DSL CPE

Wed Jan 24 13:50:19 UTC 2018

Sorry -- this got lost in the shuffle.

We were specifically comparing Comtrend AR5381u vs Zyxel 660HN being fed with either Calix ADSL 2+ or  Paradyne/Zhone Bitstorm ADSL2+.  All use the broadcom chipset but seem to interop slightly differently.  From our limited testing we determined that for the best speeds / quality on long loops order was like this

Zhone Bitstorm -> Zyxel 660HN
Zhone Bitstorm -> Comtrend AR5381u
Calix ADSL 2+ -> Zyxel 660HN
Calix ADSL 2+ -> Comtrend AR5381u

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mike Hammett" <nanog at ics-il.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2018 9:48pm
To: "Shawn L" <shawnl at up.net>
Cc: "NANOG" <nanog at nanog.org>
Subject: Re: DSL CPE

Any particular Zyxel models or just Zyxel in general perform better at longer lengths?

From: "Shawn L" <shawnl at up.net>
To: "Mike Hammett" <nanog at ics-il.net>
Cc: "NANOG" <nanog at nanog.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 8:22:07 AM
Subject: RE: DSL CPE

At $dayjob we use both Comtrend and Zyxel modems.  Both have a 1-port modem that can be deployed in bridged mode. They both seem to work well with Calix gear.  We've found the Zyxel modems tend to work a little better at longer loop lengths.  But, for us at least, it's very easy to get custom firmware created and pre-deployed to comtrend modems at the factory / distributor. So we haven't completely decided between one brand and the other.  We started looking at Zyxel for increased speed at longer loop lengths and better wifi support.

There's a company a few exchanges over from us that has deployed the caix giga family and really likes it.  We haven't deployed them yet because they only work on the Calix E7 series (E7-2 and E7-20) and we still have a lot of C7 series dslams in the network.

Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mike Hammett" <nanog at ics-il.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 8:50am
To: "NANOG" <nanog at nanog.org>
Subject: DSL CPE

After a few off-list responses (and a couple on) encouraging me to use NANOG, here we go... 

I've recently walked in to a voice\DSL CLEC that has basically been left to entropy for the last ten years. A lot of the core systems just work, but a lot of things aren't exactly managed the best. They run a Calix\Occam ADSL2+\VDSL infrastructure. For those of you doing DSL, what CPE are you using? I'm looking at one that's just a basic modem where I have a more sophisticated router (or ATA\voice gateway) behind it and then one more generic for residential settings with WiFi and all that jazz. We're kinda debating whether we go just dumb Wi-Fi or something more advanced\powerful. I've heard a lot of good about the Calix GigaFamily in that regard. 

----- 
Mike Hammett 
Intelligent Computing Solutions 
http://www.ics-il.com 

Midwest-IX 
http://www.midwest-ix.com 