Casa Shows 4.5 Gbps Down, 400 Mbps Up, on Way to 70 Gbps?

Casa Systems demonstrated DOCSIS 3.1 with upstream speeds of more than 400 Mbps. Casa Systems is now one of the first suppliers of DOCSIS 3.1 to show multi-Mbps upstream traffic. Previously, Casa Systems had shown support of 4.5 Gbps in the downstream direction.

Although perhaps not originally envisioned, the cable TV hybrid fiber coax network has shown extraordinary ability to support hundreds of megabits to gigabit Internet access speeds using software upgrades, without requiring a fiber-to-premises upgrade.

That capability has allowed U.S. Internet service provider Comcast, now the biggest supplier in that market, to double the capacity of its network every 18 months.

In other words, Comcast has  increased capacity precisely at the rate one would expect if access bandwidth operated according to Moore’s Law.

U.S. telcos have generally not been able to increase speed at such rates. That, in large part, might account for Comcast’s leadership of the Internet access market.

That said, across the whole market, access bandwidth has grown at rates very close to what one would expect if Internet access were governed by Moore’s Law.

source: Arris

Casa Systems Shows Mobile Access Using Cable Wi-Fi

Casa Systems, a provider of untethered access, demonstrated a virtualized fixed-mobile convergence solution that enables cable service providers to offer mobile services using Wi-Fi access from cable TV plant.

Casa supplies small cell solutions optimized for use by cable operators, and the latest proof of concept demonstrates the viability of using cable homespots and hotspots to support mobile access.

  

Are Webscale App Providers Shaping Core Telecom Platform Trends?

Webscale Internet companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon) now are exerting a “markedly increased influence” on markets for communications service. Analysts at Heavy Reading now think the webscale players also increasingly are shaping the market for networking hardware, software and services.

That will be a contentious point of view, even if many telecom industry execs and others think that is true, to some extent.

Google and Facebook are developing new backhaul and access platforms. Google Fiber does buy industry-standard optical access networks as well.

But Facebook mostly is looking at open source platforms that can be manufactured by supplied by industry suppliers.

Clearly, there is impact in terms of buying behavior in the case of Google Fiber, and development potential in the open source efforts by Facebook.

At least some telecom industry professionals believe the webscale providers are "leading in networking innovation"; are "increasingly calling the shots"; increasingly "building out their own telecom infrastructure" and that "it's a matter of time before one of these guys buys one of the big CSPs (communications service providers).”

A Heavy Reading analyst team interviewed more than a dozen leading network infrastructure professionals at leading CSPs at the CTO, VP and director level, as well as more than 25 senior individuals in network equipment vendors at CTO, VP and director level; plus several leaders in key telecom industry associations, standards bodies and other specialist consultancies; and some of the WICs themselves.

The primary and secondary research was complemented by a Heavy Reading online survey, generating responses from 82 qualified respondents in network equipment vendors and 57 from qualified respondents in CSPs.

Keep in mind that about half the 82 vendor respondents came from individuals from one vendor company.

Around half came from vendors from whom two or more (but no more than four) respondents supplied responses. Those companies from which two or more respondents participated include ADVA, Broadsoft, Casa Systems, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, F5, Huawei, HP, IBM, Infinera, Juniper Networks, Nokia, NetScout, Vasona Networks and Radisys.

As you might expect, the online respondents identified Google as the webscale player posing the greatest threat to communications service providers.

Source: Heavy Reading