CommScope said that its DAA solution incorporating both Remote PHY and Remote MAC/PHY capabilities is ready for field trials. 

The Hickory, N.C.-based technology company demonstrated the E6000n RD2322 RxD DAA solution at last fall’s Cable-Tec Expo virtual event, pitching it as a precursor to eventual  wide scale adoption of CableLabs’ DOCSIS 4.0 standard for hybrid fiber/coax networks. 

As a Remote PHY device, the RD2322 RxD enables operators to reap the benefits of DAA—namely improved headend density and power efficiency—by moving PHY layer functionality from headend or hub to the fiber optic node. 

As a Remote MAC/PHY device, the RD2322 RxD goes one step further, moving both the PHY and MAC/PHY layer functions out of the headend or hub to a fiber optic node. By using the RD2322 RxD to place the digital-to-RF interface at the optical-to-coax boundary, operators can achieve increased bandwidth capacity and improved fiber efficiencies, simplify plant operations, decrease loads on headend facility space and power systems, and align their networks with the systems of the future.

“With the device’s availability for field deployment, we’re giving operators the ability to take advantage of DAA’s benefits today, while offering unprecedented flexibility for their transition from Remote PHY to Remote MACPHY in the future,” said Morgan Kurk, senior VP and segment leader of broadband networks for CommScope, in a statement.

CommScope announced Tuesday that Comcast is deploying its E6000r High Density Remote PHY Shelf in its ongoing rollout of Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) network infrastructure.

Comcast has deployed virtual converged cable access platform in select portions of its national network, leveraging Harmonic’s CableOS virtualization solution. And just last week, the top U.S. cable company announced a Florida trial involving a live network built on full network function virtualization and DAA using Remote PHY.

For its part, CommScope has been using this week’s virtual SCTE Cable-Tec Expo conference to introduce its new Remote MACPHY technology. But it’s also seeing some market traction for the Remote PHY tech it rolled out last year. 

“Comcast’s Remote PHY Shelf deployment marks an important step in the evolution of our nation’s HFC networks,” said Kevin Keefe, CommScope senior VP and segment leader for broadband networks, in a statement. 

Added Elad Nafshi, senior VP of next-generation access networks at Comcast: “As we continue to evolve our DAA model and further virtualize our network, it’s important to have trusted partners and solutions to ensure that the process is reliable and seamless.”

It is hard to believe, but the entire world is grinding to a halt as more and more communities are forced into lockdown or shutdown to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. In this bleak and difficult situation, the Internet has emerged as the nervous system of the world, keeping education, business, healthcare and people connected as never before. It is not that people have suddenly discovered the online world, far from it; however, in the space of a few weeks, the world has converted to eLearning, telemedicine, virtual meetings, virtual conferences, and so on. Even religious and arts institutions are streaming to their constituents and the public at large, not to mention the increase in streaming and gaming now that most people are confined to their homes. In February, Cisco saw 22 times the amount of network traffic per second it normally gets for WebEx, according to CNBC. It is likely to be even higher in March.

None of these use cases are new, but they have all of a sudden been adopted on a massive scale. Early reports from Europe suggest a 40% increase in network traffic. Can networks handle this amount of traffic?

To be sure, many of these trends are short term, driven by necessity; for example, schools are repeatedly making clear that eLearning is a short-term measure and is not a substitute to in-person education. Furthermore, the success of these online initiatives requires much more than fast and reliable broadband; at a minimum, they need to be complemented by new processes, appropriate resources, clear expectations, training, and a different IT infrastructure, among other things. However, it is likely that things will not necessarily revert to business as usual when the crisis has passed.

What is clear is that in the near term, the world needs a lot more broadband and needs it to be fast, reliable and affordable. To their credit, ISPs have stepped up to the task. They are removing consumption caps, increasing speed, providing free bandwidth to the under-privileged, and committing their resources to keep broadband networks reliable and functioning in this moment of great need.

Do cable operators have the capacity to meet the exploding demand in the access network in terms of speed, reliability and latency? It is true that the industry has largely wrapped up the deployment of DOCSIS 3.1, which delivers speeds up to 10 Gbps downstream, and operators have been continuously reducing the size of their service groups by splitting nodes. However, the unprecedented demand on their networks may require a new playbook, because this surge may stay with us for a while, and some of the increased usage will prevail for the longer term.

Will this surge in demand be the catalyst for the industry to seriously consider migrating to the distributed access architecture (DAA) on a large scale? Will this need to suddenly increase capacity become a driver to consider virtualized solutions that enable easier scaling in the headends? Will it drive operators to allocate more capacity to upstream?

The cable access network remains limited in the upstream: most operators still allocate only 42 MHz to upstream with a minority allocating 84 MHz. Upstream capacity will become crucial as more people rely on virtual meetings, eLearning, etc. The industry has a good upstream option with the 204 MHz split that is currently supported (as an option) in the DOCSIS 3.1 specifications and that is made available by most major industry vendors. The 204 MHz split can enable 1 to 1.5 Gbps upstream. Of course, there is no free lunch; more spectrum allocated to the upstream means less in the downstream, and there is a need for a guard band or “spectral penalty” of about 54 MHz. The migration to 204 MHz requires changes to existing nodes and amplifiers on the HFC plant.

Multiple operators are already trialing or deploying DAA, particularly the Remote PHY version, and some have already adopted virtualized solutions. It is entirely possible that this trend will gain momentum driven by market need.

It is too early to tell what the long-term implications of this crisis will be. What is certain is that it will not be business as usual when we are finally out of crisis mode, and for broadband providers, it might spur a new cycle of infrastructure investment.

The telecommunications industry has been riding the hype wave of virtualization over the past few years, and the cable industry has not been immune to this trend. To be sure, virtualization brings significant benefits in terms of improved operations, better resiliency, feature velocity, better customer experience and possibly lower cost, and indeed the cable industry is right to focus on adopting this enabling technology in their operating environment. We expect virtualization to gain meaningful traction in 2020 in the cable industry.

This said, virtualization is an enabling technology with far reaching implications for the operating environment of a cable operator beyond simply deploying a new system, and there is not one optimal approach to pursue; each operator should carefully consider the path to virtualization that is best suited to its current network, operating environment and parameters, service needs, and market dynamics.

Although the focus of virtualization conversations has typically focused on the CCAP—granted an essential component of a virtualization strategy—it is important to note that significant benefits can be derived from virtualizing the management and control planes, which can be achieved even while retaining the legacy I-CCAP. We expect cable operator strategies regarding virtualization to follow four paths in the next five years:

1. Retain the legacy I-CCAP as long as it continues to meet the operator’s needs. Despite technology innovation, legacy technologies tend to stay around a lot longer than one would expect, as long as they adequately meet the operator’s needs.

