NCTA: Motorola demos next-gen cable network

ATLANTA – Motorola is using the National Cable & Telecommunications Association show to demonstrate the next generation of cable network technology, using channel bonding to deliver up to 120 Megabits per second of downstream data.

Using channel bonding of four downstream signals to a Motorola BSR 64000 cable modem termination system (CMTS), the equipment vendor is showing one way in which cable companies can compete more effectively in delivering multimedia services over their existing hybrid fiber-coax networks.

“Cable has tended to have separate delivery mechanisms – video using MPEG transport over HFC, whereas the voice and data is delivered using IP,” said Jeff Walker, senior director of marketing. “The next step is to move the video traffic onto IP. One of the ways to do that is to bond multiple physical channels into a single, virtual, high-bandwidth channel.” Rather than using single 6 Megahertz channels to deliver video, the channel bonding approach enables a cable company to make use of bonded bandwidth and the statistical multiplexing of an IP network to deliver higher throughput and more efficient use of the bandwidth.

The company also is announcing the initial commercial deployment of PacketCable MultiMedia (PCMM), a Cable Labs standard, by StarHub of Singapore. Working with Sandvine’s PCMM application manager, Camiant’s PCMM policy server, and provisioning software from Incognito and Interactive Enterprise, Motorola is providing end-to-end integration to enable Quality of Service for enhanced entertainment services.

“This enables cable to more effectively compete with the telcos,” Walker said. “It will initially be used to deliver high-speed ‘data’ – but that could be video, not in the traditional cable channels but as streaming media on a PC.”