Innovation in the Cable Access Market – DOCSIS 3.1, Remote Phy and Beyond

Written By Daniel Etman, Director, SP Segment, Infrastructure Group

It is ANGA COM time again; I always look forward to this gathering of industry experts where we are able to show the latest innovations that Cisco has to offer to the European Cable market. The ANGA COM is scheduled to run three days from June 7-9 in Cologne, Germany.

We’ll be there in stand H21, in Hall 10.2, key demonstrations this year will revolve around DOCSIS 3.1, Remote Phy, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV).

I am going to lift the veil a bit on the solutions we will be showing at the ANGA COM this year. If you want to find our more, please come and visit us!

DOCSIS 3.1; There are multiple network components that come in to play when planning and designing a full DOCSIS 3.1 compliant solution. Our latest product additions to the Prisma II optical platform, the “Compact” product Amplifier and Node allow Cisco to offer a complete solution to support the Cable Operator in an HFC transition to DOCSIS 3.1. In addition to the HFC network components the CCAP plays a vital role in unlocking the fullest extent of DOCSIS 3.1. The cBR-8 is the only CCAP in the industry to offer hardware readiness for DOCSIS 3.1. Why is that important? By deploying the cBR-8 our customers are investing in a platform that will not require another CAPEX investment cycle when they want to deploy DOCSIS 3.1, a simple software upgrade will do, without any operational impact given the (In Service Software Upgrade) ISSU capabilities of the cBR-8. Where other vendors offer software capabilities on existing DOCSIS 3.0 cards, Cisco has hardware ready DOCSIS 3.1 line-cards that are much more scalable, designed specifically for DOCSIS 3.1 and in fact usable in a production environment. In fact, we are demonstrating running DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1 CPE on the same line-card and segment, spanning bonding groups over DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1 (4K QAM) carriers, a unique capability.

It is not only the question if you can do DOCSIS 3.1 on your CMTS that is important, the how is much more important, in the end, should it not all evolve around the Service provider’s ability to deploy a usable service?

Remote Phy; This invention by Cisco has taken the market by storm. Usable for both de-centralized deep fiber and hub-site consolidation strategies Cisco’s Remote Phy offers unique Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) advantages. Cisco will be demonstrating a European Compact Remote-Phy Node and Shelf using the cBR-8 as Remote Phy Core. All of the Remote Phy Devices Cisco is bringing to the market are full DOCSIS 3.1 hardware capable, offer low power consumption and are complaint to the Remote Phy specification. Remote Phy is the only distributed CCAP architecture that is CableLabs specified and as such an open standard. Cisco has also been a key driver in the Open Remote Phy Device project, this effort will drive increased interoperability between different vendors supporting Remote Phy and will also allow a larger community of vendors supporting Remote Phy, head here for more details;

Come and visit us to find more about these exciting technologies!