2. Virtualize the CMTS core while retaining the edge QAMs and move the PHY layer to a remote PHY shelf, which can be located in the headend or the hub. The advantage of this architecture is that it enables the MSO to derive some virtualization benefits while retaining RF from the headend and preserving the edge QAMs.

3. Remote PHY: The CMTS core is virtualized, and the PHY layer is moved to a Remote PHY device (RPD), which is housed in the access node. The traffic out of the headend is IP, carried over digital fiber. This approach allows the operator to leverage existing resources in the headend for MAC processing, keeping nodes simpler (no compute resource) with lower power requirements.

4. Remote MACPHY: The MAC and PHY layers are moved to the node, and a Remote MACPHY device (RMD) is housed in the node and performs the CMTS core capability in the node. This approach is simpler and has lower latency, but possibly a higher power requirement in the node and the need for compute resources in the node.

Although each of the above strategies has pros and cons and significant considerations based on the needs of each operator, it is important to note that all four solutions can be managed by a virtualized control plane, and more modern management tools such as RESTCONF and YANG can supplement traditional tools such as SNMP and CLI to deliver significantly improved management and monitoring. Furthermore, the architecture that the operator adopts today is not necessarily the one it will have over time. For example, Option 2 could be an interim solution for an operator that is looking to ultimately have a Remote PHY architecture but is not yet ready to move away from the edge QAMs and RF. Furthermore, some innovative vendors are developing solutions where the MAC functionality can be either part of the CMTS core or in the node.

It is imperative that an operator carefully considers its needs and makes a well-thought-out evolution plan, rather than be swept by the virtualization wave, and to work closely with a leading industry vendor that can offer the right solutions to meet its needs.

Liliane Offredo-Zreik (@offredo) is principal analyst atACG Research.

Business dynamics remain healthy

Despite headwinds from so-called cord cutting because of the increasing consumption of online video content and attrition from myriad and growing SVOD and other online video competitors, cable operators had a good year in 2019 as growth in the broadband business continues unabated, and business services become a major contributor to revenue. In fact, the stocks of the two largest MSOs Comcast and Charter, posted sequentially 60% and 25% growth through December 2019 (albeit in a buoyant stock market).

According to a recent report by analyst firm MoffettNathanson, cable operators are projected to continue to grow their broadband business for the foreseeable future, grabbing more share from the telcos. At the same time, business services remain a healthy and growing revenue contributor, and the more innovative MSOs have created vibrant business offerings with services such as SD-WAN to the SMB market. Comcast’s revenue from business services was 13.4% of cable revenue for the nine months ending September 30, 2019.

It is true that there are rumblings in the industry about the potential competitive threat from 5G in the form of fixed wireless access; although 5G might over the long term become competitive with cable both in the forms of wireless broadband substitution and fixed wireless access, the state of the technology and cost parameters do not make such solutions economically viable in the near term, and furthermore, cable may indeed reap economic value from 5G (more on this later).

Software-based solutions will gain field traction

Although it is true that 2019 through end of September was not a good year for CCAP vendors in aggregate, with the nine months revenue declining about 30% over the same period in 2018, a closer examination of the revenue make-up tells a different story. The revenue of vendors whose solutions are primarily hardware-based declined about 33% in that period; vendors with software-based solutions saw about 11% in revenue growth, with 41% revenue increasing in the third quarter. Although it is true that some operators slowed down capital investments as their DOCSIS 3.1 rollouts tapered off and as they deployed already purchased equipment, but as they look ahead, many operators are also assessing whether their traditional playbook will continue to sustain their future growth and competitiveness or if they should explore more forward looking alternatives. 2020 will see more meaningful growth in deployments of software-based solutions, particularly as more solutions come in the market. Looking back, 2019 may have been a transition year.

Remote-PHY, Remote-MACPHY or Remote-X

It is unquestionable that the distributed access architecture (DAA) has been getting some traction, led by Comcast’s public commitment to Remote-PHY. This technology, based on the CableLabs specifications issued in 2015, has gained a beachhead over its cousin, Remote-MACPHY, whose spec is under development at CableLabs. Although some operators and vendors have settled on an architecture, there is a growing trend toward flexibility with vendors offering the option to locate the MAC either centrally or on a remove device. DAA will get more traction in 2020, as deployments are now real, and the new technologies are field proven and showing clear benefits.

DOCSIS 4.0 will inch closer to reality

CableLabs is expected to issue the DOCSIS 4.0 specifications, which include Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX) and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD), for spectrum up to 1.8GHz to enable symmetrical upstream and downstream bandwidth. This will help the vendor community chart its way forward on meeting the need for significantly increased upstream bandwidth. Deployments of this technology are well beyond 2020.

Business services

Cable operators will continue to generate an increasing share of their revenue from lucrative business services. Having established a beachhead in the SMB market where they have a natural affinity, they are putting more emphasis on the middle market and the enterprise market. SD-WAN is a particular area of promise for cable operator. Comcast, which entered this market early and aggressively, will continue to grow its momentum. Other operators have started their deployments and will grow from there. Other promising services include WIFI and security.

5G will progressively materialize as an opportunity for MSOs

It is undeniable that cable operators have become a force to be reckoned with in wireless, largely through their MVNO based service offering. However, it is also well understood that a business largely built on reselling a competitor’s service is not the best way to create long-term value, and indeed MSOs have been exploring a number of alternative business models. Charter has made no secret of its plans to use CBRS to supplement its HFC reach in some areas and may well introduce this solution in 2020. An even more intriguing opportunity is the use the extensive HFC network to backhaul 5G traffic. 5G will require a dense infrastructure of small cells; the cable HFC network, with assets and power in the local access network, may prove to have the right infrastructure for the 5G small cells backhaul. This said, 5G will require very low latency, which today’s DOCSIS technology cannot provide but a new industry effort, Low Latency X-Haul (LLX), is striving to resolve this limitation. Much progress will be made on this front in 2020, potentially setting the stage for an exciting opportunity for MSOs for years to come as 5G becomes a market reality.

Liliane Offredo-Zreik (@offredo) is principal analyst atACG Research.

CommScope has added to its Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) portfolio, announcing the debut of the RD1322 2x2 Remote PHY module.

The new device is expected to begin service provider testing later this year. It installs directly into CommScope’s base NC4- and OM4-series fiber nodes.

Cable access equipment sales have been sluggish of late—they were down 38% in the first quarter, according to Dell’Oro Group—as operators mull how to move forward with DAA.

