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Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

Zeek6

Member

[Embarq] Silver Canister

Click for full size
So I've been trying to get faster internet here for some time and finally was told by a supervisor at CL that all their ports are full on DSLAM...

So I decided to track down the hardware and figure out what is what..

I know where the DSLAM is, it's about 3.5 miles away from us which makes are attenuation about 61 downstream.

So I'm curious, what do those silver canister's do? The one I took a picture of is the only one before my neighborhood. Oddly enough, they didn't put any in my neighborhood and from what I've seen it stops just before. Also, do those canisters make it so people further than 3.1 miles from the DSLAM able to get DSL or are they just there to just help boost bandwidth for everyone in general?

T1
@comcast.net

T1

Anon

It's not DSL related (directly anyway) it holds cards. Google "T1 Apparatus Case"
Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

Zeek6

Member

I've seen that, but I was just curious what purpose would they have for the average consumer? Since they do have "cards" in there. I'm thinking I might be "connected" to one of them because we are so far away from the DSLAM and at one point they told us they were moving our connection to a new "card".
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152

Member

It's most likely what's connecting your DSLAM to the internet, and until they swap that for fiber you're not going to get much faster than 1.5Mbps, considering each T1 line they run is only 1.5Mbps in itself.

TAZ
join:2014-01-03
Tucson, AZ

TAZ to Zeek6

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to Zeek6
brad152 See Profile is correct, the T1(s) are probably the uplink(s) for the DSLAM.

DSLAMs can have line cards too. That's what they were referring to.
Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

Zeek6

Member

Well, I can only get 768 at the moment while at the 3.1 mile mark from the DSLAM can get 1.5...and I was told because of "how far I am" and that the "ports are full" I can't get 1.5...

I didn't know that you needed to be moved to "another port" to get faster speeds...
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152

Member

It may just be distance, not necessarily the port. It's possible they do not feel like your line could obtain 1.5Mbps and keep it stable that far out.

TAZ
join:2014-01-03
Tucson, AZ

TAZ to Zeek6

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to Zeek6
The distance is what's limiting you, not the port. Whoever told you it was the port was just BSing you to get you off the phone. 768K and 1.5M are both ADSL tiers.

telcotech999
@ntelos.net

telcotech999 to Zeek6

Anon

to Zeek6
DS1 signals are interconnected typically at Central Office locations at a common metallic cross-connect point known as a DSX-1. When a DS1 is transported over metallic outside plant cable, the signal travels over conditioned cable pairs known as a T1 span. A T1 span can have up to -130 Volts of DC power superimposed on the associated four wire cable pairs to line or "Span" power line repeaters, and T1 NIU's (T1 Smartjacks). T1 span repeaters are typically engineered up to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) apart, depending on cable gauge, and at no more than 36 dB of loss before requiring a repeated span. There can be no cable bridge taps across any pairs.

The silver can you refer to is the housing for the repeater cards.
Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

Zeek6

Member

said by TAZ:

The distance is what's limiting you, not the port. Whoever told you it was the port was just BSing you to get you off the phone. 768K and 1.5M are both ADSL tiers.

Yea, I figured it's the distance since I have between 60-62 attenuation on the downstream...(as far as I know that number is never supposed to change as well and it does...many times)
said by telcotech999 :

DS1 signals are interconnected typically at Central Office locations at a common metallic cross-connect point known as a DSX-1. When a DS1 is transported over metallic outside plant cable, the signal travels over conditioned cable pairs known as a T1 span. A T1 span can have up to -130 Volts of DC power superimposed on the associated four wire cable pairs to line or "Span" power line repeaters, and T1 NIU's (T1 Smartjacks). T1 span repeaters are typically engineered up to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) apart, depending on cable gauge, and at no more than 36 dB of loss before requiring a repeated span. There can be no cable bridge taps across any pairs.

The silver can you refer to is the housing for the repeater cards.

Well if what you say is true, then they probably stopped at where they did because they need to put in a new box so that it can make up for the loss in signal after that last repeater.

richrockstar
join:2013-04-22
Wake Forest, NC

richrockstar to Zeek6

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am I the only one who see's the 2 fiber markers?
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152

Member

No, but i'm pretty sure they're not using them (at least yet) for his DSLAM.

CenturyLink needs to just go private, do a mass FTTH or at least a large scale FTTC rollout and just be done with it. Anytime shareholders are involved it makes network expansion almost impossible.

Midniteoyl
join:2013-11-22
Knox, IN

Midniteoyl to Zeek6

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to Zeek6
That is fiber fed..

richrockstar
join:2013-04-22
Wake Forest, NC

richrockstar to brad152

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to brad152
I would love to see Centurylink initiate a widescale FTTH project like FIOS, I doubt we'll ever see that though.

toby
Troy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA

toby

Member

said by richrockstar:

I would love to see Centurylink initiate a widescale FTTH project like FIOS, I doubt we'll ever see that though.

What is the expected life of the insulating plastic on the wiring going to a house?
That length of time before it deteriorates + 1 year, is my guess.

GeekJedi
RF is Good For You
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Mukwonago, WI
ARRIS TM1602
Apple AirPort Extreme (2013)
Ooma Telo

GeekJedi to Zeek6

Premium Member

to Zeek6
said by Zeek6:

I've seen that, but I was just curious what purpose would they have for the average consumer?

