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Broadband Access
Can cable survive without Fiber-to-the-x?
Competitive pressures drive MSOs to consider evolutionary paths
by Sean Buckley
Even with all of the momentum around the cable industry’s move to DOCSIS 3.0, it looks like some cable MSOs realize that the HFC network’s bandwidth possibilities will only get them so far into the future.
It’s not like there’s been a shortage of coverage surrounding how cable MSOs expanding the boundaries of their existing HFC plant to deliver ultra high-speed bandwidth services.
Both North American (Charter and Shaw) and UK-based (Virgin) MSOs have been upping the ante of their high speed offerings via DOCSIS 3.0 technology, which allows multiple downstream channels to be bonded together to aggregate bandwidth at speeds of 50, 60 and 100 Mbps, respectively. (see Shaw Communications unleashes 100 Mbps broadband).
While it’s far from an actual deployment, the cable operators do seem interested in taking a new step: pursuing a Fiber-to-the-x strategy.
Now reports have emerged that Time Warner Cable has issued a Request for Information (RFI) for FTTP equipment options (i.e, Radio Frequency over Glass (i.e., RFoG), EPON, and 10 GigEPON).
The key with these options is that they are more evolutionary in their ability to let the cable operator leverage their existing head-ends and other related equipment.
Time Warner’s RFI move follows an announcement made last summer by Cox Communications, a company unfettered by Wall Street’s shackles, it had also issued a similar RFI.
Already using FTTP in various Greenfield locations over PON, including schools and new housing developments, Cox is also exploring (RF over Glass) other interim solutions to potentially bridge the coax to fiber divide.
It could be argued that cable wants to have some insurance policy to be prepared to take on the RBOC's fiber drive. Traditional landline competitors, while still developing their rollouts, are gaining momentum with FTTX.
Verizon, for instance, reported that at the end of 2008 its FiOS Fiber-to-the-Premises network passed over 12.7 premises, while its Fiber-to-Home footprint spans about 40 percent of homes throughout its wireline footprint.
Not far behind Verizon — although they are taking different approaches — are Qwest and AT&T.
AT&T’s FTTN U-Verse deployment now passes 17 million living units, while Qwest’s FTTN network now passes over 1.5 million homes.
“The bottom line for cable operators is that even with DOCSIS 3.0, MPEG-4, node splits and switched digital video (SDV), they are still spectrum-constrained, especially as an increasing number of channels are broadcast in HD, and the number of HD feeds per household increases,” said Erik Keith, Current Analysis. “So, over the long term, cable operators will also have to take fiber all the way to the end-user to match the telco competition. And as telcos move beyond GPON, cable operators will be at an increasing disadvantage unless they migrate to FTTH.”
Wading through the RFoG
With PON, and to a lesser extent Active Ethernet, gaining the lion’s share of telco FTTX deployments, one option that’s gaining increasing interest in the cable industry considering FTTX is RFoG (Radio Frequency over Glass).
Not wanting to strand their existing coax investments, RFoG, although still anevolving cable industry standard, has been gaining increased attention.
Simply defined, RFoG allows the cable operator, or even a telco with a cable subsidiary to carry data, video and other services over fiber, while leveraging their existing RF equipment (head-ends and back office equipment).
“RFOG is a good near to mid-term strategy for the cable industry, and paves the way for the cable operators in terms of moving to deep fiber/FTTH networks over the long-term,” said Keith. “In fact, running DOCSIS and RF forward/return services over a GPON network is a great transitional strategy for MSOs, enabling them to leverage familiar technologies over a so-called future-proof network.”
In response, a growing number of last-mile insurgent vendors (Alloptic, Aurora, Calix, and Hitachi) have been developing pre-standard RF over Glass (RFoG) products.
Some vendors such as Hitachi Americas and Calix are extending the capabilities of their existing offerings by integrating RFoG capabilities into their offerings.
Calix has integrated support for existing and emerging cable RF return-path standards (both the SCTE’s 55-1 and 55-2 and Cable Labs DOCSIS and DOCSIS STB gateways) into its 725 Optical Network Terminal (ONT).
Calix has integrated support for existing and emerging cable RF return path standards (both the SCTE’s 55-1 and 55-2 and Cable Labs DOCSIS and DOCSIS STB gateways) into its 725 Optical Network Terminal (ONT).
Similarly, Hitachi with the Node+Zero solution can be deployed as a standalone network interface at the subscriber’s premise or in combination with a GPON ONT.