But CommScope, which closed on its $7.4 billion purchase of Arris earlier this year, believes sales will pick up in the second half of 2019, and it’s trying to match that market.

“Cable MSOs are beginning to wait for remote PHY architecture to mature, which is impacting spending along with the general reduction in capital spend,” CommScope CEO Eddie Edwards said during the company's Q1 earnings call. “With demand for bandwidth continuing to grow at an exponential rate. We expect this trend to reverse and for investment in network capacity to increase throughout the year.

CommScope’s DAA portfolio includes its RPD, Remote PON, R-PHY Shelf, Video Unified Edge (VUE), ICX Switch family, and hybrid E6000 I-CCAP/CCAP Core products. It also features a full suite of virtualized products, including the E6000 Virtual Core (vCore) and vManager framework of tools, including industry-leading monitoring, management, and traffic engineering functions.

“As global operators continue to invest in tomorrow’s 10G networks, the outside plant will represent a primary budget focus,” said Kevin Keefe, senior VP and segment leader of CommScope’s network and cloud division. “Our RD1322 2x2 RPD is the answer for operators looking to maximize their existing infrastructure to deliver tomorrow’s networks and services as quickly as possible.”

Added said Jeff Heynen, research director, broadband access and home networking, Dell’Oro Group: “CommScope has one of the largest footprints of optical nodes among major cable operators worldwide. As cable operators continue to distribute their access networks and increase both upstream and downstream bandwidth, the RD1322 2x2 RPD is an option, as operators choose from a variety of DAAs and pathways as they bridge to tomorrow’s networks.” 

Network engineering leaders from Comcast, Charter, Cox, Shaw and Denmark’s Stofa will headline the speakers at a seminar focused on Distributed Access Architectures (DAA), which will help kick off this year’s SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta on Oct. 22.

A follow-up to last year’s Remote PHY seminar at the Expo in Denver, this year’s event will address the ability of DAAs and the Headend Rearchitected as a Datacenter (HERD) to drive cost efficiencies, decrease time to market and increase customer satisfaction. The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers says more than 600 attendees are already registered.

Related: SCTE Announces Finalists for Energy 2020 Adaptive Power Challenge

Speakers include Kevin Kwasny, principal enter for Charter Communications; Rob Howald, VP of network architecture for Comcast; Jeff Finkelstein, executive director of advanced technologies for Cox Communications; Jamie Brown, director of network technologies for Shaw Communications; and Kjeld Balmer, head of network technology for Stofa A/S.

On the vendor side, speakers include Arris’ Tom Cloonan, CTO for network solutions, and Mike Emmendorfer, VP of systems engineering and architecture; Peter Wolff, VP of wireline product management for Casa Systems; John Chapman, CTO of cable access and fellow at Cisco; Asaf Matatyaou, VP of solutions and product management at Harmonic; Barak Hermesh, owner of network technology for the Intel Network Platforms Group; Steven Krapp, technical marketing director at MaxLinear; Jeff White, head of cable strategy and business development at Nokia; Timon Sloane, VP of marketing and ecosystem from the Open Networking Foundation; and Colin Howlett, VP of architecture for Vecima Networks.

Related: Charter, Comcast, Cox Execs Added to Cable-Tec Expo Opener

The event is jointly sponsored by CableLabs, which will also have two technologists present—Doug Jones, principal architect, and Jon Schnorr, lead engineer for network technologies. 

Arris said that European operator Eltrona is the latest cable company to deploy its Remote Pay distributed architecture solution to deliver DOCSIS 3.1-powered 1-gig broadband service in Luxembourg.

Eltrona is using the Arris E6000 Gen 2 converged cable access platform, along with E6000N R-PHY, which provides both the CCAP core and R-PHY device. In this approach, which is defined in the CableLabs Modular Headend Architecture, the PHY layer is moved from the CCAP into a node or remote shelf, but the MAC processing, provisioning and monitoring functions remain in the headend.

Related: Arris Touts Euro Customer ‘Wins’ at IBC

Also being deployed: Arris Touchstone TG3443 Cable Voice Gatgeways, which include 4x4 802.11ac dual band radios.

“Our focus for the remainder of the year continues to be on expanding our E6000 footprint,” declared Arris CEO Bruce McClelland during Arris’ second-quarter earnings call in August.

“With its market-leading density and throughput, coupled with its flexibility to support DOCSIS3.0, DOCSIS3.1, video and Remote PHY, [the E6000] continues to provide the best value for cable operators,” McClelland added. “And you can watch for a new DOCSIS3.1 launch announcement from a major international customer over the next few weeks that leverages our full Network & Cloud portfolio, as well as CPE products.”

Targeting an opportunity rising as cable operators pursue new distributed access architectures, ATX Networks this week introduced a new digital optical gateway platform that will support their move to remote PHY and remote MACPHY networks.

The first entry for the company’s platform, marketed under the GigaWave brand, is the Digital Link Extender 40 (DLX40). The 1-rack-unit DLX supports two DLX40 modules, with each capable of aggregating up to 40 wavelengths across optical access links of up to 60 kilometers in length, ATX Networks said.

ATX, which introduced the new line amid this week’s AngaCom show in Germany, believes its approach with digital optical technology will fit in with cable’s pivot to distributed access systems that aim to create more capacity, reduce headend space and power requirements, while also supporting the growing need for those networks to backhaul mobile and wireless small cells for today’s 4G networks and the 5G networks of the future. The move to distributed access also fits in with future Full Duplex DOCSIS networks that will support multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds.

RELATED: Full Duplex DOCSIS Interop Testing on the Horizon

ATX says its new lineup will help MSOs evolve analog networks to digital and help to underpin the move to software-defined, virtualized distributed access architectures, Charlie Vogt, ATX Networks’s recently named president and CEO, explained. He said a portion of the work partially stems from ATX’s acquisition of InnoTrans.

RELATED: Charlie Vogt Named President, CEO of ATX Networks

ATX said a “marquee MSO” in North American has selected GigaWave DLX as a component of its next-gen distributed access architecture (DAA) initiative. The MSO wasn’t named, but deployments are slated to start this fall, the company said.

“We’re seeing a lot of RFPs and RFIs coming out” for DAA projects, Vogt said.

ATX is also developing a next-gen, “universal” node for DAA and Remote PHY and Remote MACPHY environments.

ATX’s new GigaWave products will be designed to work with those nodes as well as remote PHY nodes developed by other suppliers. 

Ahead of announcing its Q4 financial results later today, Arris said several of its MSO customers in North America and Europe are part of a first wave of operators that are deploying Gen 2 modules for the E6000, its flagship Converged Cable Access Platform.

