As per incumbent telephone company obligations, twisted pair copper connections were deployed by Telus to virtually all residential and business premises in rural Alberta. However, the physical limitations of twisted pair copper loops are such that in rural areas, only dial-up internet connection speeds are possible over this infrastructure. The DSL connections available in urban regions are not widely available to rural customers because DSL performance degrades as the distance from the digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) increases, making connectivity in remote sites utilizing copper difficult and expensive. For example, 5 Mbps download speeds on ADSL and ADSL2/2+ technologies are only possible at line distances of less than 4 km from the DSLAM exchange point.93
Advances in DSL technology, most notably G.fast, can reportedly deliver download speeds of 170 Mbps over a distance of 0.4 km on a single twisted copper pair wire;94 however, the first commercial deployment of this technology has only recently been announced for Taiwan95 and the timeline for its availability in Canada is not known.
Shaw is a major provider of wireline coaxial cable connections in rural parts of the province. Broadband internet access over coaxial cable leverages the data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) standard. This requires two components: a cable modem termination system, usually located at the head-end of the network, and an end-user cable modem device located at the customer’s premise. Modern cable networks often have a hybrid fibre-coaxial cable architecture, where fibre to the curb or cabinet is installed within 1 km of the home and coaxial cable connects the fibre to the customer’s home.96
With DOCSIS 3.0, the maximum download and upload rates are 172 Mbps (for 4 channels) and 123 Mbps (for 4 channels), respectively, over hybrid fibre-coaxial cable. The maximum distance between the cable modem termination system and the end-user cable modem device is 160 km.97
In practice, the bandwidth on a DOCSIS network is a shared commodity, where the actual download/upload rates are dependent on the number of concurrent customers actively using a coaxial cable segment. DOCSIS 3.0 is a significant leap over DOCSIS 2.0, as it has improved uplink data rates per channel, and enables aggregation of multiple channels, leading to significant throughput bandwidth improvements.
The next-generation DOCSIS 3.1 standard is expected to revolutionize hybrid fibre-coaxial cable connections by providing up to 10 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload network throughput and significant improvements in latency.98 Shaw has invested heavily in DOCSIS 3.1 technology and expects to implement it in its wireline network by the end of fiscal 2017.99
For end-users in rural communities that are connected to modern hybrid fibre-coaxial networks and depend on its deployment, DOCSIS 3.1 could provide access to Gigabit internet services.
References
93. Increase Your Broadband Speed. Chart of ADSL and ADSL2+ Speed Versus Distance. 25 October 2012. Accessed 12 June 2016.
94. Network World. DSL reaches speeds of 170 Mbps. 24 March 2015. Accessed 12 June 2016.
95. Alcatel-Lucent. Alcatel-Lucent and Chunghwa Telecom launch world’s first commercial deployment of G.fast ultra-broadband access technology in Taiwan. 14 September 2015. Accessed 12 June 2016.
96. FTTH Council Europe. FTTH Handbook, 5th edition. P. 6-7.
97. De Silva, M.M. Cable and Wireless Networks: Theory and Practice. 2016. P. 646-647.
98. CableLabs. DOCSIS 3.1 Featured Technology. Accessed 20 July 2016.
99. Shaw. Shaw Announces Third Quarter and Year-to-Date Results. Accessed 20 July 2016.