We received this information today with regards to a meeting in Munich, Germany – 20 June 2003 - At the Global IP Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Siemens ICN will report on strategies to get DSL networks fit for new applications.

The inherent quality of service of ATM has not been exploited extensively because “fast Internet access” has been and still is the “killer application” for DSL mass rollouts. Led by the Asia-Pacific region, DSLAMs and access networks based on Ethernet and not on ATM have become reality. Now applications like voice or video over IP are demanding quality of service / class of service features, which are introduced for Ethernet and IP.

Comparing the DSL deployments based on ATM and Ethernet/IP shows the following trends:
- The ATM-based DSL deployments will still play a major roll for established networks,
- IP/Ethernet over DSL has a higher growth rate,
- Ethernet over VDSL not only for in-house solutions and new packet-based end-user applications will dramatically enhance deployments of DSL technology based on Ethernet/IP.

From technological point-of-view, the migration from ATM to Ethernet is done in two steps: the Ethernet-uplink for ATM-DSLAM and then the all-Ethernet DSLAM without the ATM layer. Regarding DSLAM costs, there is not a big difference between Ethernet and ATM implementations. Cost savings can be achieved in the access network and at the CPE using Ethernet instead of ATM.

Recently, carriers have learned that access networks based on layer-2-Ethernet are cheaper, easier to install, and easier to maintain (lower CAPEX & OPEX) compared to access networks based on layer-3-IP. Therefore, there is a strong trend towards full-featured Ethernet and VLAN functionalities on the DSLAM.