The operations and maintenance aspects of high-speed copper access transmission systems

Copper access transmission systems, which provide high-speed communications (e.g. 2 Mbit/s) in one or both directions over local loops, are a recent innovation. The operation and maintenance of such systems poses some problems and offers some opportunities, which were not present in the passive copper loop environment, or with low-speed digital systems. These are discussed and set in the context of the revolution in access networks that is happening as optical fibre and other technologies are introduced. The evolution of the management of high-speed copper systems towards a vision of a centrally managed access network is described