Despite all the attention given to lightning-fast broadband speeds enabled by fiber to the home, most carriers are forced to concern themselves instead with how much bandwidth they can squeeze out of copper already in the ground.

Hoping to find profit in this pain, equipment vendors are working on a range of new technological advancements to push the envelope of what copper can do.

For example, Alcatel-Lucent introduced a new technique for bolstering copper data speeds this year. Dubbed “SmartDSL,” the technology is aimed at keeping noise levels on DSL lines low without compromising bandwidth speeds. When noise increases in a DSL network, the traditional solution is to rebalance power levels, increasing the signal-to-noise margin to compensate. But this results in less available bandwidth. Alcatel-Lucent's approach keeps the level of available bandwidth high by inserting two types of simulated noise: what it calls “artificial” noise and “virtual” noise. Artificial noise travels down the line itself while virtual noise is introduced directly at the receiver.

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