Editing DSLAM (section)

==IP-DSLAM==
[[Internet Protocol|IP]]-DSLAM stands for ''[[Internet Protocol]] Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer''. User traffic is mostly IP based.

Traditional 20th century DSLAMs used [[Asynchronous Transfer Mode]] (ATM) technology to connect to upstream ATM routers/switches. The DSLAM simply extracted the ATM signals from the DSL signal, and passed the ATM signal to ATM routers, which then extract the IP traffic and pass it on to an IP router in an IP network. This division of work was thought to be sensible because DSL itself is based on ATM, and could theoretically carry data other than IP in that ATM stream. In contrast, an IP-DSLAM extracts the IP traffic in the DSLAM itself and passes it on to an IP router. The advantages of IP-DSLAM over a traditional ATM DSLAM are that the merged equipment is less expensive to make and operate and can offer a richer set of features.