Actelis crossed the Gigabit barrier over telephone copper lines

9 August, 2021

By neutralizing noises between braided copper cables, Actelis technology makes it possible to use existing telephony to transfer data at an optic fiber level. Actelis CEO to Techtime: "Telephone lines are unexploited resource'

[Pictured above: one of Actelis backhaul solutions]

Israeli Actelis marked another milestone in its backhaul technology. The company developed communication network solution which allows for a significant expansion of the data transfer capacity within existing telephony infrastructures. The solution becomes feasible by neutralizing electromagnetic interruptions and cross talks, which take place between copper cables coiled together at the telephony lines.

Currently, Actelis announced that the new generation of its solution makes it possible to transmit one Gigabit per second on the standard copper cables. In this manner, the new technology actually upgrades to data transmittal level of telephone lines into an optic fiber one, and propose an attractive alternative to the complex challenges facing the Telecom world these days. These challenges include the ability to provide wider bandwidth for each end-user, deployment of communication infrastructure in the public space for IoT, and providing solutions for internal Ethernet networks.  

The key is in neutralizing the noise

Actelis was founded in 1999 by CEO Tuvia Bar-Lev, Yuval Brown & Kamran Elahian. With its headquarters in the USA and R&D in Tel-Aviv, the company has raised $130 million, mainly from American Venture capital funds. Actelis concentrates in developing network solutions which allows for extremely high upgrade of the data capacity that is transferred through standard copper cables. Usually, telephony lines are composed of several braided copper cables. In this configuration, data cannot be transmitted at high rates, since the high energy emitted by high frequency transmission creates electromagnetic interruptions in between the cables, which, in turn, exchange the transmission into unrecognizable noise. In addition, signal quality is being worn out as distance is greater. Due to these limitations, the increase on internet speeds at the last two rates was mainly based on switching the DSL infrastructure into optic fiber one. 

Actelis solutions, combining hardware & software and installed in backhauls, are based on unique algorithms, ciphering techniques, compression and error correction, as well as the usage of amplifiers and signal repeaters, which neutralize the interruptions and allow for the transmission of strong communication without affecting the signal quality.

In his conversation with Techtime, Actelis CEO Tuvia Bar-Lev explains that this technology makes it possible to use older infrastructure and adjust it for current standards. “Telephone lines, outspread today everywhere, are unexploited resources. Current technologies refer separately to each cable in the braid, thus are capable of transferring data in a very low rate, in order to avoid noises. Our technology refers to the whole braid as entirety, and when you know what is going on at each line – you can neutralize the noises. No one did it before simultaneously for this amount of lines. We are able to clean the line at a factor of 50 Decibels, which is considered phenomenal. Our systems are solid even more then optic fibers”. 

Significant tier in the hybrid network structure

As said, Actelis is being active in the field for more than 20 years, and in the last two decades its technology made progress together with the internet, starting from dozens of Megabits, going through hundreds of Megabits and ending today with Gigabit.

According to Bar-Lev, especially today, in spite the wider deployment of optical network, the need for his company’s technology is even more emphasized. “There is always a need for more bandwidth, especially with COVID-19 in the background, the many devices connected in each smart home and the IoT world. Everybody wants to be connected everywhere, not only at home and not only in their Smartphone, but at each and every sensor. Optical fibers are not available everywhere, and it is not economic to deploy a fiber for each end user. The Telecom industry gets it, and therefore tends towards the hybrid solution. This is where we go in. Our technology allows using the existing telephony and telemetry infrastructure and brings rapid communication without the enormous engineering costs of upgrading the infrastructures”.   

Actelis provide solutions for some significant use cases in the Telecom market these days, starting with the provision of wide bandwidth to each end user at a defined residence, without the need to share the same optical fiber; using the existing traffic light telemetry infrastructure in order to upgrade them to smart traffic lights; connectivity along railway tracks and constructing Ethernet networks in campuses, military bases etc. According to the company, it has currently about 300 clients, and it employs some several dozens of workers.                 

 

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Posted in: ElectroOptics , IoT , News

Posted in tags: Actelis , Backhaul , Fiber Optics , Gigabit , Tuvia Bar-Lev