Alcatel-Lucent announced G.fast access technology, which uses Bell Labs vectoring techniques and a wide frequency band to achieve very high speeds on copper lines over very short distances. The company said G.fast is intended for typical applications of 500 Mbps at 100 meters or less. In recent demonstrations and under laboratory conditions, Alcatel-Lucent achieved 1.3 Gbps over 70 meters. The technology is being positioned as an evolutionary step for VDLS2.
A trial conducted with A1, the Austrian subsidiary of Telekom Austria Group, first tested G.fast over a single, good quality cable, achieving a maximum speed of 1.1 Gbps over 70 meters and 800 Mbps over 100 meters. On older unshielded cables, typical of most in-building cabling in Austria, the trial achieved speeds of 500 Mbps over 100 meters on a single line. Although adding a second line introduces crosstalk, the use of vectoring can be used to maintain 500 Mbps over 100m. In comparison, DSL networks typically deliver speeds of 5-30 Mbps and VDSL2 vectoring networks typically supporting up to 100 Mbps.
Alcatel-Lucent said G.fast, which is not yet standardized, won’t be commercially available for several years.