The Gen 2 modules, announced last fall, enable MSOs to upgrade existing chassis with up to a 70% increase in headend service group density without eating up more rack space, Arris said. MSOs are also looking to those modules as they move ahead with gigabit services and move to distributed access architectures and remote PHY implementations.  

RELATED: Cable-Tec Expo: Arris Paves Path to Remote PHY

The Gen 2 modules consists of the Downstream Cable Access Module 2 (DCAM-2), the Upstream Cable Access Module 2 (UCAM-2), and the Router System Module 2 (RSM-2).

Customers that have started to roll out Gen 2 modules include Comcast, Grande Communications, TDS Telecom, WideOpenWest, Liwest (Austria), NOS Comunicações (Portugal), and Toya (Poland).

Arris also announced that Ruckus Networks, the wireless-focused company acquired late last year, has signed a global OEM deal with Dell EMC. That deal includes access points, controllers, and Ruckus’s Cloudpath secure network access software, which can support access for bring-your-own-device, guest user and IT-owned device scenarios.

The deal also includes access to Ruckus-made IoT and CBRS LTE products.

RELATED: CBRS Spectrum to Open Windows of Opportunity for Cable Ops

"The Dell EMC brand and market reach is complementary to our own and represents a significant path for growth for both companies across a range of vertical markets, including education, public infrastructure, the federal government and service providers,” Dan Rabinovitsj, president, Ruckus Networks, said in a statement.

Deepening its view into next-gen cable access architectures, CableLabs has recently launched a working group focused on Remote MAC/PHY, an emerging approach for next-gen distributed converged cable access platform (CCAP) architectures.

“The scope of the work for Remote MAC/PHY…is in its early stages,” Jon Schnoor, lead architect at CableLabs, explained in this brief video that accompanied a blog post about the work. “We’ve just kicked off the program, so the working group is actually defining the type of work we’re going to do.”

CableLabs noted that the new Remote MACPHY working group is part of its Distributed CCAP Architecture (DCA) program, and is comprised of operators, equipment manufacturers, and CableLabs’ engineers.

The resulting work aims to develop one or more specs that enable Remote MAC/PHY products from multiple vendors to interoperate.

The greater focus on Remote MAC/PHY at CableLabs also comes amid recent activity centered on Remote PHY.

RELATED: Test Time for Remote PHY

Both efforts are tied into approaches that take and break down components and functions of the network and place them further toward the edge of the HFC network. A central idea of distributed access architectures are to enable cable operators to reduce power and space requirements of more centralized products that took hold in the first wave of deployments for CCAP, a high-density architecture that combine the functions of the edge QAM and the cable modem terminations system.

RELATED: Ramping Up for Remote PHY  

Cable operators are also looking for distributed access architecture to improve the fidelity of the outside plant and to help them drive more capacity for DOCSIS 3.1 and to set things up for Full Duplex DOCSIS, an annex for D3.1 that will support multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds.

Operators are weighing options whereby they would distribute just the PHY or both the MAC and the PHY, as the latter approach distributes more of the smarts of the network but costs a bit more power to pull off. Vendors such as Nokia are trying to end the debate with distributed approaches that use “universal” cable access nodes that can be configured (via software) to run as a Remote PHY device or a Remote MAC/PHY device.

RELATED: Nokia Touts Versatility for ‘Virtualized’ Distributed Platform for Cable Ops

Looking to give MSOs more flexibility on how they buy and deploy access network capacity, Cisco Systems this week launched Infinite Broadband Unlocked (IBU), a licensing program for the cBR-8, a flagship converged cable access platform (CCAP) that supports cable services and the new DOCSIS 3.1 platform.

Cisco said the program aims to improve the economics of delivering multi-gigabit services using emerging distributed access architectures that employ Remote PHY and push key electronics toward the edge of the network.

RELATED: Cable-Tec Expo: Ramping Up for Remote PHY  

Rather than using traditional licensing models for CCAP devices that require MSOs to buy large numbers of new bandwidth licenses for every service group where they want to offer the expanded service, the IBU model has only one license type based on bandwidth consumption, Cisco said.

That gives cable operators the ability to provision all of the capacity of their CCAP platforms without restrictions or upfront licensing expense, the company claimed, noting that the IBU licensing plan is available for current and new Cisco cBR-8 customers worldwide.  

Further, Cisco believes that the approach will promote the provision of multi-gigabit service tiers across MSO footprints without the risk of stranding capital while also simplifying service group splits by eliminating the need to purchase additional license types.

“IBU helps cable operators be more competitive and gain subscriber market share,” Sean Welch, vice president and general manager, Cable Access, Service Provider Business, Cisco, said in a statement. “We have listened carefully to our customers, and with this new offer we have specifically focused on making DOCSIS licensing simple and aligned with their business objectives.”

Casa Systems, a maker of cable modem termination system and converged cable access platform gear and software, is aiming to raise up to $150 million in an IPO, according to an S-1 filed on Friday (November 17).

Casa Systems said it plans to list its common stock on the NASDAQ market under the “CASA” symbol. Underwriters for the offering include Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital, Raymond James & Assoc., and Stifel, Nicholas & Co.

Founded in 2003, Andover, Mass.-based Casa cut its teeth on field programming gate arrays (FPGAs) alongside its eventual development of DOCSIS 3.0 CMTSs in 2008, an integrated CCAP in 2012, a DOCSIS 3.1 chassis in 2015, and, last year, its move into the distributed access architecture (DAA) and Remote PHY arena.

RELATED: Cable-Tec Expo: Gearing Up for Remote PHY

Casa, which has also been investing heavily into wireless systems, competes with vendors that include Arris, Cisco Systems, Harmonic, Huawei, Vecima Networks, and Nokia, which recently acquired virtual CCAP startup Gainspeed.

RELATED: Nokia Closes Gainspeed Buy

With an eye toward network virtualization, Casa has also developed Axyom, a software-powered architecture for a range of core and access network functions for fixed and wireless networks. Its Axyom software platform, for examples, supports apps such as security gateways, small cells and WiFi gateways, and the evolved packet core.

Casa, which has been holding its own over larger rivals such as Arris and Cisco in the cable tech sector, said its products are now commercially deployed in more than 70 countries by more than 400 customers. Examples or major customers include Charter Communications, Rogers Communications and Mediacom Communications in North America; Televisa/IZZI Mexico, Megacable Mexico and Claro Telmex Columbia in Latin America; Liberty Global, Vodafone and DNA Oyj in Europe; and Jupiter Communications and Beijing Gehua CATV Networks in the Asia Pacific region.

