Cable plays nice: Service convergence on the CIN
By Fernando Villarruel – At the start of 2019, the cable industry announced its vision for delivering 10 gigabit networks, ramping up from 1 Gbps service offerings to symmetrical speeds of 10 Gbps and beyond while enhancing the customer experience and achieving operational efficiencies. Industry bodies, cable MSOs, and vendors are working together to address industry-wide challenges associated with moving to next generation networks. Moving forward, even more interaction may be necessary if we want to maximize the potential of these new networks – particularly around convergence.
Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many MSOs in North America and other regions to talk about one of my favorite topics, the Converged Interconnect Network, otherwise known as CIN.
Some MSOs plan multi-service convergence in the CIN from the beginning, while others reserve the idea for future contemplation. For those considering service convergence “out of the gate,” it must be capable of providing (or delivering) different revenue services such as residential, mobile backhaul (small cell and macro-cell) and enterprise connections – and this is independent of delivery systems such as R-PHY, R-MACPHY, Flexible MAC Architecture (FMA), and even PON. In many cases, MSOs outside of the United States also have telco services (e.g. mobile networks – LTE, 4G, moving to 5G) and are interested in creating an environment where the last tentacles of the network – the access network – can fully participate in the convergence of services to maximize operational efficiencies. more>
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