ADSL Max

ADSL Max is a cover term for the UK telco BT's range of commercial ADSL services that were rate-adaptive and deployed over phone lines. BT's ADSL Max services were launched in March 2006, however ADSL Max, and the back-end IP Stream platform were formally retired in June 2014.

ADSL Max has been replaced by a new service Wholesale Broadband Connect.

Rate-adaptive service

Rate-adaptive services were intended to offer the best possible speed attainable, which could vary over time. The maximum speed permitted was determined by current line conditions, the level of noise, and also by recent history based on factors including the rate of communications errors and the best and worst DSL modem sync speeds achieved during some recent period of time. The highest speed ADSL Max services enabled customers to receive up to 7.15 Mbit/s (termed 'downstream') over a standard BT telephone line of sufficient quality. Various kinds of lower-speed, rate-limited adaptive services were also available as a reduced cost option. Customers with long lines, poor quality lines or who experienced high levels of noise or interference were limited to much slower transfer rates, and some customers whose lines are very poor or who are affected by high levels of noise may have been unable to obtain service at all.^[1]

Max 'Premium'

ADSL Max services were available to both residential and business customers. Aimed at business users, the IPStream Max Premium service offered a prioritised delivery of traffic over the BT network compared to traffic from non-'Premium' customers and allowed a maximum transmit speed of 832 kbit/s (notional, DSL 'upstream' sync rate). The non-'Premium' services, aimed at residential users, offered a lower maximum transmit speed of a notional 448 kbit/s (notional, DSL 'upstream' sync rate).

Rate adaptation and BT Wholesale's 'Dynamic Line Management' (DLM)

During the first ten days after the service was provided, the line's performance was monitored and the lowest connection speed is noted. This figure was used from then on to define minimum service standards below which the service can be considered to have a fault. Both during this period and afterwards a system known as dynamic line management (DLM) constantly assessed the performance of the line in order to provide information to the end user's DSL modem to allow it to choose a suitable sync rate with which to connect to the DSLAM, balancing speed against the risk of errors due to changing noise conditions. DLM could make adjustments to the DSLAM output power, suggested target signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) margin and sync rate and could choose to apply a technique known as interleaving which aids error correction. Several factors dictate the sync rate, which limits the maximum attainable speed, such as the presence of noise within the frequency spectrum used by ADSL, but chiefly it is the distance from the telephone exchange which had the largest influence on the line's performance.

Software within the BT Wholesale network limited the rate at which inbound IP packets were delivered to the user, this rate being based on a parameter termed the IP Profile. The IP profile mechanism imposed an upper limit on the rate at which data destined for the user is transmitted. This rate restriction was imposed at the point where inbound data entered the BT Wholesale IP network from the Internet. The rate is chosen so that throughput can not exceed the throughput of the ADSL link. The IP Profile set by DLM may unfortunately be set to a figure that is somewhat below that which the DSL modem could support, which will limit the maximum inbound data delivery rate over the ADSL link to be below the maximum achievable rate.

The IP profile changes over time, and is derived from a consideration of the worst downstream sync rate used by the DSL modem during some recent period of time. If circumstances cause a drop in sync rate, the IP profile decreases immediately. If conditions later improve, the IP profile will only increase after a certain delay time. The time taken for this increase to occur depends on a number of factors and can be between 75 minutes and several days. As frequent disconnections may be misinterpreted as connection problems, it is recommended that modems are left connected while not in use, in order to avoid unnecessary decreases in the IP profile.^[2]

IP Profile values were chosen from a certain fixed list of rate values taken from a table and were determined by the downstream sync rate of the ADSL connection. Many sync rate values will correspond to the same IP Profile figure. It is often the case that a user's downstream sync rate, when overheads are accounted for, equates to a true maximum inbound throughput figure that falls between two permitted IP Profile levels and, in such a case, the lower level is used. As an example, if the downstream sync rate of a DSL modem is set to 1984 kbit/s, the associated IP Profile is 1500 kbit/s so the maximum permitted inbound data rate is 1500 kbit/s, but if the sync rate were to rise to 2016 kbit/s the IP Profile would be 1750 kbit/s.

Congestion and performance guidelines

At busy times, congestion in the network may limit real throughput still further. BT Wholesale suggests as a guideline that inbound throughput at very busy times may perhaps be not much more than 2 Mbit/s even if the DSL modem's downstream sync rate is currently much higher. Presumably, users who use the ADSL Max 'Premium' services will be less affected at busy times, since their traffic is prioritised

Notes and references