CommScope Advances 10G Broadband Roadmap on Several Fronts

This week, CommScope will demonstrate three technologies at the ANGA COM trade show that are core to enabling 10G networks. The company also announced that two European customers have achieved deployment milestones, using the company’s technology.

The announcements come fewer than six months after CommScope revealed its role in pioneering the core technologies for 10 Gbps broadband (10G), and just four months after it announced a breakthrough, 8.5 Gbps network trial on the path to 10G, with Virgin Media. CommScope completed its acquisition of ARRIS International In April.

On display at Stand C21 will be:

•A low-latency DOCSIS® system deemed crucial to next-generation broadband performance;
•A software-configurable Frequency-Division Duplex (Soft FDD) system; and
•The E6000® vCore fully virtualized converged cable access platform (CCAP) core.

Vodafone Germany is underway with a nationwide upgrade to support 1Gbps service. Some 12 million customers will enjoy the high-speed Gigabit service through an ARRIS broadband device when the rollout is complete.

Swiss provider Sasag last month became the first European operator to announce upgrading its entire network to use DOCSIS 3.1 (D3.1) for both the upstream and downstream channels.

“As cable operators embark on their far-reaching network transformation, which includes the migration to 10G and virtualization of the CCAP, CommScope is rising to the challenge, delivering the complex solutions they will need such as low latency DOCSIS, soft FDD and virtualized CCAP,” said Liliane Offredo-Zreik, principal digital transformation analyst with consulting and market analysis firm ACG Research. “Operators’ needs in this transformation will be far from homogeneous; they will require a vendor with the depth and breadth of expertise and solutions to meet their evolving needs.”

System and service advances on display

“Residential home networks now rival enterprises in both demands from internet-connected devices and for performance of managed services,” said Kevin Keefe, CommScope’s senior vice president and segment leader, Network & Cloud. “We are developing technology and architectures that result in smarter, adaptive networks. With these announcements, we’re accelerating the march toward virtual, automated and orchestrated infrastructure capable of delivering massive amounts of capacity and bandwidth.”

The new low-latency DOCSIS system will show IP video running alongside traditional QAM video over an EPON channel at 10 Gbps. Low-latency DOCSIS will be crucial to gaming and virtual reality performance, mobile backhaul scheduling algorithms that coordinate 5G multipoints, and collision-avoidance systems for self-driving cars.

The software-configurable Frequency-Division Duplex (Soft FDD) system has the potential to deliver 10G speeds over traditional coaxial wiring. Soft FDD uses FDX technology and provides a foundation for symmetrical services, creating an evolutionary path beyond gaming to holographic video, high-definition cameras, and other Internet-of-Things devices needing sophisticated upstream performance.

The virtualized CCAP core, which leverages ARRIS’s proven and field-hardened E6000® edge router software, includes a number of recent advances, such as:

•Automated provisioning and capacity tools for end-to-end service provisioning and smart capacity additions; and
•Orchestration and intelligence tools to manage multi-access configurations and produce better analytics about network performance.

Trials of the virtual offering – called vCore – are already underway with significant deployments anticipated later this year.

“The great thing about our approach to 10G is that we provide our customers with multiple choices in how they can evolve their networks,” added Bruce McClelland, chief operating officer at CommScope. “They can overlay innovations onto existing deployed platforms to maximize invested capital and minimize network disruption, devote a segment of their network to pilot next-generation technologies, or they can leapfrog to a fully next-generation architecture. We’re working with providers on all of these options, and the innovations are fully transferable around the globe.”

Important service milestones for two European customers

Vodafone’s nationwide rollout of 1Gbps service in Germany uses the DOCSIS 3.1 Touchstone TG3442 gateway for unparalleled WAN and LAN network performance.

“Gigabit networks bring more quality of life and are the crucial resource for growth, jobs and prosperity in Germany,” said Sebastian Wotschikowsky, Vodafone Germany’s responsible Manager for Consumer Broadband Marketing. “The Touchstone DOCSIS 3.1 gateway provides the high-performance basis for gigabit-fast internet in our cable network. Today, we already offer high-speed connections for around 9 million households – by 2021 there will be more than 12 million. Thanks to DOCSIS 3.1, we are one of the main drivers for the expansion of high-speed networks in Germany."

In April, Swiss service provider Sasag became the first European operator to announce the upgrade of its entire network to DOCSIS 3.1 for both upstream (100 Mbps) and downstream (1 Gbps) channels.

“Our new Gigabit service launch depended on a quick and hassle-free replacement of existing hardware with three new E6000 systems,” said Daniel Kyburz, Sasag’s CEO. “Even though we’re at the forefront of the latest D3.1 technology, CommScope was able to meet our schedule.”

Sasag upgraded its entire base of 37,000 customers in Schaffhausen, Switzerland using a network of an ARRIS E6000 Converged Edge Router (CER) along with the TG3442 broadband gateway.