Delivering xDSL

The thing to remember about the consumer telecommunications industry is that the greatest technical innovations in the world don't matter a bit if they're not properly implemented and marketed. Though Delivering xDSL is a technical book rife with packet diagrams and conceptual line drawings, it never forgets that residential Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies have to be profitably sold. Therefore, for every page devoted to explaining how the various DSL standards (collectively called xDSL) work, at least half as much space is dedicated to giving the reader information about what the standards cost to deliver and how much they're in demand. The result is a fine resource, suitable for broad-minded engineers, managers, and organizational planners alike.

The book provides background information (including the fundamentals of the digital local loop and some information on xDSL's competing technologies), and carefully defines all potentially unfamiliar terms as they come up. Readers may get the impression that they're watching a carefully organized seminar, complete with visual aids and real-world case studies. It's an effective approach for a book that's meant to appeal to such a broad cross-section of the telecommunications industry. --David Wall

Topics covered: Using the various Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technologies for delivering high bandwidth to home and small-business users over the existing copper local loops. Why there's a demand for such service, what technologies have come about to fill the need, and how the DSL standards fill the need. Sections address head-end and customer-premises equipment, networking, and the business aspects of network operation.