During the recent public health emergency, broadband established itself as the runtime of the world (or at least the world that has access to it). Now, as we start returning to some semblance of normalcy, the role of broadband in powering the massive digital acceleration that is underway is coming into sharper focus. This is particularly true in the residential market, where the cable industry is a major connectivity provider in many parts of the world. Not only existing services such as video streaming and gaming grew, but the home became the point of delivery of new services, some of them mission critical, such as age in place, remote patient monitoring, and even home hospital. 

This new reality is energizing the cable industry, as was clear in the recent SCTE Cable-Tec Expo virtual event. Although the conference had to be delivered over — what else — broadband, the vitality was palpable and it is clear the cable industry is gearing up to meet market demands. A few highlights worth noting:

• Upstream: Although bandwidth consumption continues to grow, upstream consumption is increasing even more quickly, which is causing operators to allocate more spectrum to upstream, either via mid-split or high-split of the spectrum. To that end, some operators are turning on existing but largely unused DOCSIS 3.1 capabilities such as orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), and exploring other measures. 

• Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC): Some technologies (for example, augmented reality) and applications (for example, home healthcare) are driving the need for compute resources in the access network. Operators are beginning to locate compute resources in their headends and hubs, particularly as space is alleviated with the introduction of distributed access architectures (DAAs).

• DOCSIS 4.0: Published by CableLabs in March 2020, this spec is generally viewed as the stepping stone toward 10G. It supports two alternatives: Extended Spectrum DOCSIS, generally requiring augmenting the spectrum to 1.8 GHz, and Full Duplex DOCSIS, which can operate within the 1.2 GHz spectrum but requires either N+0, or N+X, X being a special type of amplifier. Although DOCSIS 4.0 won’t see the field for some time, major operators have announced successful lab trials of both approaches.

• Low Latency DOCSIS: for latency intolerant applications such as gaming and wireless backhaul.

• Distributed Access Architecture (DAA): The subject of much debate, planning and limited deployments to date, DAAs gain momentum, largely for two reasons:

> The traditional methods for adding capacity in the access network are running their course. Capacity has been typically added via node splits or by augmenting the spectrum. Node splits require more equipment (and power consumption) in the headends and hubs. 

> Flex MAC Architecture (FMA) is becoming a reality. For some time, operators had to make an upfront decision regarding where to place the Media Access Controller (MAC) function in a DAA configuration, namely whether to consider a Remote PHY or a Remote MACPHY configuration. Among its many capabilities, the FMA provides operators with flexibility as to where to locate the MAC. CommScope is seeing significant traction for FMA, and Harmonic announced an FMA solution just before Cable-Tec Expo.

• Passive Optical Networking: This technology is growing in importance for the industry, driven by the massive need for capacity and the increasing focus on bringing broadband to currently underserved markets, such as rural areas. 

• Predictive Network Management: As more critical applications are delivered over broadband networks and as operators strive to deliver a superior customer experience, data analytics and machine learning are enabling more sophisticated capabilities for predicting and remediating failures before they escalate into network outages.

• Next-Gen Network Management: With network disaggregation (particularly with DAAs), network management becomes exponentially more complex and requires state-of-the-art tools with automation and increasingly less human dependence.

These are just a few of the highlights of SCTE. To discuss this important industry event engage with me on Twitter at @offredo.

The year that was…

2020 was a year like no other. The pandemic drove an unprecedented acceleration of digital enablement, as companies and organizations of all types adopted virtual substitutions to in-person experiences, such as remote work, online education, and telehealth. This drove a massive consumption of bandwidth, upstream and downstream, and led cable operators to add 1.32 million subscribers in 3Q 2020 alone.

Broadband service providers have added capacity at a furious rate in 2020 to meet the exploding demand. Due to the short-term circumstances, some broadband providers, and more specifically cable operators, had to temporarily put aside their longer-term plans, such as virtualization and the re-architecture of the access network, and use more traditional tools to add capacity. 

