Moto Eyes Video Blaster

Vendor Sees Mid-2011 Trials for Video Edge Services Platform

by Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 3/8/2010 2:57:26 PM

As the Internet video wave continues to swell, Motorola is developing an ultra-high-density, video-centric edge services router to help cable operators navigate the shifting tides.

The company's Video Edge Services Platform - which will supersede its current cable-modem termination system - is aimed at enabling cable's future IPTV services, said Joe Cozzolino, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola Access Networks Solutions.

Whereas today up to 90% of the traffic through a CMTS is data, in the future "80% of your packets will be video," Cozzolino said. "There has to be a logarithmic change in how the platform handles the traffic."

The new system will provide much higher-density QAM channels and a more scalable backplane for high-bandwidth video traffic, and it will be in the "sweet spot" of what Comcast is calling the "converged multiservice access platform," or CMAP, Cozzolino said. The product will be available for trial deployments in mid-2011 with general availability targeted for 2012, he added.

Motorola is catching up to its chief rival - Cisco Systems - in talking about delivering gobs of IP video at the edge of the network. Cisco introduced the ASR 9000 router, designed to handle 6.4 Terabits per second in a half-rack chassis, in late 2008.

Still, Motorola's timing appears to be good on this front, and the company may be able to leapfrog the capabilities of both Cisco and Arris termination systems, said IDC analyst David Emberley. Motorola has "been able to pull together the engineering expertise to jump ahead of the game, and tie it all together under one roof," he said.

Motorola is not detailing speeds and feeds yet, but Cozzolino said Motorola's Video Edge Services Platform will be in the same league as the Cisco ASR 9000.

Within five years, Motorola expects densities to increase from four QAMs per RF port today to 64 QAMs per RF port. "Having that high density is important," Cozzolino said. "We believe the number of QAMs will go up exponentially."

Cozzolino was careful to note that operators will be able to use their existing CMTS and edge QAM infrastructure with the new platform. "This is an evolutionary story, not a revolutionary story," he said. "We're not saying, forklift your edge QAMs out."

Cozzolino is overseeing Motorola's shift to the next-generation Video Edge Services Platform after the departure of his boss, Dan Moloney, previously in charge of Motorola's Home & Networks Mobility group, who is leaving the company to become CEO of electronic components manufacturer Technitrol.

Cozzolino now reports directly to Sanjay Jha, who is now CEO of Motorola's newly created Mobile Devices and Home business.