Cisco 887V or 887VA on Belgacom VDSL2

I was asked many times to provide a valid and working config for either a Cisco 887V (VDSL2) or Cisco 887VA (ADSL+VDSL2), and decided to post it somewhere for everyone's benefit.

For the context, I'm using EDPnet as a service provider. It should not change the configuration much for other providers using Belgacom's VDSL2. Irrespective of your provider, you'll still be connected to Belgacom equipment (Alcatel DSLAM), and they use an Ikanos chipset.

First of all, make sure you have an appropriate version of Cisco IOS runnig.

• With the Cisco 887V, the only version of IOS that I have found to be running fine is Cisco IOS 15.0(1)M5. Later releases introduce a new chipset firmware and VDSL does not sync anymore. This model has been replaced by the new multimode Cisco 887VA.

• With the Cisco 887VA, it works well for me with Cisco IOS 15.2(1)T. Both models are using Broadcom chipset, but the 887VA is multimode ADSL, ADSL2, ADSL2+ and VDSL2.

The configuration forces the Broadcom chipset to engage in Ikanos-compatible mode, with the "model co5" command. Don't skip it. The PPPoE connection itself has to be over Dot1Q 10, hence the reason for "interface Ethernet0.10".

Here's the interesting part of the configuration:

controller VDSL 0
 modem co5

interface Ethernet0

 no ip address

interface Ethernet0.10
 description pppoe bridging from controller vdsl 0 to dialer 1
 encapsulation dot1Q 10
 ip nat outside
 ip virtual-reassembly in
 pppoe enable
 pppoe-client dial-pool-number 1

interface ATM0
 no ip address
 no atm ilmi-keepalive

interface Vlan1
 bandwidth inherit
 ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0

 ip nat inside

 ip virtual-reassembly in
 ip tcp adjust-mss 1452
!        
interface Dialer1
 mtu 1492
 ip address negotiated
 no ip redirects
 no ip unreachables
 ip nat outside
 ip virtual-reassembly in
 encapsulation ppp
 load-interval 30
 dialer pool 1
 dialer-group 1
 ppp authentication chap callin
 ppp chap hostname
 ppp chap password
 ppp direction callout
 ppp ipcp header-compression ack
 ppp ipcp dns request accept
 ppp ipcp address accept
 no cdp enable

ip nat inside source list 23 interface Dialer1 overload
ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 Dialer1

access-list 23 permit 192.168.2.0 0.0.0.255

dialer-list 1 protocol ip permit

As you can see, this is working:

887V#show controllers VDSL 0
Controller VDSL 0 is UP

Daemon Status:         Up

            XTU-R (DS)        XTU-C (US)
Chip Vendor ID:        'BDCM'             'IKNS'
Chip Vendor Specific:   0x0000             0x0000
Chip Vendor Country:    0xB500             0xB500
Modem Vendor ID:    'CSCO'             '    '
Modem Vendor Specific:  0x4602             0x0000
Modem Vendor Country:   0xB500             0x0000
Serial Number Near:    FCZ1509C0P5 887VA-K9 15.2(1)  
Serial Number Far:     ^A
Modem Version Near:    15.2(1)
Modem Version Far:     0x0000

Modem Status:         TC Sync (Showtime!)
DSL Config Mode:     AUTO
Trained Mode:         G.993.2 (VDSL2) Profile 17a
TC Mode:         PTM
Selftest Result:     0x00
DELT configuration:     disabled
DELT state:         not running
Trellis:         ON              ON
SRA:                 disabled             disabled
 SRA count:          0             0
Bit swap:          enabled             enabled
 Bit swap count:     10             18
Line Attenuation:      0.0 dB          0.0 dB
Signal Attenuation:      0.0 dB          0.0 dB
Noise Margin:         14.0 dB         15.6 dB
Attainable Rate:    62532 kbits/s         18144 kbits/s
Actual Power:         12.9 dBm         -13.2 dBm
Per Band Status:           D1     D2     D3     U0     U1     U2     U3
Line Attenuation(dB):   7.8    16.8    26.7    N/A    14.4    21.6    N/A   
Signal Attenuation(dB): 7.8    16.8    26.7    N/A    14.1    21.2    N/A   
Noise Margin(dB):       14.2    16.1    12.6    N/A    17.3    15.2    N/A   
Total FECS:        564             24344763
Total ES:        0             165
Total SES:        0             21
Total LOSS:        0             0
Total UAS:        0             0
Total LPRS:        0             0
Total LOFS:        0             0
Total LOLS:        0             0