Philadelphia -- Harmonic is the latest vendor to jump on the “RF over glass” concept, announcing that it is working with CommScope to ensure product compatibility to provide cable operators with a fiber-to-the-home solution.
Harmonic's MAXLink forward path transmitters and return-path receivers -- combined with CommScope's BrightPath FTTH system -- enable cable operators to implement an RF over glass (RFoG) architecture designed for greenfield deployments.
The purported allure of RFoG is that it allows a cable system to use existing headend infrastructure and consumer-premises equipment while putting an all-fiber cable network solution in place for future services.
CommScope's fiber-to-the-home BrightPath transmits analog and digital services for video, voice and data in both the forward and reverse path. Harmonic's MAXLink transmitters and optical amplifiers are designed for 1550 nm-based network applications.
"In today's highly competitive environment, the ability for cable operators to have a solution available to be able to respond to the telco architecture is crucial," Harmonic director of HFC solutions Sunil Frida said. "This solution does not require a 'forklift' of the typically capital intensive cable headend equipment.”
Also Wednesday, Harmonic announced it has doubled the capacity of its Narrowcast Services Gateway 9000 universal edge QAM, to support up to 144 QAMS in a two-rack chassis.
The Octal 48 MHz (eight QAM) field-upgradable module doubles the existing NSG 9000 platform's capacity. The NSG with Octal can allocate individual frequencies across the 48-MHz spectrum, rather than as adjacent or contiguous block QAM channels.
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