It's Cable Congress week and also the week that The Euro50 award winners will be announced - we've got our fingers crossed for our EMEA CTO, Cornel Ciocirlan who has been nominated in the Technology Leader category. The Euro50 celebrates those who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and vision in their fields and made a significant contribution to the strength of their organisation or the industry itself.
Cornel Ciocirlan, CTO, EMEA, ARRIS
Being shortlisted in the Euro 50 is a great achievement, congratulations. Can you give another example of one of your greatest achievements?
I am most proud of having contributed to the success of DOCSIS® and PacketCable™ over the last 10 years in the European cable industry. In terms of my role at ARRIS so far, my greatest achievement has been helping to make the E6000 the best CCAP platform on the market for European cable operators.
Europe is an exciting market for ARRIS – what’s happening right now that’s keeping you busy?
Service providers across the board are working to maintain high speed leadership. On the cable side, operators are deploying CCAP and are focused on DOCSIS 3.1 readiness, while telcos are aggressively investing in network upgrades to sustain ultra broadband (500Mbit+) services.
In a world of ubiquitous ultra broadband availability, user experience is fast-becoming the key differentiator – and providers are not only facing their traditional competitors, but also competition from the consumer electronics industry and over-the-top (OTT) content delivery services. The abilities to access content anywhere – with a simple and consistent UI - and to discover content and interact with content are crucial building blocks for a great user experience.
What are the top 3 technology developments that you’re working on right now at ARRIS?
- The introduction of DOCSIS 3.1 in the next 1-2 years
- The evolution towards open, flexible software frameworks that service providers can build their own differentiated UX on top of – RDK is one example that is gaining traction quickly
- The impact of software-defined networks (SDN) and cloud technologies into the access network, along with the service delivery infrastructure
Innovation is a word used fairly often in our industry. How would you define it?
In my eyes, innovation means finding a new way to connect the dots that makes people’s life simpler and easier.
What’s the best piece of career advise you've been given?
If you don't like what you're doing, stop doing it!
