A group of chipmakers and device suppliers is putting its collective weight behind the 2.5 version of Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) technology that supports speeds over coax up to 2.5 Gbps.

MoCA launched the 2.5 spec in 2016, and followed in 2017 with the intro of MoCA Access, a technology focused on in-building coaxial cabling and targeted to markets such as hotels, restaurants, and office buildings.

RELATED: MoCA Feels the Need for Speed

Amid the flurry of partnership announcements, timed with this week’s AngaCom show in Cologne, Germany, MaxLinear is working with Hitron Technologies America on a range of client devices that support MoCA 2.5 access networks. Specifically, Hitron is building MaxLinear’s chips inside those MoCA 2.5-facing devices. MaxLinear’s MoCA 2.5 portfolio includes the MxL3710 and MxL2711, which can capture the frequency range between 400 MHz to 1700 MHz.

MaxLinear said its MoCA 2.5 chips have also been selected by Teamly Digital for the Paris-based company’s new FiberCableStream cable micronode for “last meter” upgrades. UP to eight MaxLinear MxL371x MoCA chips are being integrated into a FiberCableStream node to serve individual client devices.

Also tied to Anga Com, InCoax Networks has introduced In:xtnd, a product family based on the MoCA Access standard that aims to turn in-building coaxial networks into multi-gigabit fiber extensions. The initial lineup includes a broadband-over-coax access node capable of 2.5 Gbps per RF port; a coax-to-Ethernet media converter, an element/control manager, and frequency multiplexer-demultiplexer filters that combine TV frequencies and data in the existing coax cabling. 

Seizing on the network functions virtualization trend, Cisco Systems this week introduced the Cloud-Native Broadband Router, billing it as a “containerized, full software rewrite” of Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) services.

Cisco, which rolled out the new offering ahead of next week’s AngaCom show in Cologne, Germany, said the approach will give cable operators a new way to support core broadband routing functions while also simplifying network operations, reducing power, cooling and space requirements, and, more generally, cutting down scaling issues associated with traditional purpose-built hardware.

Cisco is introducing the Cloud-Native Broadband Router as operators take a closer look at a new virtualized class of CCAP products that lean more heavily on software capabilities and work in tandem with new distributed architectures that push more electronics to the edge of the cable network.

RELATED: Cable Industry Preps Push to Next-Gen Access Networks, Virtualization

That shift will open up new opportunities for the major incumbent CCAP vendors such as Cisco, Arris and Casa Systems, and open doors to Harmonic, Nokia and other suppliers that are trying to elbow their way in.

RELATED: Nokia Touts Versatility with Virtualized Distributed Platform for Cable Operators

For its new approach, Cisco said it has built a set of microservices using standard tools such as Kubernetes for container orchestration and Docker for creating, deploying and operating containerized apps.

Jeff Heynen, consulting director at SNL Kagan, said Cisco's software-focused move is in the emerging virtual CCAP arena, noting that the idea being brought forth will help to ease cable operator transitions to distributed access architectures.

Cisco’s approach will also help operators with a major challenge with DAA – managing their optical nodes in the cloud in lieu of having to send a truck to the physical location.

He noted that Cisco’s expertise in the routing world enables it to tack on and apply microservices and containerization, and get a step ahead where some products on the market are today.

“But, ultimately, this is where they are all going to head to," he said.

Though the virtual CCAP market is targeting a model whereby off-the-shelf hardware can be powered by software, it’s also clear that Cisco will continue to move ahead with its cBR-8 chassis and evolve toward a cloud-native version.

That’s a smart move, Heynen said, because operators continue to buy and deploy integrated cBR-8 CCAPs and line cards. This, he said, provides a roadmap to a full, cloud-based platform, “which, in the future, everyone is going to adopt.”

That move toward visualization and distributed access networks will likewise support the move to Full Duplex DOCSIS, which is targeting symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds, as well as small cell networks and 5G networks that are on on the near horizon.

“Everything is moving towards distributed architecture,” Heynen said.

The approach also makes sense from a scalability standpoint, he added, because cable operators around the world are at different stages with respect to deployment and interest in DAA. Some are moving on that now, while others might not be ready for years. Some might target it at a handful of nodes, while others will be doing it for thousands of nodes.

“Taking the next step by disaggregating software from hardware and deploying software-based CCAP services is an opportunity for operators to embrace DevOps and to improve speed to market for new services,” Sean Welch, vice president and general manager for Cisco’s Cable Access Business Unit, said in a statement. 

Tech news is starting to roll in as AngaCom gets underway this week in Cologne, Germany. Here’s a snapshot:

-Cisco Systems said Altice has begun a field trial of DOCSIS 3.1 with SFR in France using the cBR-8, the vendor’s flagship converged cable access platform (CCAP). Cisco said Altice used the platform in a field trial that hit speeds of more than 3 Mbps per sub. Elsewhere on the D3.1 front, VOO, a Belgian cable operator, is rolling out the cBR-8 for residential and business services.

-Separately, Cisco announced that Teracom A/S, a provider of digital terrestrial transmitted radio and TV in Denmark, has launched a new digital headend that utilizes Cisco’s D9902 Digital Content Manager.

-Huawei has launched a 10-gig HFC access platform that supports DOCSIS 3.1 as well as 10G PON. Its HFC access platform consists of a OLT (Optical Line Terminal), 10G PON interface board, DOCSIS 3.1- based distributed CCAP, 10G PON ONT (Optical Network Terminal), and is tied together with a unified network management system, the company said. Huawei said its D-CCAP has been deployed with MSOs in 29 counties, including Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, France, Japan, Russia, and Brazil, with a footprint that covers 40 million households.

-Arris said German MSO NetCologne has tapped its Touchstone TG2492 Gateway to deliver gigabit speeds and wireless broadband coverage to subs in the Cologne, area. The TG2492 is a EuroDOCSIS gateway supports speeds of up to 1Gbps (32x8 DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding), dual-band 802.11ac WiFi, and an embedded multimedia terminal adapter (for voice, up to two lines).

-Casa Systems said DNA Ltd., Finland’s largest MSO, has deployed the vendor’s C100G converged cable access platform for broadband service. DNA, Casa noted, recently tapped the platform to show D3.1-based downstream speeds of 3.055 Gbps. Casa Systems said the C100G has been deployed by more than 135 service providers, including Liberty Global, Jupiter Communications (J:COM) of Japan, Mediacom Communications and Time Warner Cable (now part of Charter Communications).

-Emcore has introduced the Medallion 8100 Series DOCSIS 3.1  L-EMLTM 1550nm externally-modulated CATV transmitter. The L-EMLTM device consists of a high power, low-noise, narrow linewidth laser combined with a proprietary highly linearised modulator in a monolithic assembly, the company said.

-MaxLinear said its MxL370x chipset has been picked by Hirschmann Multimedia BV for a new line of bonded MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) 2.0-based home networking products that will carry the “MOKA” brand. The new line will include a MOKA plug-in module for its in-home amps, a MOKA WiFi extender, and a USB-powered MOKA mini.

-VeEX will use this week’s show to debut a network sweep system for DOCSIS 3.1 deployments. Its redesigned CaLan 3010H+ CaTV sweep system is a headend unit that is compatible with Sunrise Telecom’s CM2800 and CM3800 testers, which now form part of the VeEX CaTV product portfolio, the vendor said.

-Rohde & Schwarz said it’s expanding its DOCSIS test and measurement portfolio with a D3.1- signal generator.