SBIR Phase II: Ubiquitous Landline-Based Long-Reach Broadband Access

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project targets significantly increased throughputs and distances for broadband access over the existing copper landline infrastructure at low cost. In particular, the technology being developed offers advantages in interference-dominated and in suburban/rural environments. In the USA alone there are many millions of households that are currently out-of-reach of broadband access, where there are typically multiple copper landlines available, and the global demand for such solution is significantly higher. For these underserved subscribers, this innovative extended-reach solution represents the only low-cost broadband access alternative to costly, inefficient satellite coverage. While existing Digital-Subscriber-Line (DSL) solutions are not specified to provide broadband access at very long distances, the company?s novel solution greatly increases the achievable distances and allows broadband rates (1Mbps) to be delivered at extended ranges, as demonstrated in Phase 1 of this project. The technology combines innovative signal-processing algorithms with novel digital implementation architectures to allow for high-performance reduced-complexity and low current-consumption implementations. The broader impact and commercial potential of this project are in enabling affordable broadband service to the many households, which are currently out of the reach of broadband access, and in enhancing the performance of other copper-based applications. The technology will enable telco providers to better compete in areas where cable service exists, and can enhance existing solutions for copper-based backhaul, thereby helping service providers with the growing problem of backhaul bottlenecks associated with increased wireless traffic. The growing demand for solutions of this type has the potential to generate annual revenues on the order of $50M, representing a great business opportunity. Societal benefits include providing broadband service to previously-unreachable homes, thus allowing them to engage in remote education, e-commerce, and telecommuting, with all of the advantages that these entail. Ongoing collaborative research with local universities is serving to steer academic research in this field towards the actual needs and interests expressed by service providers, thus advancing the related fields in communication theory and circuitry design and involving students in this research.