Global Operators Show Support for Network Automation with Cisco 'Infinite Broadband' Remote PHY Solution

DENVER, CO--(Marketwired - Oct 18, 2017) - SCTE Cable-Tec Expo Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is meeting with its cable operator customers this week in Denver to demonstrate how it is leading disruption of the industry through its technology innovations.

Many operators are here to see and discuss how to add capacity to their cable networks through automation and virtualization to support intense bandwidth demands for cable broadband and video services on any device.

Cisco's Infinite Broadband Remote PHY solution (RPHY) for cable access networks, the industy's only standards-based distributed access architecture (DAA) on the market, will be a heavy topic of conversation at the Cisco booth #987 this year. 

Remote PHY refers to the technique of moving the physical 'PHY' circuit layer out of a headend device such as a converged cable access platform (CCAP), and putting it into a distributed device at the edge of the network (RPHY Node), or a smaller hub-site (RPHY Shelf) to be closer to the customer.

Remote PHY is fast becoming the preferred approach for many cable operators for DAA, defined by CableLabs, offering significant total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits through a reduction of power, cooling and hub site sizing requirements.

Cisco's RPHY solution is based on open, standardized software that was contributed to Cable Labs OpenRPD forum in 2016. This open source initiative creates an ecosystem of Remote PHY device (RPD) vendors, allowing operators to select an RPD vendor that best meets their needs, without being locked into a single vendor's proprietary solution.

What's new with Cisco Infinite Broadband Remote PHY?

• Recent customers aligned with Cisco's strategy for distributed access architecture via Remote PHY include Korea's D'Live, South Florida's Blue Stream, and others.
• Cisco today introduces its new GS7000i Smartnode, adding new mass awareness telemetry and proactive control automation capabilities to the cable access network. These new features extend its Smart PHY Automation capabilities beyond the RPD.
• Based on the Cisco GS7000 Optical Node, the no-touch GS7000i Smartnode delivers an innovative approach that enables significant operational savings for operators through automation. No manual configuration is necessary, offering faster service deployments, faster recovery times and improved network performance monitoring.

"Blue Stream customers want Gigabit broadband services. It is a 'must have' to deliver what our customers want to any device," said Joe Canavan, chief operating officer, Blue Stream. "We were looking for the best way to expand our footprint and deliver high-speed data, video and voice to new service areas from our existing headend infrastructure. Cisco's Remote PHY solution has helped us deliver these services over a single IP link and single platform exactly how and where we needed. We worked closely with CCI Systems for the Remote PHY solution design, as well as video and IP network integration services."