Comcast Issues RFP for Next-Gen CCAP Equipment
Continuing Comcast’s drive for a more advanced access architecture for cable operators, the company has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to vendors for equipment complying with the industry’s new Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) specifications. And equipment makers including Cisco and Motorola Mobility are introducing new CCAP equipment and getting orders for them, their representatives said in interviews.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Comcast is gearing up to start small-scale field trials and pilot deployments of the super-dense cable architecture later this year. Comcast is pursuing the RFP route now because it wants to start choosing some equipment for the operator’s initial CCAP deployments later this year, Vice President Jorge Salinger said in an interview. “Beyond 2012, we'll be deploying CCAP devices almost exclusively through 2014.” Salinger said Comcast will start installing CCAP gear in markets where it “needs the most capacity” and switch its existing DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem termination system (CMTS) and edge QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) equipment from those markets to others.
As envisioned by Comcast, Cox Communications, Rogers Communications and other industry proponents, CCAP is an emerging access platform that purports to combine the functions of the CMTS and edge QAM in one super-dense box or platform in the cable headend. That lets cable operators mix and match DOCSIS Internet Protocol and QAM video traffic much more freely. Proponents say the concept will slash space and power requirements and operational costs in the headend while accelerating cable’s transition to IP video. They say CCAP will speed up the deployment of new cable services, such as network-based DVRs.
To prepare for its first deployments of CCAP equipment, Comcast has been getting its operations ready to support the spec. Salinger said the company is now conducting an “operational readiness trial” in an undisclosed market in the Northeast. He said the trial, slated for completion by the summer, involves “a few service groups” on a total of eight fiber nodes. Comcast is also emulating CCAP in software to develop provisioning and management tools for the spec, as well as figuring out how to consolidate the monitoring of its DOCSIS and video traffic. “It’s not a trivial thing,” Salinger said. “It’s more than a box upgrade."
Comcast’s RFP covers both of the expected implementations of the CCAP specs, Salinger said: An integrated, all-in-one chassis and a more modular, “non-routing” platform that would let cable operators deploy a new breed of dense edge QAM devices and use them in downstream-only mode. Equipment vendors have shown interest in developing both types of models so far. Although it’s not yet known which vendors will respond to the RFP, the list will likely include the existing major CMTS and edge QAM makers, such as Arris, Casa Systems, Cisco, CommScope, Harmonic and Motorola Mobility. Plans call for Comcast to try out the gear in its own labs as it makes its early equipment selections. CableLabs is developing a CCAP qualification testing program for the entire cable industry.
Equipment makers are gearing up to meet the expected demand for denser cable headend equipment. Cisco is crafting a new line card, the DS384, to snap into the RF Gateway-10 “universal” edge QAM. The new line card is designed to support 384 downstream ports, a major improvement over Cisco’s existing DS48 QAM line card. The new card should set it up well for CCAP deployments, a Cisco spokesman said. “Our current products are CCAP-ready in almost every respect.” Cisco’s initial plan for an integrated CCAP will involve its flagship CMTS, the uBR10012, along with the 3G60 line card and the RF Gateway 10 outfitted with the new DS384 line cards. The Cisco spokesman said these products “are in line with both the cost and capacity goals of CCAP."
Motorola Mobility, being acquired by Google, is moving forward on the CCAP front, too. Motorola executives said the company’s unit that churns out both CMTSs and edge QAMs is approaching CCAP on two fronts. Motorola is developing a fully integrated chassis that combines CMTS and edge QAM functions in one box. The company is also pursuing a distributed approach that relies on a CCAP core to manage upstream connectivity in conjunction with super-dense edge QAMs. The vendor has gotten orders for its Apex 3000 universal edge QAM, the centerpiece of its distributed CCAP architecture, said Jeffrey Walker, director of CMTS product marketing for Motorola. The device, which supports 49 QAM channels per port, will provide more capacity for cable operators to offer VOD, switched digital video and perhaps network DVR applications in conjunction with broadband, he said. With some cable operators testing the device, Walker predicted that the Apex 3000 will be a “significant contributor this year” to revenue.