Dave Cleary, vice president of advanced technology, Calix — who leads the development of the initial FTTx standards as a member of the former Optical Solutions — realizes that there’s still a lot of opportunity to target cable operators with a FTTx solution that can complement their RF-based networks.
“Cable has been saying that their existing DOCSIS plant can support quite a bit of bandwidth growth,” he said. “They used to say their existing plant can support 5 Gbps, which I think technically is true, but I think practically it’s not true so a lot of them are looking at an all-fiber approach. The RFoG solution plays into that because while they will have to replace some of their coax with fiber, at least it lets them reuse the capital inside the customer premise.”
But Tier 1 vendors are just as anxious to get a piece of the cable’s deep fiber play for cable.
Not surprisingly, each vendor is coming at cable's interest in FTTX with its own method.
Instead of jumping on the RFoG train, the San Jose-based vendor is touting its DPON (DOCSIS PON) approach. With DPON, Cisco will leverage translation software at both the head-end and the customer premise that will effectively make it look to the existing back office systems that the MSO is sending data over HFC when it’s actually going over fiber.
The only drawback with Cisco’s solution is that while it claims that because it’s running over fiber it is not prone to the spectral issues of an RFoG solution, it requires new equipment in the head end and at the customer premise.
Alternatively, Motorola, which has built a growing base of Fiber-to-the-x and obviously cable products via acquisitions, is jumping onto the RFoG train by signing an agreement with Alloptic. (see Figure 1.)
Up til now, Alloptic’s RFoG-like products have been finding acceptance with both smaller cable operators and independent ILECs that have cable subsidiaries. Such a deal will give Alloptic an entrée into large Tier 1 cable MSOs that are more likely to want the support of an established vendor.
“This is an exclusive agreement where we are Alloptic’s sole channel targeting Tier 1 cable MSOs,” said Floyd Waggoner, senior manager of marketing in Motorola’s Access network division. “We had a desire to get an RFoG solution to market quickly to support cable operators that are interested in this technology.”
New SMB weapon
Outside of their core residential market cash cow, deep fiber architectures could also play an increasing role in the cable MSO’s business services drive, including the Small to Medium Business (SMB) market.
Long the land of the underserved, cable operators have been finding a ready-made audience for their services in the Small to Medium business market.
And they should be aggressive in bringing fiber-based services to the SMBs as the RBOCs are now leveraging their own fiber wares to penetrate this market segment.
Cox, for instance, leverages both its growing fiber assets but also its existing coax cabling to provide business services to both the large and SMB community over both HFC and fiber. Currently, 80 percent of Cox’s business customers are served over HFC.
“We recognized early on that with a solid portfolio of data, voice and video, small customers were very eager for an alternative provider primarily because they felt that their needs have gone underserved in terms of responsiveness,” said Kristine Faulkner, Vice President of Product Development and Management of Cox Business. (see Cox finds in the commercial services market).
Typically perceived as the sleeping giant, the RBOCs still have plenty of game in the SMB market.
AT&T and Verizon are now taking their fiber-based wares into the SMB.
AT&T late last year launched an 18 Mbps FTTN-based service. With a high rate reach of 18 Mbps, AT&T hopes it will boost complementary managed service options such as AT&T Remote Vault and AT&T Shared Web Hosting. (see AT&T Extends U-verse to SMBs)
Earlier, Verizon launched its series of FiOS-based Internet and video products targeted at SMBs. (see Verizon expands its MTU fiber drive).
Along with extending their FiOS Internet service suite to SMBs in available markets, Verizon is also eating into cable’s own business offering: television.
By extending its FiOS TV services to the SMB market, Verizon is finding a healthy audience with local bars, doctor’s offices and other businesses where there are waiting rooms.
“Even before we started the business case, we were getting inquiries from customers about video service,” said Ken Wiley, senior marketing manager for Verizon FiOS. “I would say there’s a bit of pent-up demand for video services. You could walk into almost any business and see some kind of video product.”
With the RBOCs continually upping the ante of their own FTTx-based SMB service sets with video, cable operators will need to respond. Extending FTTP-based services to SMBS with services that could pertain to firms that crave higher bandwidth will give them a competitive edge against the RBOCs, but they could use the market as a proving ground to trial FTTP.
“For MSOs, the business-class market is one of the best opportunities left for generating high-margin revenues, and cable operators could utilize their SMB customer bases as test-beds for RFoG and GPON technologies, before leveraging them more extensively into the larger residential market,” Keith said.
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