10G promises to deliver speeds up to 100 times faster than what most consumers experience today, says CommScope
CommScope demonstrated its vision for 10-gigabit, or 10G, and virtualized networks at this year’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo earlier this week, focusing on the in-home experiences that will follow as a result of the company’s advancements in operator solutions for the access network and the connected home.
While it seems the industry is quick to move onto the next thing, rest assured that 10G has nothing to do with 5G. 10G is that broadband platform that is being developed to deliver a speed of 10 Gbps, which is 100 times faster than what most consumers experience today.
CommScope has been busy developing its Virtual Headend Portfolio, a complete range of solutions for virtualizing the four primary planes of modern operator networks: data, video, control and management.
CommScope also announced the addition of a new range of Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) solutions, which the company said will address the need for a greater density of more powerful node-based Remote PHY (R-PHY) and Remote MACPHY devices. In a R-PHY architecture the physical layer of the network has been moved to the edge, while in in MACPHY architecture, the Media Access Control (MAC) layer has also been moved.
DAA extends the digital portion of the headend/hub domain out to the fiber optic node and places the digital/RF interface at the optical/coax boundary, and R-PHY DAA provides a more efficient headend and improved design architecture with better network performance for a shared fiber infrastructure in commercial and residential customer networks, according to the company.
The new DAA solutions include the E6000n RD2322 Remote PHY and MACPHY Device (RxD), which can operate in either R-PHY or R-MACPHY architectures and the E6000n RD1322 Remote PHY Device, which is a 2×2 Remote PHY Device that provides a dense solution that enables operators to build upon their installed base of fiber nodes. There is also the E6000r High Density (HD) Remote PHY Shelf — recently selected by Comcast for its DAA transformation — which is a flexible, high-density solution that hosts eight E6000n 1×2 RPDs, as well as the E6000n OM6-RPD-112 Remote PHY Device, which represents an expansion of the original series of CommScope RPDs to support 1×2 operation for the OM6000 fiber node, doubling the upstream service group density to serve more subscribers with higher service tiers.
“Our updated DAA portfolio highlights the range of choice that CommScope affords our operator customers,” said Kevin Keefe, senior vice president and segment leader, Broadband Networks, CommScope. “The RD2322 is a great example, giving operators the flexibility to deploy in either Remote PHY or Remote MACPHY architectures. Similarly, the HD Remote PHY Shelf enables a new level of density for the headend and the hub site. Whether it’s Remote PHY or Remote MACPHY, we have a solution to suit each operator’s unique vision and architecture.”
Last month, CommScope helped power a 10G smart home trial by Mediacom Communications that evaluated the capacity of Mediacom’s 10G platform in supporting a number of future home applications like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), gaming and holographic display.
According to the companies, the insights gained from the trial will inform Mediacom’s strategy around expanding its existing fiber-rich network to include the delivery of symmetrical residential internet speeds ten times faster than its current 1 Gbps offerings.
“CommScope was one of our key partners as we built the platform for our 10G trial,” said JR Walden, CTO at Mediacom. “With CommScope, we were able to secure all the headend, IP network, outside plant and customer premises solutions we needed to deploy an end-to-end network able to support our 10G smart home of the future.”
