The Future of CCAP for HFC

The Future of CCAP for Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) deployments may follow many different...

tom cloonan

Tom Cloonan, ARRIS CTO, Networks

The Future of CCAP for Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) deployments may follow many different forms, including Higher-Density, headend-based Integrated CCAP Architectures (where all of the processing is in the headend) and Distributed CCAP Architectures (where some or all of the processing is moved from the headend to the fiber node).

Within the class of Distributed CCAP Architectures, there are at least three new next-generation architectural approaches that are being considered: Remote PHY, Remote MACPHY (with EQAM functionality in the headend), and Remote MACPHY (with EQAM functionality in the fiber node).

Distributed CCAP Architectures, or DCAs, have many potential benefits, including:

  1. Reducing space and power requirements in the headend
  2. Supporting more wavelengths on the digital fiber (instead of an AM fiber) to help ease the move to Fiber Deep systems and more fiber nodes
  3. Improving end-to-end signal-to-noise ratios, which can therefore improve DOCSIS® 3.1 transport speeds.
  4. Different operators will undoubtedly choose different architectures going forward, and selecting the right architecture for each operator will be a challenging task.

    At this year’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, I will be presenting a workshop reviewing these three subclasses of DCAs and analyzing the detailed attributes of each subclass in an attempt to help operators as they evaluate these new architectures.

    Please join me on Thursday at 9:30 am CT, when I will present key highlights from my paper on the “Looming Challenges and Potential Solutions for Future Distributed CCAP Architecture Systems.”