Abstract: Distributed communication equipment architectures and techniques are disclosed. A host system includes an expansion unit through which control information and communication traffic may be exchanged with an expansion system. The expansion system is thereby controllable by a controller at the host system, significantly simplifying the design and reducing the cost of the expansion system. The expansion unit for a host system may also provide one or more configurable communication link interfaces. Each configurable interface may be independently configured as a network-side interface for connection to upstream communication equipment or as an access-side expansion interface for connection to an expansion system, allowing provisioning of network and access interfaces at the host system as needed.

Abstract: The invention relates to Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) infrastructure. More particularly, the present invention relates to a remote Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) only partially hosted by a central office (CO), split into a central DSL-termination unit (DTS-C), hosted at CO and a remote DSL termination unit (DTS-R), where the DTS-R comprises an analog front end AFE for each DSL line, a multiplexer/demultiplexer unit DeMux, and a transmission network interface A4′. The DTS-C comprises correspondingly a transmission network interface, a multiplexer/de-multiplexer unit Mux, a digital back end Dig for each DSL line. The invention is heavily based on digital signal processing techniques.