Phase control of photons is really important,” said Wong. “This is a big step forward in figuring out how to carry information on photonic chips without losing control of the phase of the light.”

“We can now control the flow of light, the fastest thing known to us,” he continued. “This can enable self-focusing light beams, highly directive antennas, and even potentially an approach to cloak or hide objects, at least in the small-scale or a narrow band of frequencies currently.”

This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (source engineering.columbia.edu)

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (formerly known as Trans European Trunked Radio) is a specialized professional mobile radio [PMR]  and two-way transceiver standard. TETRA was specifically designed for use by government agencies, emergency services (police  force, fire department, ambulance), rail transportation staff, transport services and the military. TETRA is an ETSI standard, first version was published in 1995. ETSI, the body that published the standard for GSM which is currently the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world, TETRA works in a very similar way to GSM the main differences being, the handsets have a longer range and there is more bandwidth allocated for data. TETRA is endorsed by the European Radio Communications Committee (ERC) and mandated for use in Europe.

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is a digital trunked mobile radio standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). The purpose of the TETRA standard was to meet the needs of traditional Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) user organisations such as those listed below. The air interfaces, network interfaces as well as the services and facilities are specified in sufficient detail to enable independent manufacturers develop infrastructure and radio terminal products that would fully inter-operate with each other. For example, radio terminals from different manufacturers can operate on infrastructures from other manufacturers. The ability for full interoperability between different manufacturer’s products is a distinct advantage of open standards developed by ETSI. As the TETRA standard is supported by several independent manufacturers this increases competition, provides second source security and allows a greater choice of terminal products for specific user applications.

PMR Organizations Include:

• Public Safety
• Transportation
• Utilities
• Government
• Military
• PAMR
• Commercial & Industry
• Oil & Gas

Because the TETRA standard has been specifically developed to meet the needs of a wide variety of traditional PMR user organisations it has a scaleable architecture allowing economic network deployments ranging from single site local area coverage to multiple site wide area national coverage.   Besides meeting the needs of traditional PMR user organisations, the TETRA standard has also been developed to meet the needs of Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR) operators. The TETRA standard is in practice, a suite of standards covering different technology aspects, for example, air interfaces, network interfaces and its services and facilities. Because TETRA is an evolving standard it has been developed in Releases (phases) known as TETRA Release 1 and TETRA Release 2. Even though both TETRA Releases have been completed, work continues within ETSI Technical Committee (TC) TETRA to further enhance the standard thus satisfying new user requirements as well as gleaning the benefits of new technology innovations. Outside of Europe the ETSI TETRA Standard has been formerly adopted in China and South Korea.

Since the first generation of networks were deployed in 1997, hundreds of TETRA networks have been deployed across the world.  Even though a considerable number of these networks are deployed in Europe, a rapid uptake is occurring in the regions of Asia, Middle East and South America.  Although all PMR market segments are already being served by TETRA, the largest market is that of public safety, where the trend is for the deployment of nationwide networks shared by all public safety organisations for reasons of economics (sharing), autonomy of operation for routine communications and the ability to fully inter-operate with other services during emergency situations and disasters.

The transportation market is the next fastest growing market, especially for Mass Rapid Transport systems and major Airports.  Interestingly, TETRA is also used by the military for non-tactical operations, a market application not originally anticipated for TETRA. The success and market uptake of TETRA has attracted many independent manufacturers and suppliers of TETRA products and services, thereby providing users with healthy competition, second source security and wide choice of radio terminal equipment for specific applications. The success of TETRA has also created a strong base of application developers who are able to provide a wide variety of applications for use with TETRA.

