Cable Engineers Explore Ways to Boost Bandwidth

Speaking at the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers’ (SCTE’s) annual Emerging Technologies conference this week, cable technology strategists talked about splitting nodes to bring fiber-rich networks closer to customers, creating new residential nodes, using switched digital video to cut transmissions of unwatched channels, sending video signals over unified IP networks, bonding channels for greater data transmission speeds and using advanced digital compression methods.

Speakers stressed the benefits of using switched digital video to improve the operating efficiencies of their networks. Some also argued that switched digital video will help cable systems move quicker toward the promised land of IPTV by introducing more open technical standards to the industry. “Switched digital video architecture is really a launching pad for some of these architectures,” said Lorenzo Bombelli, Scientific-Atlanta dir.-network architecture: “There are a lot of good things to come. Switched digital video is an important stepping stone to getting there.”

Despite their massive plant rebuilds and upgrades over the past decade, cable operators are seeking to expand their capacity because their networks are increasingly taxed by the bandwidth-hogging services they're introducing and planning. HDTV, PVR and VoD especially are eating more bandwidth than anticipated. “Our HFC plant is pretty well taxed,” said Shamim Akhtar, Comcast senior mgr.-engineering & operations: “We have a very fiber-rich plant. Let’s look at where those fibers are going.”

In addition, cable operators are looking to boost their bandwidth because of the new fiber-rich networks Verizon, AT&T and other telcos are building. With Verizon rolling out video service, and AT&T launching its much-anticipated IPTV product in the San Antonio area, cable providers are finally convinced the Bells mean business this time around. “The competitive pressures are intensifying,” said Ran Oz, BigBand Networks CTO: “The competition will cause (consumer) expectations to go up.”

While cable operators emphasized ways to boost their bandwidth, international futurist Jim Carroll warned the industry against making the same mistakes the music industry did when it fought tooth & nail against unauthorized MP3 downloads from the Internet. Carroll urged cable executives to embrace such products and services as portable media players, peer-to-peer file-sharing and Internet-delivered telephony. Contending “the geeks will always win because they can always rewrite the code,” he urged cable officials to view the new technologies as market opportunities rather than competitive threats. “Do you really want to go to war with your customers?” he asked. “The music industry went to war with its customers and look where it got them. Do you want to repeat that history?”

In his keynote, Carroll also argued that the long-awaited era of media convergence has finally come to pass, albeit about 10 years later than originally expected. “We're talking about convergence again,” he said: “The difference is that it’s real today.” Carroll said rapid change will only accelerate the next few years as Baby Boomers reach retirement age and their far more tech-savvy children take their place. He also contended that tomorrow’s consumers will be “far more demanding” and “far less loyal” users of technology brands. “By 2020, we'll be witnessing the retirement of the change-averse,” he said. “What will emerge into purchasing power, and into your customer base, is this generation that thinks differently, is wired differently.”

Carroll predicted consumer demand for media bandwidth and storage will soar over the coming years as more technology choices bloom and Web users start exchanging video files online. Just a few years after the introduction of digital cameras, he noted, consumers are taking 80 billion pictures a year and are increasingly sharing them online. “Everyone is focusing on 100 Mbps or 300 Mbps as being the key question for the year 2010,” he said. “I think we should be thinking about yottabits and zetabits when it comes to capacity.”