Though most of its revenues come way of its cable access (CMTS and CCAP) products, Casa has been branching into wireless technologies and products.

RELATED: Casa Systems Builds Wireless Annex

“We believe that the shift to software-centric ultra-broadband networks and fixed and wireless network convergence presents us with a compelling market opportunity,” Casa said in the S-1. “We intend to maintain our technological leadership through the enhancement of existing products and the development of new products in both our current and adjacent markets.”

Per the S-1, Casa pulled in revenues of $233.6 million through the first nine months of 2017 (with $125.3 million from North American customers), up 7.7%, and net income of $59.6 million, up 22% versus the corresponding year-ago nine-month period

For all of 2016, Casa had revenues of $316.1 million and net income of $88.7 million, up 16% and 30.5%, respectively 

Update: Casa has been heavily reliant on revenues from the operations that were formerly Time Warner Cable, the MSO acquired by Charter in May 2016. Through the first nine months of 2017, former TWC accounted for 36% of Casa’s revenues (and 23% for all of 2016). By comparison, Liberty Global accounted for 11% of revenues for the first nine months of 2017, and 10% for all of 2016. Sales to Rogers accounted for 11% of Casa’s revenues for all of 2016.

As of Sept. 30, 2017, Casa had cash and cash equivalents of $183.51 million, and long term debt of $298.14 million.

Casa had 664 full-time employees as of Oct. 31, 2017, with 347 located in the U.S.

Jerry Guo founded Casa and serves as its president and CEO. Before founding Casa, he was VP of broadband at River Delta Networks, a CMTS startup acquired by Motorola in 2001 for $300 million. Before that, he was a research scientist at Bell Laboratories’ research division. 

In 2016, Guo was paid total compensation of $5.3 million, including salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards and other compensation factored in.

Guo currently owns 2.39 million shares of Casa, or 15.9% of the company. Among other backers, Liberty Global Ventures Holding has a 6% stake.

DENVER — Though 1 Gigabit per second is the new billboard speed for broadband, the growth rate in downstream data speeds shows signs of slowing, though the precise reasons why have yet to be pinpointed.

That’s according to several top cable engineering executives who spoke at the SCTE•ISBE Rocky Mountain Chapter’s annual “Tech Exec It Out” panel. The panel followed the daylong Tech It Out conference held Nov. 16 by the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Rocky Mountain chapter.

Downstream data speeds had been getting about 50% faster per year, but that number has dropped to about 40% in some cases, panelists said in a session moderated by Leslie Ellis, president of Ellis Edits and Multichannel News technology columnist.

That trend suggests that downstream demand is shifting from exponential growth to linear growth, Tom Cloonan, chief technology officer of network solutions at Arris, said.

Building in Growth Potential
Matt Petersen, vice president of access architecture at Charter Communications, said the MSO is seeing a slight decrease in downstream demand. Nevertheless, Charter is pushing ahead with plans to roll out DOCSIS 3.1. Even if downstream data demands have begun to drop, though, the current pace of growth isn’t weak by any stretch.

“Forty percent is not slow,” Cloonan said, predicting that the industry’s hybrid fiber/coax networks will be equipped to deliver speeds of 10 Gbps in the 2020s.

Jorge Salinger, vice president of access architecture at Comcast, said data demands have ebbed and flowed before. “We’ve seen this time and time again,” he said.

Downstream trends aside, the industry is starting to key on new technologies and techniques that can help MSOs drive more capacity into the upstream. A big part of that centers on Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX), an emerging CableLabs spec that envisions multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds.

The industry is making progress with FDX. CableLabs issued the physical layer specs for Full Duplex DOCSIS last month, a milestone that gives suppliers what they need to push ahead more rapidly with product development.

Related: Full Duplex DOCSIS Plows Ahead

“Gigabit in the upstream is an important addition,” Salinger said. Demand for upstream data isn’t being led so much by consumer activity as by machine-to-machine communications — such as cameras that record 24 hours a day, store content locally and then transmit that data upstream — and the all-encompassing Internet of Things.

“It’s something we can’t ignore,” Bill Warga, vice president of technology for Liberty Global, said.

Knittle said CableLabs is preparing to start interoperability tests of FDX-based nodes in Q1 of 2018, and the current plan is to be ready for full-on testing by the start of 2019. The timing is gauged on the availability of silicon, he said. “But it’s all starting right now.”

Pivoting to ‘Remote PHY’
Also underway is a pivot to more distributed, “remote PHY” architectures that place more electronics at the edge of the network and can bring more fidelity and capacity to the network while also relieving power and space requirements at the headend. “The node is getting smarter,” Warga said.

Distributed architectures will also enable cable operators to virtualize the network, and put more functions in software and lessen the reliance on purpose-built hardware.

Like it is today with DOCSIS modems and network gear, interoperability between products from multiple vendors will again be a major focus for Remote PHY, an emerging access architecture that will push the electronics deeper into the network.

Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017

Tied into that interop effort, Kyrio, a unit of CableLabs, opened up official qualification testing on October 1. Speaking at a seminar dedicated to Remote PHY in Denver at the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo, Jorge Salinger, Comcast’s vice president, access architecture, stressed that interoperability between vendors will be a critical requirement for the MSO as it moves ahead with trials and, eventually, with deployments.

RELATED: Ramping Up for Remote PHY

Arris and Cisco Systems, two major cable suppliers, claimed this week that they have made progress on the interop front for Remote PHY and distributed access architectures that aim to help cable operators reduce power and space requirements at hub and headend sites, while also boosting the capacities of their HFC networks.

Remote PHY allows for a reduction of power, cooling and hub site sizing, providing significant total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits to cable operators. Silicon manufacturers, technology vendors and global cable operators have endorsed the Remote PHY architecture and are working toward a common goal for the distributed access architecture (DAA).

Here at the show, Arris and Cisco are demonstrating interoperability of their respective Remote PHY products, including core CCAP technology and PHY nodes.

More specifically, Arris is showing its E6000 Core working with a Cisco Smart PHY Node, and Cisco is demoing the cBR-8 CCAP Core supporting the Arris RPHY Node.

Denver – With Remote PHY trials underway and deployments to soon follow, CableLabs has launched a qualification testing process that aims to ensure interoperability between Remote PHY Devices (RPDs) that are made by multiple vendors.

Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017

“We are open for business,” Jon Schnoor, distinguished technologist at CableLabs, declared  here Monday at Cable-Tec Expo during a half-day seminar deviated to Remote PHY that included a deep dive on drivers and benefits, product updates, and lab and field trial activity for the emerging architecture.

