Actelis Networks this week will announce a breakthrough in Ethernet-in-the-first-mile, or EFM, technology, unveiling the first repeater, a product that will significantly increase the reach of Ethernet services over existing copper networks. The product will be demonstrated at Globalcomm 2006 this week.

Used with Actelis' copper bonding technology, the Actelis XR239 EFM repeater will enable service providers to reach customers at distances of more than 25 miles and to deliver speeds up to 45 Mb/s over eight bonded copper pairs.

“This is a distance breakthrough and the first repeater,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics. “Plus, they have the other techniques, which are intelligent about bundled pairs and getting the maximum bandwidth out of the copper plant.”

By extending the reach of Ethernet over copper, Actelis intends to make it possible for service providers to reach a broader range of customers more economically, said Mehmet Balos, president of Americas and chief marketing officer of Actelis.

“With this technology, a service provider can essentially reach all of the loops within the [carrier service area],” he said. “They can use their existing copper networks to offer services that used to require fiber.”

That is important because only 11% of commercial buildings in the U.S. are served by fiber today, said Michael Kennedy, president of Network Strategy Partners.

“Year-over-year growth in fiber deployments is very modest,” he said. “The telcos target the central business district, and they've already pulled fiber to every big, tall building. If you run the numbers, it is not very attractive to take fiber to highly dispersed areas. This technology will allow a service provider to address the urban sprawl areas.”

The Actelis XR239 augments the company's existing EFM copper transmission products, which use copper bonding and advanced switching capabilities to maximize the capability of copper networks, Balos said.

“Actelis EFMplus technology is capable of achieving 5.7 Mb/s over each pair of copper cabling up to 3 kilofeet,” he said. “So four copper pairs provide about 22 Mb/s, and eight pairs provide 45 Mb/s.”

Normally, the bandwidth begins to drop off after the 3000-foot range, but use of the repeaters extends the service reach, Balos added.

Up to eight repeaters can be used to extend the reach of Ethernet service to 25 miles. The repeaters are spectrum-compatible and line-powered from either end of the link. It can be deployed either in a central office or an outside plant environment, for which it has been environmentally hardened.

There is generally ample copper available in the network to enable copper bonding, Howard said.

“Most telcos, when they laid copper, typically laid a 25-pair bundle,” he said. “Some companies, like BellSouth, have overlaid copper as well. There are a lot of cases where there is a lot of copper around.”

In many instances, telcos will be in a position to replace existing T-1 services with Ethernet over copper that delivers more bandwidth, Kennedy said. “This is a good T-1 retrofit product.”

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