The massive need for capacity in the upstream has prompted operators to reconsider tools they had in their arsenal, such as mid-split, which allocates 85 MHz of spectrum to upstream, and high-split, which allocates up to 204 MHz but may require the spectrum to be extended to 1.2 GHz to preserve downstream capacity. Another technology that received renewed attention in 2020 is orthogonal frequency division multiple access, which is part of the DOCSIS 3.1 specifications and improves spectral efficiencies, resulting in added capacity.

The year ahead

High levels of bandwidth consumptions will continue

Although the level of growth will taper off in 2021, high levels of bandwidth consumption will continue in 2021 as some of the digitally enabled business models will persist and evolve to become an essential part of the strategic framework. For example, many companies will retain some version of flexible work arrangements well beyond the pandemic, and some predict that about 20% of remote work will never return to in-person; another example is healthcare where the limits on in-person treatment drove almost a five-fold increase in telehealth-based treatment. Healthcare regulation is expected to continue to be relaxed in 2021, and telehealth utilization is expected to persist, and indeed grow, as the industry evolves business models toward more comprehensive virtual care modalities that include solutions such as remote patient monitoring and age in place. In addition to driving bandwidth consumption, these solutions will over time accelerate the comprehensive re-planning of the communications and computing infrastructures.

Technologies that gain traction in 2021

Mid-split and high-split: The trend that started in 2020 will continue, as the need for capacity in the upstream will exceed the capacity of most existing cable access infrastructures.

Low latency DOCSIS: More and more applications, such as gaming, are demanding latency as low as 5–10ms. New applications are emerging where continuous remote health monitoring of patients in their homes complemented by real-time remote data analytics that inform medical treatment may also require low latency data in the near future. Furthermore, augmented reality and virtual reality (VR) applications are increasingly finding important applications in medicine. For example, at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills, California, a study is focused on using VR for a nondrug approach to treating lower back pain.

The Distributed Access Architecture (DAA): DAA took a relative backseat in 2020 as operators used largely proven methodologies to meet capacity demands. However, continuing to add capacity with node splits and more hardware in the headends is not sustainable over the long term. Therefore, DAA remains the most viable architecture over the long term, with fiber moving ever closer to the customer. The debate between Remote-PHY and Remote MACPHY seems to have subsided somewhat, and the recently introduced Flexible MAC architecture, which gives operators flexibility in the location of the MAC, is gaining industry traction. 

Virtualization and cloud native implementations: As operators raced to meet the capacity surge, a clear shortcoming they faced is their inability to elastically scale capacity with demand. If the level of demand does not sustain at the level for which they planned, some of the capacity added will not be utilized, resulting in stranded capital. One of the main advantages of virtualization is the velocity and flexibility that operators gain in introducing new services and features, in scaling capacity with demand, and in gaining more visibility into their networks, leading to fault mitigation and better reliability. The move toward a virtualized headend, already under way, will continue and even gain momentum as the operators exit fire-fighting mode. 

DOCSIS 4.0: As demand for upstream bandwidth continues to grow, operators will need capacity beyond mid-split and even high-split. The DOCSIS 4.0 specifications, released in early 2020, enable operators to increase upstream capacity to 6 Gb/s. Although field implementations are still years out, operators will begin to decide their DOCSIS 4.0 strategy. Operators have two approaches to consider: Extended Spectrum DOCSIS, which involves increasing the highest plant frequency from 1.2 GHz to 1.8 GHz and later to 3.0 GHz; and Full Duplex DOCSIS, which works within 1.2 GHz using overlapping frequencies for upstream and downstream but may impose restrictions on the number of amplifiers and other legacy equipment between the node and the subscriber.

Passive Optical Networks (PON): Another approach that operators are considering for achieving 10G capacity is FTTx implementations via PON solutions, which allows them to build on their HFC investments to deliver even higher speeds. 

WiFi 6 and 6E: The need for more capacity and performance will continue to drive deployments of WiFi 6, and as WiFi 6E is introduced in 2021, which delivers even more capacity, operators will start supporting the new technology.

Automation: The recent pandemic, social distancing requirements, the increasing complexity of the networks, for example DAA deployments and 5G backhaul densification, will drive operators to implement more automation in the networks.

New business models will be explored

As bandwidth consumption shifts to homes and other locations, and as bandwidth is increasingly used to replace in-person activities, new frameworks around who pays for broadband will start to be explored, as discussed in a prior blog.