RELATED; Ramping Up for Remote PHY  

Schnoor said Kyrio, a for-profit spin-off of CableLabs formerly known as NetworkFX, is now accepting submissions, and that it expects to see RPDs start to come in the door for official qualification testing by the end of the year.

RELATED: Kyrio Takes Over CableLabs Certification Testing Program

Testing will be conducted on two types of RPDs – the Remote PHY Node and the Remote PHY Shelf.

Earlier on the panel, Schnoor said there are eight specs for Remote PHY, including seven that are specific to it, alongside an annex to a spec for the Downstream RF Interface (DRFI).

Schnoor called Remote PHY a “first step” for the industry’s next-gen access networks.

“We are desperately trying to finish the specifications,” he said. “But we want to make sure that we’re doing it right…The idea of remote PHY is simple, but the implementation and the design of it is very complex.”

Heading into the availability of official qualification testing, CableLabs has been holding several interop events with vendors and chipmakers, along with help from a set of cable operators that includes Comcast, Shaw Communications and Cox Communications.

CableLabs completed its tenth Remote PHY interop event in November, and had 18 companies participating, Schnoor said.

Arris International said it has reached general availability for its second-generation of active modules for its flagship converged cable access platform (CCAP), the E6000, that puts operators on a path to support Remote PHY architectures.

Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017

The Gen 2 modules consists of the Downstream Cable Access Module 2 (DCAM-2), the Upstream Cable Access Module 2 (UCAM-2), and the Router System Module 2 (RSM-2).

The approach enables MSOs to upgrade existing E6000 Integrated CCAP (I-CCAP) chassis to “unlock” Remote PHY capabilities, Arris said, noting that the Gen 2 modules allow operators to boost the number of service groups and related channels over time, without consuming more rack space. Arris is showing off the new wares at this week’s SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver.

"The E6000 Gen 2 modules realize the potential of next-generation services and make it easier for providers and customers to seamlessly transition to Gigabit broadband and IP video services,” Dan Whalen, president of Arris’s Network & Cloud, said in a statement. “This upgrade dramatically increases the capacity of our market-leading E6000 CER as consumer demand for streaming high-bandwidth content continues to grow.”

Comcast is among MSOs that are using the new modules.

"Comcast is leading the way in Gigabit services with our wide-scale deployment of DOCSIS 3.1. The Arris Gen 2 modules support our objective of efficiently expanding these popular services," Dr. Robert Howald, VP, network architecture at Comcast, said. "The flexibility to be upgradeable to Distributed Access Architecture makes for a compelling addition to the E6000 platform."

Signaling some early progress for an emerging HFC architecture, Cisco Systems said it has landed agreements with operators around the globe for its “Infinite Broadband” Remote PHY platform.

RELATED: Ramping Up for Remote PHY

Cisco said some early takers include South Korea’s D’Live as well as Blue Stream, a cable operator based in south Florida formerly known as Advanced Cable Communications that is pushing ahead with a 1-Gig broadband service deployment.

RELATED: Blue Stream Makes 1-Gig Waves

Cisco touted that deployment progress as Remote PHY becomes a priority for several MSOs. Rather than using a highly centralized architecture with massive chassis in headends and hubs, the new architecture places more electronics and network smarts toward the edge of the network, a move that can boost capacity on the HFC network while also reducing power and space requirements. It also puts cable operators on a path toward more agile network functions virtualization and software-defined networking systems.

Cisco’s version of the architecture removes the PHY circuit layer that is typically housed in a traditional Converged Cable Access Platform chassis and places that functionality into a Remote PHY Node or a smaller hub site, called an RPHY Shelf. Some vendors are also advocating architectures that placed the PHY and MAC at the edges.

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

Cisco’s RPHY platform also features open, standardized software that was contributed to the CableLabs OpenRPD forum in 2015.

RELATED: CableLabs, Cisco Get Real About Virtualization

Along with the deployment update, Cisco also introduced the GS7000i Smartnode, a product that is based on its GS7000 Optical Node that adds in telemetry and proactive control automation capabilities.

Denver – Though it’s a concept that’s a decade in the making, the time has come for Remote PHY.

Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017

Remote PHY, an emerging access network architecture that pushes key electronics toward the edge of the network, is rapidly becoming an important component of cable operator engineering strategies as they look to stay a step ahead of space, power and capacity requirements.

That much was clear here among a set of MSO executives who kicked off a half-day seminar at Cable-Tec Expo Monday that explored all facets of Remote PHY.

The operators, which focused on the “why” for Remote PHY, said multiple benefits are factoring into their desire to put Remote PHY into play.

While driving more fidelity and capacity into the network are among the advantages, the space and power savings appear to be rising to the top of that list.

“Facilities costs can be a killer,” Jon Pederson, chief technology officer at Midco, said.

Midco has centered its broadband strategy for HFC on DOCSIS 3.1, and is looking for Remote PHY to help the operator reach out to some rural areas that are not suitable for a traditional, more centralized cable modem termination systems or converged cable access platforms (CCAPs).

Pederson said D3.1 service is available to 75% of its network today, but noted that there are about 14 hub sites, representing about 9.5% of Midco’s subscriber base, that the operator is targeting for Remote PHY.

He said Midco has Remote PHY working in the lab today, and has equipment on order for field trials that are expected to get started later this year. Additionally, all of Midco’s new nodes are Remote PHY-capable, Pederson said.

Jorge Salinger, vice president of access architecture at Comcast Cable, agreed that the power and space savings that come with Remote PHY are main drivers, while the increased performance that comes with the architecture is “a nice to have, to some extent.”

Remote PHY, Salinger said, “is a fundamental component to our strategy,” noting that it fits in well with other, related initiatives such as Full Duplex DOCSIS, an annex to D3.1 that will support multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds. 

Though product development is well underway, deploying Remote PHY won’t be simple.

Salinger called Remote PHY “the most complicated technology we’ve deployed to date…The basic implementation itself is complex.”

He also stressed that Remote PHY products, which include new nodes that support the architecture, will need to work together, just as DOCSIS modems and network gear do today. Interoperability between vendors “will be a requirement” for Comcast, Salinger said.

He noted that lab work is ongoing today and that Comcast has been working with multiple vendors on Remote PHY projects since early 2016.

Like other cable operators, Liberty Global, which operates systems in parts of Europe and Latin America, also sees space and power at the top of the Remote PHY agenda as it is pressed to keep up with the ever-increasing customer demand for bandwidth.

“We’re challenged to grow within our means,” Phil Oakley, head of access architecture at  Liberty Global, said.

Oakley also outlined some potential use-case scenarios for Remote PHY that could fit into Liberty Global’s multi-region architecture.

