Roughly two months after salting away its acquisition of Gainspeed, Nokia has unveiled a virtualized version of the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) that spans support for HFC- and PON-delivered services and applies a vision for the industry’s all-IP future.

Nokia timed the announcement with this week's SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia. 

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Nokia’s vCCAP, which factors in a shift toward energy- and bandwidth-efficient distributed access architectures that push transport electronics toward the edge of the network, is comprised of a mix of products that incudes elements acquired via Gainspeed and developed previously by Nokia. They include the Gainspeed-branded, software-driven Access Controller, Video Engine, and access nodes that support DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 3.1 (the SC-2D), and another access node that supports 10G EPON (the SF-4X). Nokia said the new solution will be commercially available later this year, with the SF-4X slated for launch in early 2017.

Currently in a number of customer lab and field trials across North America and Europe, the new unified cable access solution will be available commercially later this year with the SF-4X following in early 2017.

“We’ve been aggressively working together and integrating Gainspeed into the Nokia family, both the people and the products,” Jeff White, head of cable strategy and business development at Nokia, who joined the company from Gainspeed following the acquisition,” said, noting that the system is capable of managing and orchestrating not just CCAPs but other types of media and devices on the network and accelerate the deployment of new services.

While remote PHY architectures are becoming popular among some vendor products, Nokia’s approach is to distribute both the MAC and PHY elements. The platform’s Video Engine will help MSOs adapt their video services to the new Ethernet-powered network while keeping their legacy components intact.

White said Nokia’s angle will help MSOs reduce power and space requirements at headends that are outfitted with centralized, “big iron” CCAP chassis as capacity demands continue to rise. It can also prolong the need for MSOs to pull fiber to the premises, or at least put them in position to do so further down the road.

“As capacity grows at a fast clip, doubling every two years, they [cable operators] are literally running out of space in the headends,” White said.

Nokia will be using the new vCCAP product line to compete with cable access rivals such as Arris, Cisco Systems, Casa Systems, Harmonic and Huawei.

“The virtual CCAP is a legitimate phenomenon,” Jeff Heynen, consulting director and analyst at SNL Kagan, said in an interview for a feature story on this topic that will be featured online and in Cable-Tec Expo dailies that will be distributed this week by Multichannel News (link to preview edition). “I think this is an opportunity with vendors without share to get some traction.” 

White said Nokia is pursuing a wide range of deployment scenarios, including those specific to multiple-dwelling units (MDUs), as operators consider alternative architectures as they split nodes and go “fiber-deep,” and even putting its new platform side-by-side with legacy platforms. Yet another option, he said, is the notion of removing an existing CCAP and converting headends and hubs to virtual and distributed systems.

Nokia has not announced any specific trials or deployments with MSOs, but said it is in multiple customer lab and field trials with “major” operators in North America and Europe.

When the Nokia-Gainspeed deal was announced, Comcast, Liberty Global and WideOpenWest all praised the acquisition, with WOW noting that it was testing Gainspeed’s platform and “preparing for deployment.”

Gainspeed, based in California, was founded in 2012 by Shlomo Rakib, a DOCSIS pioneer and co-founder of Terayon  Communication Systems (sold to Motorola in 2007). Nokiaannounced its agreement to acquire Gainspeed on June 9.

Nokia said it has wrapped up its acquisition of Gainspeed, a startup that has specialized in the development of a “virtual” Converged Cable Access Platform.

Nokia said Gainspeed’s product lineup will complement its current fiber access technologies for cable operators. Gainspeed will operate as part of Nokia’s Fixed Networks business group.

The deal gives Nokia a CCAP product that will enable it to compete in the next-gen cable access market against suppliers such as Arris, Cisco Systems, Casa Systems, Huawei, and Harmonic.

Founded in 2012 by Shlomo Rakib, a DOCSIS pioneer and co-founder of Terayon  Communication Systems (sold to Motorola in 2007), Sunnyvale, Calif.- based Gainspeed was founded in 2012. It raised about $55 million from investors that include NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures, Technicolor and Juniper Networks, which led Gainspeed's "B" round. 

Nokia, which announced its agreement to acquire Gainspeed on June 9, has not revealed financial terms of the deal. Nokia is scheduled to announce Q2 earnings on Thursday, Aug. 4.

High-level engineering execs from Comcast, Liberty Global and WideOpenWest all praised Nokia’s acquisition of Gainspeed when it was announced. Of that group, WOW said it was testing Gainspeed’s platform and “preparing for deployment.”

Gainspeed’s approach with a virtual CCAP distributes the MAC and PHY to the edges of the network while centralizing the control and management of the network in the data center.

