Week in research: VDSL2, vectoring drive new DSL deployments; Telcos outline SDN, NFV plans

VDSL2, vectoring to drive new DSL deployments: Fiber to the Home (FTTH) may offer the fastest broadband speeds, but a recent broadbandtrends.com report says that in the near-term, most traditional telcos are opting to use a hybrid copper/fiber approach that uses a mix of VDSL2 and vectoring technologies. The research firm forecast that while VDSL ports will continue to represent a growing proportion of total DSL ports, 29 percent of all cumulative VDSL2 ports will be vectored by 2018. From 2010 to 2018, the EMEA region will represent the largest opportunity for VDSL2 and vectoring growth, but North America will have "the highest penetration of VDSL2 Vectoring at 45 percent of total VDSL ports." Report (.pdf)

Telcos need to collaborate more, compete less: If the traditional telco is to survive, it needs to find ways to work with others. One way a service provider can create more value in the market, says Ovum Research in a new report, is by using partnerships to accomplish three main goals: Seek out new ideas, integrate them into operations and capture value. "No matter how much telcos try to diversify, their primary role will always be as carriers of voice, messaging, and data traffic. However, an efficient network that has been updated with new innovations can be combined with innovative business models to continuously deliver value to telcos and their shareholders," says Emeka Obiodu, principal analyst in Ovum's Industry, Communications, & Broadband practice. Release

Service providers prioritize their SDN, NFV deployment plans: Software defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) have become the talk of the town in the telecom industry. A new survey from Infonetics reveals that all of the major service providers are currently evaluating SDNs or plan to do so over the next three years. Service providers that responded to the research firm's survey said the top five network domains where they plan to deploy SDNs and NFV by 2014 include: within data centers, between data centers, operations and management, content delivery networks (CDNs) and cloud services. Meanwhile, 86 percent of service providers said they are confident they will deploy SDN and NFV technology in their optical transport networks as well at some point. Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks at Infonetics Research, said service providers are taking a phased approach to SDN and NFV. "For the most part, carriers are starting small with their SDN and NFV deployments, focusing on only parts of their network, what we call 'contained domains,' to ensure they can get the technology to work as intended," Howard said. He added that although it will be a number of years until bigger pieces or an entire network will be controlled by SDNs, "momentum for more widespread use of SDN and NFV is strong, as evidenced by the vast majority of operators participating in our study who plan to deploy the technologies in key parts of their networks, from the core to aggregation to customer access." Release

Source: Infonetics Research