A video-ready access device (VRAD) provides

digital subscriber line Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric dig ...

access and

high-definition television High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

programming to customers subscribed to

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV), also called TV over broadband, is the service delivery of television over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Usually sold and run by a Telephone company, telecom provider, it consists of broadcast live telev ...

services such as

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

's U-verse,

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in the province ...

Bell Fibe TV Bell Fibe TV is an IPTV-based multichannel television service offered by Bell Canada, as part of fibre broadband services in parts of the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba (as Bell MTS Fibe TV) and Atlantic Canada (as Bell Aliant F ...

Claro Puerto Rico Claro Puerto Rico is the largest telecommunications service provider in Puerto Rico. It is headquartered in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and has operated for almost a century offering voice, data, long distance, broadband, directory publishing and w ...

Claro TV Claro TV+ (Claro TV until March 2022) is a Latin American operator of pay television. The service is supplied by Embratel and Claro companies and operates in Star One C4 satellite. Its transmission system is DTH (Direct to Home) in Ku Band, a ...

, and

Telus Telus may refer to: * Telus Corporation, a Canadian publicly traded holding company ** Telus Communications, a telecommunications company ** Telus Digital, a technology company ** Telus Health, a health technology provider ** Telus Mobility T ...

Optik TV TELUS Optik TV is a product of TELUS Communications, a subsidiary of TELUS Corporation, that provides IPTV service in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec. The service offers over 630 digital channels, including more ...

. VRAD equipment manufactured by

Alcatel-Lucent Alcatel-Lucent S.A. () was a multinational telecommunications equipment company, headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris, France. The company focused on Fixed line telephone, fixed, Mobile phone, mobile and telecommunications convergence, ...

can be configured to support between 48 and 864 lines per box. The VRAD boxes are composed of circuit boards providing service, fed by

fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

cable.

AT&T VRADs

There are 2 types of VRAD systems currently used by AT&T:

FTTN Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...

(fiber to the node), and

FTTP Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic ...

(fiber to the premises). FTTN, widely used where copper facilities exist in established neighborhoods, uses an

7330 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) shelf,Post Alexander, Atlanta, Ga.
p. 24. which uses the existing copper wiring to customers' homes, leading to distance limitations from the VRAD cabinet to the customer's home. The 7330 ISAM is an internet protocol DSL access multiplexer that supports

VDSL Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber li ...

and

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 wire, copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem ...

protocols.Alcatel-Lucent 7330 ISAM FTTN ANSI
/ref> The FTTP system uses an Alcatel-Lucent 7340 ISAM shelf, which is mostly used in areas such as new neighborhoods or large-scale developments where fiber can be run to the household, removing the distance limitations of copper. The 7340 then connects to a Primary Flexibility Point, which distributes service to homes in the neighborhood, via a dual strand fiber, which is then split into 32 customer fiber pairs. In FTTP systems, the fiber pairs are typically led into a customer's residence at the

network interface device upTwo simple NIDs, carrying six lines each, on the outside of a building upA German copper phone line termination box called '':de:Abschlusspunkt Linientechnik, Abschlusspunkt LinienTechnik'' (APL, "Demarcation point") In telecommunications, a ...

. In FTTD (fiber to the desk) systems, the fiber can continue to an equipment room or garage, then to a decoder box or

residential gateway A residential gateway is a small consumer-grade gateway which bridges network access between connected local area network (LAN) hosts to a wide area network (WAN) (such as the Internet) via a modem, or directly connects to a WAN (as in EttH), ...

, then to the customer's TV, computer, and phone lines. The VRAD typically connects upstream to an Alcatel-Lucent 7450 Ethernet service switch in the central office hub, then to the headend

video hub office Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

. VRADs required for U-verse are around wide, tall, and deep. Size and graffiti risk have drawn complaints from homeowners. AT&T has sued competitor

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

for Chicago ads against AT&T's "large and unsightly" VRADs. Four VRADs have exploded due to faulty

lithium-ion batteries A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are characterized by higher specific energy, energy ...

manufactured by Avestor (now bankrupt), at least one explosion sending parts "fifty feet throughout the neighborhood." AT&T replaced all 17,000 Avestor batteries used in its VRADs with safer

-designed SAFT NiCad batteries, which have a 10-year life.

Other VRADs

and

also use VRADs in their networks. Bell Canada uses the Alcatel-Lucent 7330 and

Ikanos Communications Ikanos Communications, Incorporated, was a provider of semiconductor and software products for use in homes. It was headquartered in Fremont, California. The company’s digital subscriber line, communications processors and other products were ...

IKNS ISAMs, and provides Internet service via either

to 50 Mbit/s, or

FTTH Fiber to the ''x'' (FTTX; also spelled "fibre") or fiber in the loop is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber opt ...

(fibre to the home) to 1.5 Gbit/s.Bell Internet Packages
/ref>

is currently deploying VRADs to offer their

and

Internet service up to 50 Mbit/s. There are 2 types of VRAD systems currently used by Claro:

(fiber to the node), and

(fiber to the premises). It is unknown the equipment they are using.

References

{{reflist Telephony

AT&T VRADs

Other VRADs

See also

References