Broadband amplification is the process of accurately boosting the DSL signal level in mid-span so that the VDSL2 or ADSLx service will travel farther and enable services of greater bandwidth to be offered to customers over greater distances.
Unlike a full digital regeneration, broadband amplification is much less expensive and lower in impact operationally. It requires only that the signal level be boosted rather than needing a full retiming, reshaping, and regeneration of the signal. As a result, broadband amplification is much less power intensive and costly, and it can also be fully compatible with vectoring. Because of the relatively low power requirements, broadband amplification can also be line powered off of POTS current applied at the CO, which further reduces cost.
Broadband amplification can only be applied once, not multiple times as is the case with repeater technologies. Since accumulated noise is amplified along with the signal, repeated amplification would result in an accumulation of noise that would degrade the signal to noise ratio (SNR). However, use of a single instance of broadband amplification can deliver reliable and robust services over greater distances and more bandwidth...resulting in reliable DSL-based services that provide a high quality of experience.