In the U.K., Virgin Media has a major new-build initiative underway, which causes some challenges on the MSO’s existing hub sites. Remote PHY, Oakley said, will help to reduce power and space requirements in those situations.

Germany, where Liberty Global is employing analog DWDM, is also faced with some field-power issues. Liberty Global is also facing challenges as it reaches out to some low-density hub sites in other parts of Europe that might not fit well with legacy platforms and technologies.

A half-day seminar on Remote PHY at next week’s SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in Denver will all facets of an emerging architecture for HFC networks that has steadily climbed atop the industry’s engineering agenda.  

Read More: Complete coverage of Cable-Tec Expo 2017

The seminar, set for Tuesday, Oct. 17 at the Colorado Convention Center (Room 401/402), is slated to get underway at 8 a.m. Below is the latest agenda (subject to change):

7:30-8:00 a.m.: Breakfast

8:00-8:15 a.m.: Welcome, Introductions and Agenda

-Chris Bastian, CTO, SCTE•ISBE

-Jorge Salinger, VP Access Architecture, Comcast

8:15-9:00 a.m.: Section 1: Why is Remote PHY useful to MSOs?

The session will cover the rationale and benefits of Remote PHY, which include reduced stress on headend space and power requirement and improved network performance and capacity. The session will also cover drivers for Remote PHY, including the growth in the number of service groups, and the concentration of headend equipment in fewer locations.

The session will also explore use-cases, such as service group segmentation, new-build deployments, how Remote PHY fits into brownfield scenarios, and discuss synergies with other initiatives such as Full Duplex DOCSIS.

Speakers and presenters:

-Jorge Salinger, Comcast

-Phil Oakley, head of access architecture, Liberty Global

-Jon Pederson, CTO, MidCo

-Jeff Baumgartner, technology editor, Multichannel News (moderator)

9:00-10:00 a.m.: What is Remote PHY?

Presenters and topics:

-John Chapman, fellow and CTO of Cisco Systems’s cable access business unit (fundamental architecture of Remote PHY and performance benefits). 

-Tom Cloonan, CTO, network solutions, Arris (Remote PHY core and device, and interoperability).

-Asaf Matatyaou, VP of solutions, Harmonic (virtualization of the core).

-David Eckard, CTO of fixed networks, Nokia (generations of Remote PHY Devices).

10:00-10:15 a.m.: Break

10:15–11:15 a.m.: Implementation of Remote PHY

-Comcast (presenter TBD): Single versus multi-core architecture; CMTS core, video core and OOB core; GCP principal core.

-Brian Kurtz, cable architect, Intel: Customizing network ops and management, and converging access technologies.

-Jan Ariesen, CTO, Technetix: Operations of Remote PHY

-Jon Schnoor, distinguished technologist, CableLabs: Remote PHY specifications, interops, testing and certification plan.

11:15 a.m. -Noon: Remote PHY Plans and Activities

-Q&A with all participating MSOs and vendors, covering vendor product plans, interoperability activities, trial approaches and service migration strategies, and deployment plans.

Going deep on a key cable engineering topic, SCTE•ISBE has assembled a half-day seminar dedicated to remote PHY at next month’s Cable-Tec Expo in Denver that will feature execs from both cable operators and suppliers.

The seminar, set to run Tuesday, Oct. 17 from 7:30 a.m. – Noon M.T. in Rooms 401/402 of the Colorado Convention Center, will focus on an emerging architecture for HFC networks that aims to boost network performance and capacity and reduce costs by pushing electronics closer to the edge.

RELATED: ‘Remote PHY’ Rising

The seminar, free to all with a Full Conference Pass for Cable-Tec Expo, will cover various aspects of Remote PHY, including rationale and use cases, and update on trials and deployments, and its role in Full Duplex DOCSIS, an annex to DOCSIS 3.1 that will deliver symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds.

RELATED: Cisco Demos Full Duplex DOCSIS

SCTE•ISBE said the seminar will be kicked off by a panel of MSOs, including Jorge Salinger, VP, access architecture of Comcast; John Pederson, CTO of Midco, and Phil Oakley, director, access platform engineering for Liberty Global. Leslie Ellis, president of Ellis Edits and Multichannel News contributor, will moderate.

The seminar will also include presentations from Tom Cloonan, CTO-network solutions, Arris; John Chapman, CTO, cable and fellow, Cisco Systems; Asaf Matatyaou, VP of solutions and product management, cable edge business, Harmonic; David Eckard, CTO, fixed networks, Nokia; Jan Arieson, CTO, Technetix; and Brian Kurtz, cable architect, Intel.

“MSOs are gearing up to take Remote PHY from field trials and small-scale rollouts this year to deployment at scale in 2018,” Chris Bastian, senior vice president, engineering, and CTO of SCTE•ISBE, said in a statement. “Our Fall Technical Forum seminar has been structured to provide the essential information that operator and technology supplier workforce members require to accelerate industry-wide availability of RPHY.”

Cisco Systems is using this week’s Anga Com show in Germany to demo Full Duplex DOCSIS, an annex to DOCSIS 3.1 that’s designed to deliver symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds over HFC networks.

A the event in Cologne, Cisco will show upstream and downstream running simultaneously in a 96 MHz slice of spectrum, located between 108 MHz and 204 MHz, John Chapman, Cisco Fellow and chief technology officer of the company’s Cable Access unit, explained in a blog post detailing the company's “proof of concept” demo.

RELATED: Cable-Tec Expo: ‘Full Duplex’ DOCSIS Speeds Ahead

Chapman noted that current technology is limiting the demo to a 96 MHz-wide swath of spectrum.

RELATED: Cisco Chips In For ‘Full Duplex’ DOCSIS

“Why a proof of concept that ‘only’ does 96 MHz symmetrical, when the end game is 576 MHz of shared spectrum?” he wrote. “Because by necessity, proofs of concept must rely on current technology -- and today’s cable modems ‘top out’ at an upstream spectral location of 204 MHz.”

He said the 96 MHz shared spectrum used for the demo will support a downstream rate of 890 Mbps (with 4K QAM) and an upstream rate of 680 Mbps (with 1K QAM).

Full Duplex DOCSIS, he added, factors into several tech trends underway, including the push toward passive N+0 (node plus zero) architectures whereby there are no amplifiers between the node and the home, and remote PHY, which places electronics at the node, toward the edge of the HFC network. Another trend, Chapman pointed out, is the placement of an echo canceller in the RPHY node, along with more upstream channels.

D3.1 already aims to deliver up to 10 Gbps downstream, and FDX will allow operators to deliver upstream speeds of up to 5 Gbps, and possibly more. 

