Unitymedia Kabel, an German MSO owned by Liberty Global, has rolled out Arris’s E6000 Converged Edge Router, a device that is starting off as a high-density cable modem termination system.
Arris, which announced the deployment at this week’s Cable Congress show in Amsterdam, said the deployment will put Unitymedia, an MSO that serves 6.6 million video subs and 2.6 million broadband customers, on a path toward capacities of 1 Gbps.
"The E6000 CER enables us to expand our services to a whole new level by providing large increases in capacity in a cost effective manner,” said Liberty Global chief network officer Colin Buechner, in a statement.
Arris plans to morph the E6000 (pictured above) to become a fully integrated Converged Cable Access Platform that will combine the functions of the CMTS and edge QAM. Arris plans to add the edge QAM elements later this year, turning on that capability through software upgrades.
Arris claims that its CCAP-pointing chassis is now providing service to about 2 million subscribers. Its deployment in Germany comes as the CCAP market heats up.
Last month, Infonetics Research said CCAP channel shipments jumped 192% in the fourth quarter of 2013. In addition to Arris, other vendors that will be fighting for share include Cisco Systems, Casa Systems, CommScope, and Harmonic. Gainspeed, a startup, is developing a “virtualized” CCAP, but has not announced a product.
