Sckipio Unveils Next Generation G.fast Ultrafast Broadband Chipsets Today

Israel-based Sckipio, which created some of the kit that Openreach (BT) piloted as part of their 330Mbps G.fast broadband roll-out, has promised “true 1Gbps speeds” by becoming one of the first to launch a chipset based off the ITU-T’s Amendment 3 (212MHz) profile. Plus there’s a 96-port DPU.

The G.fast standard that Openreach is currently rolling out to 1 million UK premises by the end of 2017 (here), before reaching 10 million by 2020, is an evolving one and there have been a number of key amendments to it this year. For example, the current generation of G.fast silicon is designed to work with up to 106MHz of spectrum frequency, while the latest amendment 3 from the ITU-T can handle 212MHz, as well as other changes like coordinated Dynamic Time Allocation (cDTA).

For example, Openreach’s recent Fibre-to-the-distribution-point (FTTdp) based test of pole mounted G.fast distribution points from NetComm Wireless made use of 212MHz to achieve Gigabit class speeds (here). Amendment 3 could also help G.fast to reach longer copper lines or faster speeds via its current street cabinet (PCP) based deployment model.

In that sense Sckipio is today boasting that their new SCK-23000 family of chipsets can support the aforementioned changes, which they claim could theoretically enable speeds of up to 2Gbps in both downstream and upstream directions.

Sckipio claims that it can also support cross-DPU vectoring, without the need for external vectoring. This allows for smaller DPUs to connect and increases the vectoring port density. For example, it allows 8-port DPUs to be connected together to address different port configurations to 32 ports, without requiring additional SKUs to manage and test.

David Baum, CEO of Sckipio, said:

“This chipset is breathtaking. It delivers four times the vectoring capability, twice the bonding speeds, and supports coordinated DTA for symmetric-like performance in both downstream and upstream. This enables a gradual path to capacity that optimizes the CapEx for telcos.

Many telcos are under market pressure to support 1Gpbs bandwidth services to residential subscribers. Sckipio’s newest chipset supports this goal cost-effectively while providing seamless pay-as-you-grow options.”

In reality you’re unlikely to see anything like that sort of real-world speed from a G.fast deployment in the United Kingdom (in the commercial mass market sense), unless the distribution point (DP) is stuck right outside your door, but it makes for good PR spin. Of course we’d be happy to be proven wrong on that, although the real-world environment is often rather different to that of theoretical capability.

Sckipio also claims to have launched the “world’s first” 48-port Gfast distribution point unit (DPU) running on the 212a profile, which can be connected together to support 96 ports via “Sckipio’s cross-DPU vectoring technology“. The DP2-48-V6-2201 uses the same SCK-23000 chipset as covered above and claims it can “offer true 1Gbps downstream service to 96 concurrent subscribers over the same copper binder.”

Openreach has been testing a similar 96 port solution in its labs, although at launch they will only offer a total of 48 ports because vectoring 96 ports can create all sorts of challenges with things like power and heat. Meanwhile Sckipio’s latest silicon will become available to manufacturers during Q4 2017 and thus we can expect to see it inside the first kit during 2018.