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Products
Motorola Broadens VoIP Cable Modem Offerings With SIP
 Motorola expanded its family of voice-enabled cable modems with the introduction of the SBV5100 series, which is based on SIP.
"Operators around the world are already making the move toward SIP-based products," Charles Dougherty, corporate VP, Motorola Connected Home Solutions business, says.
"By providing a voice-enabled cable modem with the SIP protocol, Motorola enables cable operators to not only expand their offerings with voice today, but to lay the foundation for new feature-rich voice and multimedia services, such as fixed-mobile convergence."
The Motorola SBV5100 series should be available by the end of this year.
JDSU Gets Down to Quality of Service Business
 JDSU unveiled a new software agent that the company says helps ensure business-class, high QoS for ops supporting the large-scale transition of their business customers to VoIP. An integral part of JDSU's NetComplete Service Assurance VoIP portfolio, the QT-50 allows ops to monitor and troubleshoot issues and evaluate metrics that can affect voice quality — such as MOS, R-factor, jitter, packet loss and packet statistics — by simulating the IP call experience as if at the customer premises.
The QT-50 works with JDSU's OSS, called NetAnalyst and NetOptimize, to deliver both on-demand testing and performance management capabilities. It places and receives active test calls between other software agents and JDSU QT probes (such as the QT-600 Ethernet and triple-play probe) deployed across an op's network. By creating meshes of synthetic VoIP calls throughout the network, it identifies potential degradations end-to-end (i.e., between hundreds of office buildings) for continuous and active monitoring of VoIP quality.
Antronix Rolls Out Four-Port Amplifier With Bypass
 Antronix announced its new four-port drop amplifier with bypass capability. The device contains circuitry to automatically bypass the amplifier stage and maintain signal integrity on one of the legs in case of a power outage. Normal operation resumes when power is re-established.
Bypass capability is ideal for critical applications like VoIP where uninterrupted operation is a requirement. Performance features include Gallium Arsenide technology for low distortion, 3 dB noise figure, 1 GHz operation, 6 kV combo wave surge protection on all ports and patented CamPort F-connectors with over 2,000 grams of pull force for extended life and reliability.
Interop News: Cedar Point and Interactive Intelligence
 Cedar Point Communications completed interoperability testing with Interactive Intelligence Inc.'s enterprise messaging software, Communité.
The testing, which was conducted at Cedar Point's headquarters in New Hampshire, proved compatibility between Cedar Point's SAFARI C3 Multimedia Switching System and Communité, a voicemail replacement and messaging system that provides unified messaging, find-me/follow-me, presence management, and other apps said to be ideal for large and distributed organizations, such as higher education.
A New PVR for High-Def Fans
 Pace Micro Technology launched its new HD PVR platform, the TDx850, in both cable (TDC850) and satellite (TDS850) versions. The cable version (TDC850) comes with H.264 decoding, Dolby Digital Plus and triple DVB-C tuners, enabling the end-user to record up to three different channels at the same time. The TDC850 also comes with an integrated DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem to enable interactivity and triple play, as well as push-VOD services.
Both versions of the set-top come with a minimum 250 Gb hard drive, which allows up to 60 hours of HD, or 120 hours of SD, content to be stored, with optional upgrades available. HDCP is used for secure transfer of digital signals to the display via HDMI, while the auto setup function is said to enable easy and quick configuration with most display types.
Airvana Seeks Multimedia/VoIP Nirvana
Airvana Inc. established a Multimedia/VoIP laboratory to test and demonstrate commercial IP-based mobile broadband 1xEV-DO Rev. A and fixed-mobile convergence systems. The VoIP Lab seeks to identify issues that may arise when voice and other multimedia data packets converge on a single network. "From QoS to individual call performance, the VoIP Lab will help ensure that wireless VoIP networks run as flawlessly as possible," Airvana says.
Current participants include AudioCodes, Brix Networks and Camiant. The VoIP Lab has three categories of testing and demonstration: applications, technical performance and capacity. Applications testing will evaluate live VoIP calls with QoS on a mixed-load network; technical performance testing will measure enhancements to symmetry and reductions in latency; and capacity testing will demonstrate the full commercial viability of the simultaneous voice/video/data triple play. Over time, Airvana will continue to invite applications vendors to demonstrate advanced VoIP apps.
Harmonic Adds Integrated Re-Encoding and Statmuxing to ProStream
Harmonic announced that DiviTrackMX statistical multiplexing capabilities have been added to the ProStream 1000 platform. The ProStream 1000 stream processing platform now can support DiviTrackMX MPEG-2 statistical multiplexing to dynamically adjust the bit-rates allocated to each channel based on the complexity of the video, which typically improves bandwidth efficiency by 10 to 15%, according to the company.
