Hitachi Telecom is introducing a “radio frequency over glass” solution—RFoG in industry shorthand—that will transmit cable RF services over last-mile fiber networks.
Hitachi’s Node+Zero solution supports existing cable headend equipment, but works over gigabit passive optical network (GPON) wavelengths.
Other vendors pushing the RFoG concept include Alloptic, CommScope with Aurora Networks, Cisco Systems, Motorola and Arris.
Rick Schiavinato, Hitachi Telecom’s vice president of sales and marketing, said the company is working with Arris in a consultative partnership on the RFoG products, though the two companies don’t have a marketing or reselling arrangement.
The two Hitachi Node+Zero devices are designed to work with any GPON vendor’s equipment, according to Schiavinato.
“This product will never have to be yanked out,” he said. “The whole idea is to establish a relationship with the operators.”
Schiavinato said Hitachi has tested the Node+Zero solution with one of its competitor’s PON equipment. The company expects full delivery of the first production run of devices in July, at which point the vendor will be able to offer units for testing.
The two Node+ Zero models are the H-103, designed for deployment with Hitachi’s AMN1220 GPON optical network terminal, and the H-112, a standalone subscriber premises device that passes DOCSIS and CMTS services between headend and subscriber.
Hitachi Telecom expects to demo the devices at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ Cable-Tec Expo conference in Philadelphia this week.