Beyond broadband networks

Although the focus has been on bandwidth capacity, and justifiably so, major currents are underway in the broader telecom industry. As digital enablement accelerates, companies in many verticals and consumers in their homes will need increasingly complex applications. Delivering connectivity, while essential, will no longer be sufficient. Offering complex solutions that include connectivity, computation, automation, and generic and vertical-specific application modules will emerge; service providers have the opportunity to play a major role in this emerging area. However, this will require investments, new partnerships, and innovative business models.

Guest blog author Liliane Offredo-Zreik is a principal analyst at ACG Research, where she is responsible for cable access infrastructure market research and consulting practice. Offered-Zreik is also president and founder of boutique advisory firm The Sannine Group.

While there’s plenty of forward-looking discussion these days about the “10G” future of DOCSIS-powered hybrid fiber coaxial networks, fiber will soon be a far bigger market for network technology vendors.

In fact, according to new research just published by Dell’Oro Group, it won’t even be that close.

By 2023, the global market for passive optical networking (PON) equipment will be worth $7.3 billion, the research firm said, with 10 Gbps EPON and XGS-PON deployments driving growth, along with the maximization of existing 2.5 Gbps GPON networks.

Conversely, global spending on cable infrastructure will only reach $1.6 billion by 2023, Dell’Oro explained, as cable operators “slow their Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) purchases while focusing on their Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) deployments.

“Fiber deployments continue to expand around the world, thanks to increased competition and an improved funding environment for both public and private networks,” noted Jeff Heynen research director at Dell’Oro Group. “Today’s XGS-PON trials are quickly moving to production deployments, positioning operators to compete with cable DOCSIS 3.1 networks.”

Heynen’s report predicts the overall broadband access market will grow at a 4% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) over the forecast period.

Dell’Oro said in March that the global broadband access gear market reached $3.4 billion in 2018.

Arris has introduced two broadband gateway devices that are tailored for PON and fixed wireless broadband service deployments.

The NVG578 is a PON gateway supports today’s GPON technologies and is designed also to work with next-gen XGS-PON and NG-PON2 platforms that are targeting speeds of up to 10 Gbps.

The wireless end of the NVG578 enables options for 802.11ac and 802.11ax in dual-band and tri-band configurations, as well as optional support for IoT radios, Arris said, noting that the device is also optimized for IPTV.

The second product, the NVG558, is a fixed wireless broadband gateway capable of supporting voice, video and data services via an integration of 4G LTE, 3.5GHz CBRS as well as future 5G-based services.

RELATED: Federated Wireless Targets ‘Third Model’ for Mobile

Both products also support Arris HomeAssure, a platform that’s designed to extend WiFi coverage and simplify the experience.

The models will be ready for customer trials in Q1 2018, with general availability to follow in the first half of next year.

Arris announced both products as the company heads up a conference call this morning to offer more details tied to Arris’s recent acquisition of the Ruckus Wireless and ICX Switch businesses from Broadcom.

RELATED: Ruckus Deal to Contribute $675M to Arris Sales in 2018: Analyst

Tibit Communications, a startup with technology that’s focused on telcos and cable operator access networks, said it has landed a $13.8 million “A” round led by a mix of strategic investors and network operators.

Tibit didn’t reveal those investors, but Liberty Global praised the Petaluma, Calif.-based company and identified itself as one of the vendor’s partners in Tuesday’s funding announcement.

Founded in 2014, Tibit’s initial focus is on pluggable devices that are focused on helping telcos and cable operators virtualize their networks.

Tibit’s initial products are the MicroPlug OLT and ONT, claiming they provide FTTx PON fiber access from Ethernet switches and other devices equipped with an Ethernet port, including fiber nodes, and that those modules work with some of the market’s leading Software Defined Networking orchestrators.

“PON is not a box anymore,” Edward Boyd, Tibit’s chief technology officer and co-founder, said, noting that the vendor’s pluggable form factor packs in the MAC and PHY layer components.

He said the technology will fit into cable’s strategy as MSOs shift away from centralized access network architectures to those that distribute those components.

