The FAST Copper Project: Fundamental Research in Fiber/DSL Broadband Access

This is an overview of the ongoing FAST Copper project, which aims at at substantial improvements in rate, reach, reliability, and quality in copper-last-mile broadband access through fiber/DSL deployment, engineering innovations, and fundamental research. The project is funded by NSF, and is currently pursued jointly by Princeton University, Stanford University, and Fraser Research Lab. In this article, we outline the motivations, challenges, and research issues associated with the project, including connections with many branches of fundamental research, collaboration with industry partners, and emphasis on architectural decisions in broadband access networks. We also report some of the recent results by the Princeton team in each of the four dimensions: Frequency, Amplitude, Space, and Time.