Among its competitors, Arris last week noted that it is making “great progress” on remote PHY products that place the physical access layer of the DOCSIS CMTS into the fiber node and is also developing a “virtual DOCSIS core” that would appear to be directly competitive with the Gainspeed approach.

In a deal that will position it for cable’s shift to more efficient, next-gen access networks, Nokia has inked a deal to acquire Gainspeed, a startup that has been developing a “virtual” form of a converged cable access platform (CCAP) that will help pave the industry’s path toward an all-IP future.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Gainspeed, a Sunnyvale, Calif.- based company founded in 2012, has raised about $55 million thanks to investors that include NEA, Andreessen Horowitz, Shasta Ventures, Technicolor and Juniper Networks, which led Gainspeed's "B" round and, until Nokia swooped in, was considered to be among the top potential suitors if Gainspeed sought an M&A exit. 

The deal is expected to close in Q3 2016, with Gainspeed becoming part of Nokia's Fixed Networks business group, which is led by unit president Federico Guillen. Gainspeed presently has about 70 employees, but it’s not yet known how many will be joining Nokia.

For Gainspeed, the acquisition should give its technology and products a much better shot at gaining significant adoption among larger operators, which tend to shy away from making major commitments to startups.  Gainspeed has not announced any trials or deployments with cable operators. However, top execs from Comcast, Liberty Global and WideOpenWest offered quotes in the announcement praising the deal (see below). Among that trio, WOW said it is "well down the path" with testing and "preparing for deployment" of Gainspeed's vCCAP. 

For Nokia, which closed its merger with Alcatel-Lucent earlier this year,  the addition of Gainspeed will complement its current fiber access products and arm it with a vCCAP as MSOs apply more weight to virtualized and more distributed hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network architectures amid the roll out the multi-gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 platform and their migration toward an all-IP service platform.

Nokia’s purchase of Gainspeed will also enable it to compete in a CCAP sector that includes companies such as Arris, Cisco Systems, Casa Systems, Harmonic, and Huawei, among others.

While today’s CCAPs are highly centralized and some vendors, such as Cisco, are pushing for remote PHY approaches, Gainspeed angle with a virtual CCAP will distribute the MAC and PHY to the edges of the network while centralizing the control and management of the network in the data center. These various approaches have formed the basis of a healthy debate in cable engineering circles. 

Gainspeed was founded by Shlomo Rakib, a DOCSIS pioneer and co-founder of Terayon  Communication Systems (sold to Motorola in 2007).

Former Harmonic exec Krishnan Padmanabhan joined Gainspeed as CEO on Sept. 2, 2014. He discussed his vision and near-term priorities for the company with Multichannel News soon after.

In that interview, Padmanabhan acknowledged that operators will not be eager to rip out their networks and start from scratch just to introduce virtual CCAP, offering that interest in the approach is “most likely a cap-and-grow strategy, meaning in a given headend or a city where they already have significant investments of edge QAMs and CCAPs in there.”

He was also confident that Gainspeed could resonate with bigger operators that don’t typically place big bets on products from startups because the technology it brings to the table can solve some important problems.

“If we were walking in selling some commodity and we’re the fourth supplier and the other three are big companies, I think it would be a very difficult task. The reality is, we’re not walking in offering a commodity. We’re walking in helping them solve a massive and pressing business problem with this IP traffic explosion.” 

Here are the statements from MSOs praising the deal:

“New and innovative services in broadband are important to us and to our customers.  We appreciate technology partners who make innovation one of their core values and look forward to Nokia and Gainspeed joining forces to bring new technologies and products to the industry.”

— Tony Werner, President, Technology and Product, Comcast Cable

“Gainspeed is one of the pioneers in the Remote PHY and Remote MAC-PHY architecture development. They have been committed to developing this solution for the cable industry, and I congratulate them on becoming part of Nokia. The combination of Gainspeed’s innovations and Nokia’s scale will be a positive contribution to the access solutions for our industry.”

— Balan Nair, Chief Technology Officer, Liberty Global 

“Gainspeed has been a leader in the broad industry shift toward Distributed Access Architectures to handle increased bandwidth demands and support of the network transformation to all IP. We are well down the path testing and preparing for deployment of Gainspeed’s Virtual CCAP solution and have been using Nokia access products for years. We are excited to see these technology leaders coming together, and view their solutions as a key strategic component in our network evolution and delivery of gigabit services.”

— Cash Hagen, Chief Technology Officer, WOW! Internet, Cable & Phone

Gainspeed, a startup that’s developing a “virtual” implementation of a Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), has hired industry vet Jim Marino to the post of vice president of worldwide sales.

