Orlando -- It's a day late, but probably not a dollar short.
Comcast has given a shout-out for Arris's Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) strategy, and the nation's largest MSO indicated that it expects to adopt the vendor's E6000 as a stepping stone for future CCAP headend projects.
On Monday, Arris announced details of its E6000 Converged Edge Router, which the company said over time will adopt features required in the CableLabs CCAP spec, such as universal edge QAM support (see Arris Points High-Density CMTS Toward CCAP Target).
Now Comcast has weighed in with an atta-boy for the vendor.
"Arris has been a strong contributor to the development of next-generation access platforms such as CCAP, and we are excited to help them bring this to market," Sam Chernak, Comcast Cable senior vice president of access technology, said in a statement issued by Arris late Tuesday. "They have been a technology partner for many years, and we look forward to continuing this with the CCAP platform."
In its first incarnation, the E6000 is essentially a huge cable-modem termination system, with support for up to 1,792 downstream DOCSIS channels in a 16RU chassis. But it will evolve to become Arris's horse in the CCAP race, and the vendor expects the E6000 to serve operators for the next decade.
Of course, Comcast surely has one or more additional CCAP-ready platforms in its labs, and the full CCAP capabilities of the E6000 are unproven. But Comcast's support is a big vote of confidence for Arris -- at least at this stage of the game.
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