The TETRA Association
Recognizing that important market requirements outside the responsibility of ETSI needed to be addressed to ensure the success of TETRA, a number of organisations formed the TETRA MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) Association in December 1994.  Since it has been established, the TETRA Association has grown significantly and now provides a forum which acts on behalf of its members, being user organisations, manufacturers, application providers, integrators, operators, test houses, regulators, consultants, etc. The main objectives of the TETRA Association are to promote the TETRA standard and to ensure multi-vendor equipment interoperability. (source www.tetra-association.com)

Korea Sets Trend in Mobile Radio Tags

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology was introduced during the first decade of the new millennium with much fanfare. But the radio tags were practically limited to just replacing conventional barcodes.

In this climate, experts point out that the hype originally promised by RFID would be realized only when its applications go mobile and Korea is currently leading the world in the shift toward mobility. Mobile RFID is based on portable readers imbedded in such wireless devices as cell phones with which people can check detailed data of groceries or movie previews by attaching their handsets to radio tags on vegetable wraps or movie posters.

“No matter how many radio tags are around us sporting fancy applications, its usefulness would not be realized if a number of people do not carry the readers,” a spokesperson at the Mobile RFID Forum said.

“In my view, the idea of ubiquitous RFID readers will be materialized when they are incorporated in such devices as cellular phones or other handheld devices. Korea is setting the global trend.”

Entities both from the public and private sectors convened in 2004 to form a Mobile RFID Forum involving the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and SK Telecom. The companies and organizations have finished pilot tests geared toward checking the commercial viability of mobile RFID, faster than competitors in other countries. On top of commercial deployment, Asia’s fourth-largest economy has taken the initiative in technological advances as demonstrated at an international conference on RFID standards. Korea hosted the conference, which started Monday to continue through March 26 on Jeju Island, and asked for 16 technologies to be made global standards, or around 16 percent of the 68 overall proposals. Of these, observers predict that the country’s offers in mobile RFID and real-time location systems are highly likely to be endorsed because the country is ahead of the pack in these segments.

Then, Korea will be able to preempt the mobile RFID markets, which are expected to explode in the not-so-distant future, said the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The RFID tag is a small integrated-circuit chip together with a radio circuit. The tiny tags emit radio waves so that its identification code can be scanned from a distance through a reader. The cutting-edge technology has been expected to offer a variety of information on any product like their ingredients, origins, producers and transportation histories as well. However, the hitch was that the fixed reader of the mobile RFID was not available to the general public. This prompted many countries to come up with wireless readers but they were prone to mistakes in recognizing the tags accurately. To tackle the problems, many Korean researchers have worked on improving the precision of the readers in motion to make a substantial advancement in the studies, according to the Mobile RFID Forum.

(source www.koreatimes.co.kr)

FCC ADOPTS ORDER TO CLEAR THE 700 MHz FREQUENCY FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND NEXT GENERATION CONSUMER USERS

Washington, D.C. – Jan. 15th 2010 -  the Federal Communications Commission adopted an Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking prohibiting the further distribution and sale of devices that operate in the 700 MHz frequency.  This action helps complete an important component of the DTV Transition by clearing the 700 MHz band to enable the rollout of communications services for public safety and the deployment of next generation 4G wireless devices for consumers.

The order will primarily impact the use of wireless microphone systems that currently operate in the 700 MHz band.  These unlicensed devices cannot continue to operate in this band because they may cause harmful interference to public safety entities and next generation consumers devices that will be utilizing the 700 MHz frequency.  Thus, the Commission is making clear that no devices utilizing this frequency may be sold or distributed.  In order to ensure that individuals and groups currently using unauthorized devices in this band have ample time to transition to appropriate frequencies, the FCC is providing a sunset period until June 12, 2010, one year from the DTV Transition.

The Commission is also unveiling an aggressive consumer outreach plan in order to assist consumers who have previously purchased wireless microphone systems and other related devices that utilized the 700 MHz  band. Through the Commission’s website, www.fcc.gov/cgb/wirelessmicrophones, consumers can learn whether their wireless device is currently operating in the prohibited band and whether their devices may be retuned to operate on another band.  Consumers may also call 1-888-CALL-FCC to ask questions regarding this transition.