It is said to be ideal for cable and other ops that receive content from satellite or over-the-air feeds and then turn around these digital services for distribution on their pay TV networks. Up to 64 compressed MPEG-2 VBR or CBR services can be processed and 16 DiviTrackMX pools supported in the dense one rack-unit ProStream 1000 platform.
- Minacom and Sunrise Telecom will work together to provide integrated test solutions for cable ops and telcos offering VoIP and IP-video services. The partnership will focus on combining the centralized test capabilities offered by Minacom's DirectQuality R7 service level test automation platform with the network and service test functionality in Sunrise Telecom's handheld FTTx, DSL and cable test sets.
- The National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) named ARRIS as a preferred vendor of EMTA customer premises equipment. NCTC is encouraging its members to consider the ARRIS Touchstone voice and data customer premises equipment line first, when beginning the purchasing process.
- BigBand Networks and Pace Micro Technology have collaborated on channel bonding interoperability. This technology, based on newly released DOCSIS 3.0 specs, could be used to increase broadband access speeds. During IBC 2006 in Amsterdam earlier this month, Pace and BigBand demonstrated the results of their collaborative efforts consistent with DOCSIS 3.0 specs, showing downstream rates in excess of 100 Mbps for the delivery of broadband data services and video content. The demo consisted of the BigBand Cuda CMTS and a prototype Pace channel bonded DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem.
-------------------PAID SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT-------------------
 Vyyo's new UltraBand™ passives line includes taps, splitters and other passive elements that provide superior quality for today's services and offer operators flexibility to increase the capacity of the HFC plant to meet growing customer demand. The products utilize leading-edge technology delivering high performance and reliability.
Key attributes of the UltraBand passive line include a passband up to 2750 MHz; low insertion loss; RF/AC bypass capability; excellent surge resiliency; and integration of the upstream, plug-in attenuator within all taps to enable the operators to balance the legacy return path.
The passives meet SCTE and FCC standards and are installed in the same way as existing passives, using industry standard connectors and practices. Installing these passive devices enables use of Vyyo's Spectrum Overlay technology that doubles downstream spectrum and increases upstream spectrum by 5X!
For More Information
For more information on Vyyo's UltraBand passives, contact a Vyyo sales representative today or visit www.vyyo.com.
Feature: Business Services: It's a Big World, and a Small World, After All
Comcast recently announced that it was ranked number one in small and medium business (SMB) Internet access customer satisfaction for the second year in a row. The ranking is based on the respondents of 758 U.S.-based SMBs across all industry sectors in the Yankee Group "SMB Communications, Broadband and VoIP Survey."
"Comcast's quality assurance practice continues to enhance the SMB experience with ongoing monitoring of new practices," Steve Hilton, Yankee Group small and medium business strategies director, reports. "Comcast pushes knowledge of new solution launches to all frontline employees and fosters an environment of training and customer accountability."
But its not just the big MSOs like Comcast that are basking in business service success. Some smaller ops have earned enterprise services bragging rights as well. Case in point: Hargray Communications Group, an HFC operator that offers data, video, telephony and wireless services.
T1 Anyone?
Ed Heuck, CTO of Hargray, spoke earlier this month during a Webinar about his op's success offering T1 services to businesses. The NCTC Webinar was sponsored by Vyyo.
Hargray started looking for a T1 delivery solution around 2002 when subs showed desire for the service, and the op's sales staff complained that they could not tap the entire lucrative business market due to lack of T1 offering.
"Our own cell phone company jumped on board wanted to reduce dependence on other carriers. They said we could save a ton of money on our backhaul cost," Heuck says.
Research revealed that 22 cell sites in the company's CLEC service area could easily be reached with very little cost.
Around the 2002-2003 timeframe, everyone was saying that the HFC platform was not designed to support T1 service. "We kind of proved them right," Heuck explains. "We tried very hard to use T1 emulation over Ethernet based on DOCSIS 2.0 — or DOCSIS 1.1 at that time actually."
While it worked somewhat, it was not good enough. Heuck says there were too many errors and high latency, and they couldn't hand off from one cell site to another.
According to Heuck, installation was a nightmare on a lot of products the op tried in its T1 services quest. Sometimes it took days just to get a product working even in the lab.
But things started to change when the op's people met Vyyo at SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo 2003, Heuck says. "We were kind of skeptical because of all the disappointments we had in the past," he continues.
Despite earlier frustrations, the op decided to move forward and test the Vyyo product in early 2004. Heuck reports that it set up in the lab in a matter of hours. The same amount of time was needed to set up in the field as it took in the lab. Hargray had the first cell site up and running on the product in less than half a day.