“If a node were to contain one forward path and two reverse paths, then that optical node would have 10 Gbps capacity in both the downstream and upstream,” Chapman wrote. “This would match the 10 Gbps wavelength used to feed the digital optical node.”

That would enable symmetrical 10-Gig “and be equivalent to a fiber wavelength, and is a legitimate extension to fiber -- without actually running fiber,” he added.

With that in mind, Chapman also held that Full Duplex DOCSIS, as designed, will extend the life of HFC and DOCSIS and enable MSOs to put off having to pull fiber all the way to the premises, at least when the legacy network is concerned.

“We’ll have a lot more bandwidth for a long, long time,” he said, in an interview.

“FDX ultimately puts to rest -- both logically and economically -- the question of whether and when the time will come to sunset DOCSIS, and replace it with fiber to the premise,” Chapman amplified in the blog post. “The answer is probably never, because FDX creates what is essentially a fiber equivalent, throughput-wise, with coax.”

Though this week’s demo offers a glimpse at cable’s technology future, Chapman acknowledges that it’s not going to happen overnight.

He expects Full Duplex DOCSIS to see some field trials in 2019, and ramp up in 2020, with the caveat that MSOs will have needed to deploy DOCSIS 3.1, remote PHY and go “fiber deep” (N+0).

The “remote PHY” era is fully underway as two top cable access network suppliers – Arris and Cisco Systems – touted next-gen products that aim to help operators boost capacity while also keeping headend power and space requirements in check.

Both vendors touted their latest wares in conjunction with this week’s ANGA Com show in Cologne, Germany.

Arris’s approach uses the MAC core of its flagship converged cable access platform, the E6000, in tandem with new remote PHY modules that reside in the nodes. It’s also releasing a remote PHY shelf that’s targeted to smaller cable operators.

Arris also announced that Stofa, a Danish service provider, has tapped the vendor to migrate all its sites to DOCSIS 3.1 and a new distributed architecture that leans on the E6000 and Arris’s NC2000 nodes with the aforementioned remote PHY modules.

Cisco, meanwhile, launched “Infinite Broadband,” a remote PHY solution for cable operators that builds on its cBR-8 CCAP and GS7000 node products, noting that the combo establishes the “foundation” for virtualization and Full Duplex DOCSIS, an emerging annex to DOCSIS 3.1 that will enable symmetrical gigabit speeds on the HFC network.

RELATED: Cisco Chips In For ‘Full Duplex’ DOCSIS

Cisco said it RPHY has been shipping to customers in multiple countries since April 2017. Execs with Comcast, Cox Communications, and Liberty Global were referenced in Cisco’s RPHY announcement.

Update: Casa Systems, a vendor that competes with Arris and Cisco in the CCAP sector, announced Tuesday that it would demonstrate its DOCSIS 3.1 remote PHY solution at this week’s show.

Cisco also noted that its RPHY solution is based on “open, standardized software” contributed to the CableLabs OpenRPD forum in 2016 that, it claims, will create an interoperable ecosystem for remote PHY device vendors. Cisco said it’s also planning to provide interop testing for those vendors, with Vector Technologies, BKtel networks and Teleste already on board.

Cisco, Arris and other cable access network vendors are focusing on remote PHY as the architecture continues to become a bigger priority for cable operators. According to a recent survey of 35 cable operators around the globe conducted by Kagan Research, 61% of those MSOs said they plan to start virtualizing their CCAPs or begin the shift to a distributed access architecture (DAA) by the end of 2018.

RELATED: Cable Ops Poised for Push into Virtualization, Distributed Architectures

Arris expects remote PHY orders to start picking up toward Q4 with a commercial ramp up anticipated by the start of 2018, Dan Whalen, president of Arris’s Network & Cloud unit, said, noting that it pushes some of the space and power challenges faced by cable operators into the node while also paving the way for more capacity.

"We think the ramp starts next year,” Whalen said.

Arris, he added, is also pursuing a remote MAC/PHY strategy that could be ready to take hold by mid-2018, but acknowledged that there are some concerns about how much power consumption will be required inside the node to support both the MAC and the PHY.

The move to distributed architectures also create a more Ethernet-centric, open network, explained Daniel Etman, product marketing director for Cisco’s Cable Access Business Unit.

Cisco, he added, is also factoring in a new set of auto-configuration tools that enable field techs to update remote PHY nodes and enable operators to start to pivot to more distributed architectures.

Representing the next step in the evolution of DOCSIS-powered cable broadband networks, CableLabs recently released a new family of specs that cover a range of “distributed” architectures for the Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP), a high-density system that combines the functions of the cable modem termination system and the edge QAM and will play a key role in the industry’s all-IP transition.

The new distributed architectures, which expand on today’s more centralized deployments,  will provide “significant scale advantages and flexible deployment options supporting…both DOCSIS 3.0 and DOCSIS 3.1 networks,” Karthik Sundaresan, a principal architect at CableLabs, explained in this blog post about the new specifications, which aim to facilitate multi-vendor interoperability.

The distributed approach, Sundaresan wrote, fits with the software-defined networking (SDN) and networks functions virtualization (NFV) initiatives operators are pursuing, and will run parallel to a wide range of wireless infrastructure architectures.

He noted that distributed DOCSIS deployments are already underway in some markets that use  C-DOCSIS, a modified approach that was originally developed for China’s cable market that has since been formally integrated with CableLabs’s broader DOCSIS initiatives.

CableLabs, Sundaresan explained, is specifying several different Distributed CCAP Architectures (including Remote PHY and Remote MAC-PHY) and will release the set of technical reports and specifications throughout this summer.

The specs will apply to DOCSIS and CCAP vendors such as Arris, Cisco Systems, Casa Systems, Harmonic and Huawei, as well as Gainspeed, a startup that is developing a “virtual” CCAP.

CableLabs issued the Remote PHY family of specifications last month (the technology is covered via six specs and one technical report describing the overall architecture). Labeled as “MHAv2,’ they represent an evolution of the original Modular Headend Architecture specifications.

Remote PHY  paves the way for an integrated CCAP to be separated into two components -- the CCAP Core and the Remote PHY Device (RPD) – along with an interface that weaves them together using “pseudowires.”  

A common location for an RPD, which contains elements such as the downstream QAM and OFDM modulators, upstream QAM and OFDM demodulators, is the optical node, located at the junction of the fiber and coax plants, Sundaresan wrote.

Sundaresan said vendors have begun architecting ASIC designs, device platforms and software to implement the RPD and CCAP-Core devices. The specs for the OSS that will manage the devices are under development and will be released this summer.