Marino most recently served as SVP of global sales and service for Concurrent Computer Corp.’s Video Solutions Business. Before that he was VP of global sales for CommScope’s Advanced Broadband Division, and is also late of Harmonic, ADC, Optinel Systems and Scientific Atlanta (now part of Cisco Systems).

Gainspeed said Marino will drive the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s go-to-market efforts and will work closely with Mark Stalica, the vendor’s VP of sales.

Gainspeed, a company founded by Shlomo Rakib, a DOCSIS pioneer and co-founder of Terayon has not revealed its product roadmap, but the company is focused on a virtualized CCAP that will distribute the MAC and PHY out on the network, and compete in the market with vendors such as Arris, Cisco, Casa Systems, and Harmonic.

Former Harmonic exec Krishnan Padmanabhan joined Gainspeed as CEO on Sept. 2, 2014. He discussed his vision and near-term priorities for the company with Multichannel News soon after.

Juniper Networks, one of Gainspeed’s major investors, CommScope, Netgear and JDSU struck up an interoperability partnership almost a year ago. 

Shares in Juniper Networks were down more than 5% in pre-market trading Friday, the morning after the company announced that it was reducing third quarter revenue guidance.

Juniper said revenues for the period are now expected to be in the range of $1.11 billion to $1.12 billion, down from previous guidance of $1.15 billion to $1.2 billion. The primary culprit: lower-than-anticipated demand from service providers, particularly in the U.S.

Juniper, citing its ongoing cost-reduction initiatives, said it also expects non-GAAP net  income per diluted share to be in the range of 34 cents to 36 cents, versus original guidance of 35 cents to 40 cents per diluted share. Juniper Networks will release third quarter results on October 23.

Juniper is looking to expand its cable presence in part by partnering with Gainspeed on a “virtual” form of a Converged Cable Access Platform. Juniper has also invested in the cable access startup.

Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold maintained his “market perform” ranking on Juniper. “We think Juniper's cost cutting and efforts to evolve to adapt to software centric networks offer encouragement, but we think it's prudent to stay on the sidelines on the stock,” Leopold wrote in a research note issued Friday.

Juniper shares were down $1.14 (5.44%) to $19.80 each in pre-market trading Friday.

Gainspeed, a startup that is developing a “virtualized” architecture that aims to revolutionize the performance and economics of the cable access network, has hired a new CEO to head up the company’s go-to-market phase.

Krishnan Padmanabhan, an exec who is late of Harmonic, NetApp and Philips, took the helm of Gainspeed last Tuesday (September 2), and succeeds Drew Perkins, a company founder who will not retain his formal board seat but will continue to be active with the Gainspeed board.

“As many of you know, the early stages of a company are my forte, and I really wanted to find a CEO who could lead Gainspeed into its go-to-market stage,” Perkins, the former chief technology officer of Infinera, said in a memo to Gainspeed employees. “Krish has the passion, knowledge, and skills to lead Gainspeed into its next chapter, and I look forward to seeing the company thrive under his leadership.”

Padmanabhan takes the reins of Gainspeed, which still hasn’t announced a product, develops a virtualized and more distributed form of a Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), a high-density architecture that will enable cable’s all-IP migration.

That plan puts Gainspeed in direct competition with suppliers such as Harmonic, where Padmanabhan most recently served as senior vice president of product, as well as Arris and Casa Systems.

Padmanabhan said he was drawn to Gainspeed because it is working on technology that’s poised to help cable prepare for tsunami of IP traffic, particularly bandwidth-intensive video traffic. At last month’s CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, Colo., cable engineers recognized Gainspeed’s virtual CCAP, as well as a “virtual retinal display” made by another startup called Avegant, as “Best new idea most likely to succeed.”

“The IP explosion that’s coming their way…is going to be monumental,” Padmanabhan said, holding the belief that it the need will be strong enough for operators to move to a more disruptive approach that will bring major improvements to network performance. “The key thinkers at MSOs are moving our way in terms of thinking through the future.”

Padmanabhan identified three general priorities as he takes on the new role – to ramp up communications with cable operators, building trust with MSOs, and driving toward trials.

Gainspeed, a company started up by Shlomo Rakib, a DOCSIS pioneer and a co-founder of Terayon Communication Systems (sold to Motorola in 2007), has raised about $33 million. Juniper Networks, one of Gainspeed’s big investors, CommScope, Netgear and JDSU have struck interoperability partnerships with the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based startup. 

More about Gainspeed’s approach and a lengthier discussion with Padmanabhan will be covered later this month as part of Multichannel News’  coverage of the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, which is scheduled to take place September 22-25 in Denver.

For the first time, two companies – Avegant and Gainspeed -- tied for top honors at the Innovation Showcase at the recent CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, Colo., recognized for having the “Best new idea most likely to succeed.”