Heuck says the solution still needed work on provisioning and testing, but improvements were made to those components of the product based on Hargray's input.
Heuck concluded his presentation during the Webinar with the following points:
- Hargray's average cost for the equipment to deploy a T1 on this platform was $3,018 per T1.
- Installation time was four hours max.
- The average revenue saved per T1, per cell site, per month, was $790.91.
- It took less than five months to break even.
"We undercut our competition by $200 per month to attract businesses at a monthly rate of $550," Heuck says. The breakeven for businesses is a little over six months, he concludes.
Windy City Confab
Want to hear more about real-world business services over HFC? Then you'll probably want to check out the SCTE Business Services Symposium that's set for Oct. 17-18 in Chicago. The preregistration deadline is Oct. 2. To review the symposium's schedule and other details, visit http://scte.org/content/index.cfm?pID=1462.
Deployments
- ARRIS in collaboration with its Korean value-added reseller (VAR) AJin Techline Co. Ltd., announced the successful field trials of wideband data service to customers of KCTV JEJU Broadcasting. KCTV JEJU Broadcasting provides high-speed data service as well as cable service across JEJU Island, South Korea. The deployment delivers data speeds in excess of 100 Mbps to the op's customers using the ARRIS FlexPath wideband data solution contained in the ARRIS Cadant C4 CMTS and the ARRIS Touchstone WBM650B wideband modems.
- RCN selected the BigBand BMR (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router) to implement digital simulcasting in its markets. RCN's digital simulcast implementation utilizes the BigBand BMR to manage program lineups, control video quality and bandwidth efficiency, insert local advertising and transport video content between facilities.
- Buckeye CableSystem will offer an upgraded set of email solutions to its subscribers based on a custom version of the Everyone.net email platform. The new solution will provide users with a "significant reduction in spam and junk email, while saving email infrastructure costs and resources for Buckeye," according to Everyone.net.
- Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM), Japan's largest MSO with over 2.2 million subs, selected LongBoard to conduct a trial in October leading to an early commercial launch of a fixed mobile convergence (FMC) service. When launched, it will be the first FMC service for the residential market in Japan, and potentially one of the largest FMC deployments in the world.
The FMC service will allow J:COM subs with a dual mode cellular/PHS and WiFi phone to make and receive phone calls over either network. The LongBoard MultiMedia Application Platform (LMAP), a carrier-grade IMS-compatible converged services platform, will be utilized by J:COM for the FMC service. LMAP uses SIP standard software for seamless handover of calls between fixed and mobile networks using one telephone number. LongBoard's software is 3GPP IMS-compliant and is currently being trialed with several ops elsewhere in the world in addition to J:COM.
- Infinity Communications, which is licensed by the Cayman Island's government to provide digital cable TV, Internet services and digital telephony throughout the islands, and Wave7 Optics announced that construction of a high-capacity FTTP network. The net, based on Wave7's Trident7 optical access system, is expected to be available to more than 24,000 households on Grand Cayman by the end of 2008.
The Playing Field
- Aurora Networks named 33-year cable vet Andrew Ferraro as VP of sales for its northeast region. His territory includes New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire. In 1992 he joined Arris Group, and held several VP of sales positions over a five-year period. Most recently, Ferraro served as VP of strategic accounts for Confluent Photonics, a startup he joined in 2003.
- CableLabs founder Richard Leghorn was among six pioneers who were inducted recently into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame for their significant accomplishments in the advancement of space and missile programs of the Air Force.
Leghorn, a retired colonel of the USAF Reserve, led development of early Cold War airborne and space-based reconnaissance systems. Leghorn became a cable operator and a major participant in cable's first fight against must-carry regulations and lobbied the industry to establish a research and development laboratory. He funded a significant study by RAND Corp. that led to the structuring and establishment of CableLabs in 1988. Leghorn is a director emeritus on the 28-member CableLabs board.
- Everstream, a Concurrent company, appointed Barry Hardek as VP of marketing and business development. He is an industry veteran with over 25 years of business development, marketing and sales experience. Prior to joining Everstream, Hardek was VP of marketing and sales at CableMatrix.
- The SCTE Foundation received its first donation, a check for more than $45,000 from the Tom Polis Foundation. The Chester County (Pa.) Community Foundation, which administers the Tom Polis Foundation, has transferred the sum to the SCTE Foundation as "a grant...[from] the Tom Polis Charitable Golf Outing and the generosity of the Polis family." Tom Polis served as SCTE president in the 1980s and was inducted into the SCTE Hall of Fame in 1999. He passed away about five years ago.
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