They may not serve an average consumer at all. T1 circuits are used for all sorts of business applications. It's entirely possible that it has zero to do with the DSL circuits in the area.
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

brad152

Member

but considering he can only do a max of 1.5Mbps, i'd be willing to bet his old DSLAM is still fed by T1's
Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

Zeek6

Member

said by brad152:

but considering he can only do a max of 1.5Mbps, i'd be willing to bet his old DSLAM is still fed by T1's

Well, if you get closer to the DSLAM less than 3 miles from the DSLAM you get 10mbps

TAZ
join:2014-01-03
Tucson, AZ

TAZ

Member

Two options then:
1) it's not T1 fed, and the T1 equipment is for something/someone else
2) there could be multiple DSLAMs at the same site, depending on how many customers are served there, and some could be older
brad152
join:2006-07-27
Chicago, IL

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That's true, i was not even thinking about that.

I wonder if enough people call and complain if CenturyLink would put a VDSL2 one closer to him.
Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL

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said by Zeek6:

So I'm curious, what do those silver canister's do?

More likely a DS-3 repeater. Check this out for explanation:
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DS-3

T1
@google.com

T1

Anon

No, not DS3.
Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

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Click for full size
My DSLAM
Click for full size
Another DSLAM
So a quick update to this whole thing, I found that the DSLAM is now on street view so I took a quick pic of it so you guys can see it.

The first one is my DSLAM, the other one is one a few miles away that services a different road. From the looks of it though, the one that feeds my area looks pretty darn tiny in comparison to other ones I've seen.

Brett C
join:2004-08-03
Olathe, KS

Brett C

Member

said by Zeek6:

So a quick update to this whole thing, I found that the DSLAM is now on street view so I took a quick pic of it so you guys can see it.

The first one is my DSLAM, the other one is one a few miles away that services a different road. From the looks of it though, the one that feeds my area looks pretty darn tiny in comparison to other ones I've seen.

Hah, I haven't seen one of those mini-DSLAM boxes in ages! If I recall off the top of my head, those are known as DSLAM remote terminals. For example, the inside of one can look something like this;



For size comparison, here's the DSLAM just up the road (half mile) from me, installed about (coming up on 2 years) two years ago now.

Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

Zeek6

Member

Well, one thing I don't get is why they put such a tiny one there to begin with, since there wasn't anything even there before that point. Plus that thing is the reason we can't get faster speeds cause it's "full". From the looks of your picture I wouldn't doubt it either cause I don't see many slots in there.

Midniteoyl
join:2013-11-22
Knox, IN

Midniteoyl to Brett C

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to Brett C
The techs still call DSLAMs 'remotes' here..
coryw
join:2013-12-22
Flagstaff, AZ

coryw to Zeek6

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to Zeek6
My guess is that it's not the DSLAM itself that's full. Many 1u and 2u rack boxes have 24-48 ports, the adtran TA1100 and 1200 series are a good example of another small-ish DSLAM with 24/48 ports on them. What's probably "full" is the T1 lines feeding that DSLAM.

Each T1 line can transmit just slightly over 1.5 megabits per second of information. It's unclear at the moment how many CenturyLink DSL subscribers still set up this way will share one of those lines, but it could be up to eight.

Eight users at 1536 kb/sec sharing a line at 1544 kb/sec is "full" -- even if there's more ports available on the DSLAM.

In addition, if you were looking to get faster speeds via bonding and your DSLAM is an old ADSL model, it's important to note that bonding didn't come onboard until ADSL2+. Not, of course, that port bonding will make the T1s (however many there are) feeding the DSLAM any faster.

The good news is that once your DSLAM is upgraded to a fiber-fed model, they can put in a physically larger one if there are a lot of customers nearby, but it may make mroe sense for them to feed more smaller RTs/DSLAMs with fiber, to provide faster service to more people.

It would be both hilarious and a shame if you could still only get 1.5M after your RT was upgraded to VDSL2 and fed by fiber because of distance.
coryw

coryw to Midniteoyl

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to Midniteoyl
That's probably the more correct terminology. a DSLAM is still a DSLAM even if it's in the CO or if you're using it to form a LAN. From the telephone compmany's perspective, it's "remote" from their central office.

I've internalized calling it the DSLAM just because a) DSLAM is fun to say b) it never occurred to me the DSL I had at any given place wasn't served out of the CO, or to think about what any given box or pedestal was.
Zeek6
Zack K.
join:2008-02-07
Punta Gorda, FL

Zeek6 to coryw

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to coryw
said by coryw:

It would be both hilarious and a shame if you could still only get 1.5M after your RT was upgraded to VDSL2 and fed by fiber because of distance.

Yea well considering they just put all this in a couple years ago, I doubt an upgrade would come any time soon since that box is quite a distance from the main office. Also, as far as the distance goes, you're right we probably wouldn't get much more than 1.5 if we could even get better speeds at all. They would still probably have to put something at the end of my subdivision which is at least 2 miles from that little box already. (3/4 of the people in my subdivision can't even get DSL cause of that)
coryw
join:2013-12-22
Flagstaff, AZ

coryw

Member

At 2mi/10,000 feet, you may be able to get like 5 or 7 megs if the RT you're on was upgraded to ADSL2+ or VDSL2 and fed with fiber, and if you were really persistent you may be able to do pair bonding to increase that a bit more, but areas like that are going to appear neglected and not have very much throughput available until either the telcos eat the cost of doing fiber to the curb, putting in more RTs, or just doing fiber to the home.

Fiber to the home will be nice because fibers can run basically any distance out of whatever RT or CO you're closest to.