Part of the pitch is that operators can plug in Tibit’s components without altering the fiber plant, and that operators can move to generic Ethernet switching hardware and take advantage of those economics without being locked into a specific vendor’s chassis. It also allows operators to put in PON where they want on a port-to-port, selectable basis, Boyd said.

Cable operators are interested, he said, because they can drop a fiber into a neighborhood in a  greenfield scenario without having to add a hub site or headend.

“Partnering with Tibit fits our strategic GIGAWorld ambition of bringing high-speed gigabit connectivity to homes and businesses as early as possible,” Colin Buechner, managing director or access networks as Liberty Global, said in a statement. “The Tibit MicroPlug provides significant flexibility in the systems that we can use to provide FTTx. We can purchase FTTx solutions from a much wider supplier base and get one that best fits the deployment need.”

Tibit is currently enabling partners to evaluate its products with a programmable FPGA version of the product, and expects to reach production on the actual modules, which will run on custom silicon, later this year, Boyd said.

Tibit, which has about 20 employees, all in engineering, is led by a team that hails from the telecom world. Boyd previsuly was CTO and co-founder of Teknovus (now part of Broadcom). Tibi president and CEO and co-founder Richard Stanfield was once CEO of Imagine Communications, and led the sale of the company to Harris Broadcast Corp. in January 2014.

In 2015, Boyd, along with Kevin Noll, then with Time Warner Cable, and Fernando Villarruel of Cisco Systems, and Saifur Rahman & Nagesh Nandiraju of Comcast co-authored a white paper that compared and contrasted several solutions for implementing a PON in a node-based architecture.

“Remote PONs can be very beneficial to MSOs. They allow the operator to run fiber with very high efficiency or connect customers at very long distances. An operator can reach customers without adding hubsites and could potentially consolidate hubsites,” they concluded. 

Though Tibit is announcing the funding today, the company filed an SEC document on Oct. 14, 2016, showing the $13.84 million raise, with a total remaining to be sold of approximately $805,218.

Cable operators aren’t tossing out good HFC networks, but they are deploying fiber-only networks at in increasing rates in greenfields and other certain situations.

To get a fix on this trend, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), have expanded their boot camp training program with one targeted to fiber networks deployment.

That new program, called the Fiber To The x (FTTx) Boot Camp, adds fiber passive optical network (PON) training, including installation, architecture, deployment and troubleshooting for GPON, EPON as well as RF over Glass (RFoG), a standard that enables MSOs to deliver their traditional services via RF on fiber while preserving their traditional backoffice and provisioning systems.

SCTE/ISBE, which recently launched a Boot Camp focused on DOCSIS 3.1, said the new FTTx-focused program will focus on PON architectures and offer comparisons to HFC, the disadvantages and advantages of various designs, and best practices for deploying and supporting FTTx.

“Time Warner Cable approached SCTE/ISBE to develop a program that could provide the industry with efficient training on FTTx technology, the advanced tools used to install and troubleshoot FTTx, and the creative approaches to problem-solving that the industry needs to realize the benefits of fiber deployments,” said Steve Harris, senior director, advanced technologies and instruction, learning and development, SCTE/ISBE. “We worked with Kevin Noll and the Time Warner Cable team to create an FTTx Boot Camp that combines industry technical expertise and SCTE/ISBE’s learning systems.  Our goal is to foster seamless fiber deployments for cable system operators as well as new opportunities for career advancement for the industry’s technical workforce.”

“Bringing fiber all the way to the customer premises increasingly is gaining traction as an option to expedite advanced services and to increase reliability of the network,” added Chris Bastian, senior vice president and CTO of SCTE/ISBE.  “SCTE/ISBE is working closely with our partners to make sure that current and next-generation workforces have the tools and talents that will allow operators to capture the ROI benefits that can accompany FTTx.”

SCTE/ISBE said cable organizations can contact Steve Harris at sharris@scte.org to schedule the two-day FTTx Boot Camp at a location of their choice. SCTE/ISBE also will host the FTTx Boot Camp Sunday through Monday, Sept. 25–26 in Philadelphia, immediately prior to the start of Cable-Tec Expo 2016.