Casa Systems and Teleste are teaming up on the development of a distributed form of a Converged Cable Access Platform that matches Casa’s C100G CCAP chassis with Teleste’s RemotePHY optical node.
Under this setup, Casa would look to extend the cable modem termination system’s passive, physical component to the Teleste node at the edge of the network. In essence, the architecture, which will feature a CMTS module that snaps into the Teleste node, would look like a single CMTS port, but one that is extended away from the hub. Casa’s C100G, meanwhile, would serve as the central brains of the architecture and manage the nodes deployed at the network’s edge.
While these new distributed CCAP architectures will help operators better serve multiple dwelling units and other high-density subscriber scenarios, the remote PHY approach will also come in handy as operators look to boost capacity through node splits in more traditional residential environments, said Abraham Pucheril, Casa’s SVP of worldwide sales. In North America, where the typical node serves 500 homes, he expects that to shrink to 250 and 125, and possibly down to 50 or 25 in the next three to four years.
Casa claims that its remote PHY approach with Teleste, a Finland-based vendor with strong ties to European cable operators, will be complaint with the CableLabs specs for CCAP as well as DOCSIS 3.1, a platform that is targeting downstream speeds of up to 10 Gpbs and an upstream of at least 1 Gbps. That's in part because the more distributed version of CCAP keeps a signal in digital form longer before being transitioned into RF, allowing cable operators to use higher modulations that pack more bits per hertz. The initial wave of more centralized CCAPs that put the CMTS and edge QAM functions in the same device perform that transition at the headend/hub.
Casa Systems and Teleste will, of course, be facing competition from others in the market that are developing distributed or so-called virtual CCAPs. Of recent note, Harmonic introduced a distributed CCAP, the NSG Exo, that will start out as a CMTS, but will later tack on edge QAM functionality.
Casa and Teleste announced the partnership at this week's Anga Com show in Cologne, Germany.
