CommScope displays 10G and Distributed Access Architecture products, technologies at 2019 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo

Oct. 1, 2019
The technology on display aims to support network operator demands for high-speed transmission, lower latency, and improved network timing to support a range of current and future services.
10 G Logo
10 G Logo
10 G Logo
10 G Logo
10 G Logo

CommScope is highlighting three technology advancements – one of which is nearing general availability – for 10G and Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) applications at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans this week. The technology on display aims to support network operator demands for high-speed transmission, lower latency, and improved network timing to support a range of current and future services.

The three technologies cover network core, access layer and edge. They include:

  1. The DAA Aggregator, which enables DAA Remote Phy Devices (RPDs) to feed previously fielded nodes while increasing the number of homes passed per RPD serving group from the expected 20 to 40 to between 150 to 300. The technology, which is housed in a standard RPD node, enables operators to further leverage existing infrastructure while taking an evolutionary approach to DAA deployment. The technology is in testing with at least one operator, say CommScope sources, and should be generally available in the fourth quarter of this year.
  2. Extended Soft FDD combines software-only Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD) to enable network interface speeds beyond 1.2 GHz. The technology, which is an expansion of the soft FDD CommScope demonstrated earlier this year and still in development, illustrates that elements of DOCSIS 4.0 are on the near-term horizon, say the CommScope sources, as standardization work progresses. The company will show a demonstration of Extended Soft FDD in action in its booth, #961.
  3. CommScope also will demonstrate application of a DOCSIS timing protocol that the company spokespeople said provides more precise timing distribution over DOCSIS networks. Such precise timing will be particularly crucial as operators seek to support 5G mobile backhaul, virtual reality and autonomous vehicle control, according to the company. The CommScope sources say the new timing protocol is an outgrowth of work in this area at CableLabs. They declined to speculate when the capability would become generally available.

“The most important new use cases are relentless about response time. Faster speed plus lower latency is the new normal,” commented Morgan Kurk, executive vice president and chief technology officer at CommScope via a company press release. “Three things are required to achieve this—an end-to-end view of the network; an agnostic approach to technology; and a distributed architecture that breeds innovation in the core, throughout the access layer, and at the edge.”