US Patent 7372899 Reduced symbol rate handshake signaling in ADSL systems

In an asynchronous digital subscriber line (ADSL) system comprising a central office High Speed ADSL Terminating Unit (HSTU-C) in bi-directional discrete multitone (DMT) communication with a remote High Speed ADSL Terminating Unit (HSTU-R), a method for improving handshake detection is provided by the present invention. The method comprises transmitting handshake signaling from the HSTU-C to the HSTU-R via a first subset of carrier sets at a first symbol rate and transmitting handshake signaling from the HSTU-C to the HSTU-R via a second subset of carrier sets at a second symbol rate, the second symbol rate being less than the first symbol rate.