Taking more direct aim at the cable sector, Adtran announced this week it has acquired a set of “active” fiber access products from CommScope.

Products tied to the deal include CommScope’s active EPON and 10G-EPON platforms that support DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON, a CableLabs spec that enables MSOs to tie their provisioning systems to new EPON networks.

Adtran is also getting CommScope’s line of Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) products line, including versions equipped to mitigate optical beat interference (OBI)  that can impair performance when multiple modems attempt to communicate over the same fiber at the same time.

RFoG, now an SCTE standard, allows MSOs to deliver traditional RF-based video and data services over FTTP architectures while preserving their legacy backoffice systems. MSOs have been using RFoG in targeted situations such as low-density greenfields and rural deployments.

The deal gives Adtran, a top supplier of FTTP and DSL gear, including new 1-Gig-capable G.fast technology, a clearer path into the cable sector as MSOs continue update their networks and evolve toward more programmable architectures.

CommScope said the deal will also tighten its business focus.

“The transition of these active product lines to ADTRAN sharpens both companies’ focus to benefit our customers and the cable industry as a whole,” said Jim Hughes, CommScope’s vice president of North American MSO sales, said in a statement, noting that the company will continue to provide passive PON products to MSOs and other service operators.

“Our goal is to help our customers build and offer competitive broadband solutions, and this acquisition demonstrates our commitment to the MSO customer base,” added Robert Conger, Adtran’s associate vice president, cloud and portfolio strategy.

The deal also comes ahead of the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo, set to kick off September 26  in Philadelphia. 

Alcatel-Lucent has expanded its portfolio of broadband access products with the FX-12, a fiber-based platform for cable operators that can deliver up to 10 Gbps.

The FX-12, now part the vendor’s 7360 ISAM FX product family, targets high-capacity, large-scale broadband deployments for residential and business-class services, the company said.

FX-12 is a 19 inch-wide high-capacity shelf with 12 line card slots that’s optimized for EPON (both 10G and 1G) in cable networks, and supports DOCSIS provisioning of EPON. DPoE is a CableLabs interop spec that enables MSOs to extend their DOCSIS-style provisioning and other backoffice systems to EPON-based networks.

 “Alcatel-Lucent sees a growing opportunity to address the needs of cable MSOs as they move to embrace fiber-based ultra-broadband access, IP and cloud networking technologies,  Federico Guillén, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Fixed Access Business Line, said in a statement.

Alcatel-Lucent is the latest to join a growing group of vendors that have achieved CableLabs qualification for EPON network equipment that uses DOCSIS-style provisioning.

According to the results of test wave 106, Alcatel-Lucent achieved qualification for DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON 1.0 for the 7360 ISAM platform, which can support either EPON or GPON. The supplier's MSO-focused EPON product family comes in three different shelf sizes, supporting four, eight or 16 slots.  

Qualification means Alcatel-Lucent’s product is interoperable with other equipment that has gained DPoE 1.0 status from CableLabs.

These cable-tailored EPON systems are made up of the DPoE System, which includes the product Alcatel-Lucent received qualification on, and the DPoE Optical Network Unit. In deployment scenarios, the DPoE System is analogous to the cable modem termination system (CMTS) in the DOCSIS world, while the Optical Network Unit (ONU) behaves as the modem at the customer premises.

CableLabs has awarded similar stamps to Aurora Networks, CommScope, Huawei, Sumitomo Electric, and ZTE for their respective DPoE systems. CableLabs has also qualified DPoE ONUs from Aurora Networks, CTDI, Finisar, Huawei and Sumitomo.

They are entering the fray as U.S. cable operators such as Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable gravitate to EPON to deliver services over fiber to mid-sized and larger business customers. Bright House is also using EPON for some targeted, new residential environments.

DPoE allows MSOs to offer EPON using the auto-provisioning and backoffice management systems they have in place for DOCSIS modems. The 2.0 version of the specs add more depth and breadth by latching on elements such as IPv6 and more advanced Metro Ethernet Forum services.

But EPON isn’t CableLabs’ only focus.

CableLabs has also sparked an effort that seeks to bring unity to the PON standards governed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). That CableLabs effort, called “OnePON,” aims to bridge some of the technical differences separating EPON and GPON as the standards bodies move ahead on new generations of those platforms.

The idea for OnePON was spawned after it became increasingly clear that EPON and GPON are naturally coming together through the common use of Ethernet transport, Curtis Knittle, director of optical technologies at CableLabs, said.

“At some point, we can come together and have a single solution; there’s tremendous benefit for service providers and vendors,” Curtis Knittle, director of optical technologies at CableLabs said, in a recent interview, noting that he sees the cable R&D org playing the role of facilitator.

See this CableLabs blog post or this story (subscription required) for more detail on the OnePON initiative.