|
NewsGlobe: Commentary
Cable mines for fiber
Could RFoG be the cable operator’s FTTH savior?
by Sean Buckley
Given the activity by the large and even competitive carriers offering
FTTH services, I can’t help but think about what the cable guys plan to
do with fiber.
First, you have the two largest telcos and their fiber community divisions
(AT&T’s Connected Communities) and Verizon Communications’ Enhanced
Communities) are bringing fiber networks to new communities in
conjunction with developers. To add insult to injury, a growing mix of
alternative companies (Connexion and Greenfield Communications), are
working with developers to also bring fiber to Greenfield communities.
These factors are driving traditional cable vendors such as Motorola to
respond with a set of new FTTH solutions optimized for the cable
network.
Paul Braun, Senior Product Manger, Access Networks Solutions for
Motorola, which already provides its GPON solutions to Verizon, told me
as they began looking for ways to apply its PON prowess to the cable
industry their cable customers said they were starting to get pressure
from the developer community for some form of FTTH.
“Your competition (Verizon or AT&T) wants to build fiber-to-the-
home in my new community, so Mr. Cable Operator what are you going to
build for me?” he said. “Are you going to put that lousy old coax on the
side of the house? The cable operator says: ‘that lousy old coax gives you
the same service you can do over fiber-to-the-home today. The developer
says, 'we don’t care because fiber sounds better and I can sell a
house for more money that has fiber.’”
And Motorola could be onto something. Launched at this year’s National
Cable & Telecommunications Association’s The Cable Show, Motorola’s
cable PON solutions offers cable operators both an optimized GPON
product in addition to the Society of Cable Telecommunications
Engineer’s (SCTE’s) RFoG (RF over Glass) standard. RFoG enables cable
operators to lay a foundation to migrate to GPON while using their
existing cable network elements.
As an emerging standard, RFoG, at first blush, looks promising. Along
with a path to FTTH, RFoG can enable the cable provider to serve one
home per node instead of the traditional method of serving 50-250
homes per node.
Joining Motorola are the usual cable vendor suspects (ARRIS,
CommScope and Cisco/Scientific Atlanta) and telecom vendors (Alloptic).
With all of its promise of unlimited bandwidth, it would seem like a given
that cable operators would just drop everything and take fiber all the
way.
Well, not so fast.
Given the cost of trenching fiber to every home and the fact that PON
technology was designed for a telco network, cable operators need
something that can fit into their network architecture. Right now, the large cable MSOs continue to find ways to wring out more capacity out of their existing HFC plant with DOCSIS 3.0, node splitting, switched digital video, MPEG-4 compression, and home gateway
bandwidth management. (See:
Cable's bandwidth crisis)
Outside of some smaller aggressive independent cable operators (Grande
Communications and Knology), the cable industry’s deployment of FTTH
and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) has been minimal at best.
Like any new technology, RFoG is finding its initial traction with smaller
cable operators.
In addition to a US$24 million cash infusion to fund new research and
development around its RFoG solution, Alloptic secured a deal with
Armstrong Cable to deploy its MicroNode solution.
Starting with its Butler County, Penn., market, Armstrong claims that
Alloptic’s MicroNode product not only allows it to reduce the amount of
homes passed per node, but it also cuts down on maintenance functions
including signal Leakage drive-outs.
However, there’s one drawback to RFoG. Even though it is FTTH, RFoG
does not give the MSO any additional bandwidth because the operator is
still, in effect, running an HFC network. Despite the bandwidth limitation,
cable operators in the near-term can claim they have a FTTH play to
quell developer pressure, while paving a path to PON when ready.
With their ties to Wall Street, I am sure the cable MSOs are probably are
loathe to go back and say, "we want to now start plowing fiber everywhere."
While it’s true that it will take years before FTTH is ubiquitous, it’s clear
that if the cable guys want to stay ahead of the competitive curve,
they will have to start mining for fiber.
|
