In line with its strategy to focus on the DSL (digital subscriber line) access market, ishoni Networks Inc. this week is to announce support for DSL technology from New Jersey-based GlobeSpan Inc. on its multiprotocol gateway.
Ishoni is designing an integrated broadband gateway-on-a-chip that can be configured by OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and service providers to offer a variety of access technologies to homes and offices, such as DSL, wireless and cable. [See "Ishoni Networks Launches Gateway on a Chip," March 22.]In the short term, though, ishoni's focus is on broadband delivery through DSL.
"The DSL market is growing very well in the U.S., as DSL takes advantage of already existing telephone infrastructure. In contrast, optical fiber will take longer because you have to install new infrastructure," Vijay Maheshwari, ishoni's vice president of engineering and chief technology officer told IDG News Service.
Ishoni's gateway-on-a-chip is already sampling with some undisclosed OEMs, primarily companies who will make IADs (integrated-access devices) that support voice and data and CPE (customer premise equipment), Maheshwari said. Ishoni is putting in place tie-ups with key vendors of variants of DSL technology, to make sure that IADs and CPEs that include its gateway-on-a-chip interoperate with technology from those vendors. The vendors include both sellers of DSL chipsets and vendors of equipment such as DSLAMs (DSL access multiplexors) and Voice-over-DSL gateways.
GlobeSpan, for instance, offers a broad suite of standards-based integrated DSL chipset solutions for ADSL (asymmetric DSL), SDSL (symmetric DSL), SHDSL (symmetric high-bit rate DSL) and HDSL (high-bit rate DSL).
Earlier this month, ishoni announced a tie-up with California-based Conexant Systems Inc. to support Conexant's SDSL on its gateway-on-a-chip. The company also partnered this month with Palo Alto, California-based Copper Mountain Networks Inc. to integrate support for Copper Mountain's Voice-over-DSL technology on its gateway-on-a-chip. Ishoni is likely to announce more tie-ups in the DSL area during the rest of this year, according to Maheshwari.