ADSL could get huge speed boost

An Australian scientist claims to have found a way to boost the data rate of standard ADSL by a factor of 100 by reducing background transmission "noise".

University of Melbourne research fellow Dr John Papandriopoulos designed the algorithm (PDF) as part of his PhD thesis.

One of Dr Papandriopoulos's exam invigilators, Stanford University engineering professor John Cioffi, who developed the original DSL standard, immediately offered him a job to develop the idea.

The algorithm works by cutting the level of electromagnetic interference in standard DSL lines. This allows more data to be transferred and cuts lost packets.

"Many years ago people used to make a phone call and hear a faint or distant conversation taking place. That's called 'cross-talk'," Dr Papandriopoulos told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"This is not an issue for voice calls these days but it becomes a problem when you're trying to wring more bandwidth out of these existing copper telephone wires.

"This cross-talk in current DSL networks effectively produces noise onto other lines, and this reduces the speed of your connection."

Dr Papandriopoulos explained that the algorithm should be able to increase data speeds by a hundredfold without the need for new hardware in exchanges.

Richard Day, commercialisation associate at Melbourne University's business spin-offs company Melbourne Ventures, was optimistic about the technology.

"It has the potential to be adopted worldwide in any country that has a copper network," he said.