The 1-Meg Modem in telecommunications was a

DSL modem A digital subscriber line (DSL) modem is a device used to connect a computer or router to a telephone line which provides the digital subscriber line (DSL) service for connection to the Internet, which is often called ''DSL broadband''. The m ...

created by

Nortel Nortel Networks Corporation (Nortel), formerly Northern Telecom Limited, was a Canadian multinational telecommunications and data networking equipment manufacturer headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in Montreal, Quebec, ...

which conforms to the ADSL Lite standard. The 1-Meg Modem was the first xDSL modem to gain approval and registration under FCC Part 68 Rules.

Technical details

The 1-Meg Modem can be deployed up to from the central office providing a

downstream Downstream may refer to: * Downstream (bioprocess) * Downstream (manufacturing) * Downstream (networking) * Downstream (software development) * Downstream (petroleum industry) * Upstream and downstream (DNA), determining relative positions on DNA * ...

bit rate In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (bitrate or as a variable ''R'') is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction w ...

of 960

kilobits per second In telecommunications, data-transfer rate is the average number of bits (bitrate), characters or symbols (baudrate), or data blocks per unit time passing through a communication link in a data-transmission system. Common data rate units are multi ...

(kbit/s) and a maximum

upstream Upstream may refer to: * Upstream (bioprocess) * ''Upstream'' (film), a 1927 film by John Ford * Upstream (networking) * ''Upstream'' (newspaper), a newspaper covering the oil and gas industry * Upstream (petroleum industry) * Upstream (software ...

rate of 120 kbit/s over 24 gauge wire. The second generation could achieve a transfer rate of 1280 kbit/s downstream and 320 kbit/s upstream. Unlike most

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

modems which use

Asynchronous Transfer Mode Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is a telecommunications standard defined by American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and ITU-T (formerly CCITT) for digital transmission of multiple types of traffic. ATM was developed to meet the needs of ...

(ATM) virtual circuits to carry data, the 1-Meg Modem used

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

which makes the product easy for most residential users to install themselves but ill-suited for applications that require quality of service to be enforced. At the telephone company switch the installation was relatively simple when the switch was a Nortel DMS Switch. The customer's line card must be swapped with a line card that supported the 1-Meg Modem and also a card must be added to the drawer that would manage all data from the 1-Meg Modem cards in the drawer.

History

At the time the modem was released on August 8, 1997, telephone companies were fearing competition from

cable modem A cable modem is a type of network bridge that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC), radio frequency over glass (RFoG) and coaxial cable infrastructure. Cable modems are primaril ...

s. However, early DSL technology was too costly for wide deployment. By October 1998 Nortel claimed more than $1 billion in sales which, in their words, had "the potential for more than one million end-user lines." The modems were originally tested at Northern Illinois University dormitories and worked well even though the school's wiring was relatively old.

References

External links

Product Overview

NORTEL NETWORKS: Nortel Networks' 1-Meg Modem re receives FCC Part 68 Rules approval and registration.

Nortel (Northern Telecom) 1-Meg Modem Declared the Most Practical High-Speed Access Solution by Computer Reseller News
Digital subscriber line Modems Nortel products {{compu-network-stub