Cable-Tec Expo: Cisco Points to Remote PHY Progress

Signaling some early progress for an emerging HFC architecture, Cisco Systems said it has landed agreements with operators around the globe for its “Infinite Broadband” Remote PHY platform.

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Cisco said some early takers include South Korea’s D’Live as well as Blue Stream, a cable operator based in south Florida formerly known as Advanced Cable Communications that is pushing ahead with a 1-Gig broadband service deployment.

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Cisco touted that deployment progress as Remote PHY becomes a priority for several MSOs. Rather than using a highly centralized architecture with massive chassis in headends and hubs, the new architecture places more electronics and network smarts toward the edge of the network, a move that can boost capacity on the HFC network while also reducing power and space requirements. It also puts cable operators on a path toward more agile network functions virtualization and software-defined networking systems.

Cisco’s version of the architecture removes the PHY circuit layer that is typically housed in a traditional Converged Cable Access Platform chassis and places that functionality into a Remote PHY Node or a smaller hub site, called an RPHY Shelf. Some vendors are also advocating architectures that placed the PHY and MAC at the edges.

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Cisco’s RPHY platform also features open, standardized software that was contributed to the CableLabs OpenRPD forum in 2015.

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Along with the deployment update, Cisco also introduced the GS7000i Smartnode, a product that is based on its GS7000 Optical Node that adds in telemetry and proactive control automation capabilities.