While both companies are startups, they are in different technology spheres. While Avegant is a startup focused on a new consumer-facing video gizmo, Gainspeed is working on virtualized version of the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) that aims to revolutionize the industry’s access architecture.

CableLabs, which confirmed the winners as reported by Light Reading last week, has posted videos of the brief pitches from the companies and vendors that were looking to stand apart from the rest, a group that also included BounceIO, RelationDesk, Viddyad, CAPMedia, Immersive Media, Metrological, and NewAer.

Avegant is developing a wearable “virtual retinal display” called the Glyph (see image above) that essentially feeds in video and audio to the product from a smartphone, tablet or another type of mobile device and directly into the users eyes.

“There’s no screen, there’s no LCD, there’s no OLEDs,” Avegant founder Edward Tang explained in the pitch to the CableLabs crowd. “We’re actually mimicking the way that you naturally see.”

According to Tang, Avegant’s pixel-less approach starts with low-powered LED and shoots it through its patented optics and reflects it off of 2 million microscopic mirrors. From there, the light is sent through another set of optics and directly into the user’s eye. Avegant’s display is paired with high quality headphones. “This is a device that’s designed for mobile media consumption,” Tang said.

Despite some seeming similarities to Oculus, the virtual reality firm recently acquired by Facebook, Avegant is not focused on VR or augmented reality, but views itself as a premium A/V experience “for the user’s eyes only,” he said, noting that it could serve as “great second TV alternative.”

Tang said Avegant is interested in partnering with cable operators, which continue to launch high-quality video apps for mobile devices, and believes that they can use Glyph to drive a new revenue stream.

And the final product is in the works. According to a timeline posted online, the Glyph is in product development, with a commercial release anticipated sometime in 2015. The preorder price is $524 ($499.00, plus $25 shipping), though consumers won’t be charged until the product actually ships.

Sharing the top honors with Avegant was Gainspeed, a startup that is developing a virtual CCAP. Gainspeed still hasn’t announced an actual product, but it has forged interoperability partnerships with with CommScope, Netgear, JDSU and Juniper Networks, which is also one of Gainspeed’s big investors.

During his video pitch, Samir Parikh, Gainspeed’s director of product management, talked up the virtues of a virtualized approach to CCAP that aims to significantly reduce headend space and power requirements while helping cable deliver more bits per hertz and usher in the industry’s all-IP era.

While a traditional CCAP helps to address the power, cost and space issues, “it doesn’t quite go far enough,” Parikh argues, noting that it’s still burdened with QAM video.  He said Gainspeed’s approach, which controls everything from the cloud while transferring all cable-specific processing to the node, “eliminates the physical CCAP altogether.”

Juniper Networks and Gainspeed, the startup formed by DOCSIS pioneer Shlomo Rakib, fleshed out earlier disclosed plans to develop a virtualized  form of the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), a super-dense architecture that will run all services under the same roof and combine the functions of the edge QAM and the cable modem termination system.

Juniper, whose  VC arm headed up a $10 million “B” round in Gainspeed late last year, said it will integrate Gainspeed’s vCCAP technology with  its MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers and EX Series Switches.

Those details emerge more than a month after Gainspeed identified four initial vendors that it will partner with on the development of an interoperable virtual CCAP ecosystem. In addition to Juniper, Gainspeed is also working with CommScope, Netgear and JDSU to help it create an interoperable ecosystem. CableLabs, which handles interoperability specs for the cable industry, has initiated a project that will investigate a vCCAP, with a technical report expected to come out by the second half of the year.

Gainspeed and Juniper said one aim of the architecture, which is more distributed than first wave of more centralized, monolithic CCAP-pointing products, is to help operators better automate and scale their edge/access network infrastructure while also reducing costs.

The resulting vCCAP architecture isn’t rolled out yet, but the vendors claim that their approach can reduce total cost of capacity by as much as 67% by reducing power, space and cooling constraints on existing facilities and by eliminating the “physical” CMTS.

And the approach appears to be gathering some interest among the operator community.

"We are excited to see innovation in our DOCSIS edge and pleased to see a networking partner like Juniper working with an innovative company like Gainspeed to help bring this forward,”  Sam Chernak, SVP of network architecture at Comcast, said in a statement.

"The rapid transition to IP-based video services has turned the cable industry on its head. Cost effectively delivering new IP-based services will require new and innovative approaches. We're excited to be working with Juniper Networks and Gainspeed. Their new Virtual CCAP solution promises to revolutionize the network and enable an accelerated migration to IP,” added WideOpenWest chief technology officer Cash Hagen.