As the Internet video wave continues to swell, Motorola is
developing an ultra-high-density, video-centric edge services router to help
cable operators navigate the shifting tides.
The company's Video Edge Services Platform - which will
supersede its current cable-modem termination system - is aimed at enabling
cable's future IPTV services, said Joe Cozzolino, senior vice president and
general manager of Motorola Access Networks Solutions.
Whereas today up to 90% of the traffic through a CMTS is
data, in the future "80% of your packets will be video," Cozzolino said. "There
has to be a logarithmic change in how the platform handles the traffic."
The new system will provide much higher-density QAM channels
and a more scalable backplane for high-bandwidth video traffic, and it will be
in the "sweet spot" of what Comcast is calling the "converged multiservice
access platform," or CMAP, Cozzolino said. The product will be available for trial
deployments in mid-2011 with general availability targeted for 2012, he added.
Motorola is catching up to its chief rival - Cisco Systems -
in talking about delivering gobs of IP video at the edge of the network. Cisco
introduced the ASR 9000 router, designed to
handle 6.4 Terabits per second in a half-rack chassis, in late 2008.
Still, Motorola's timing appears to be good on this front,
and the company may be able to leapfrog the capabilities of both Cisco and
Arris termination systems, said IDC analyst David Emberley. Motorola has "been
able to pull together the engineering expertise to jump ahead of the game, and
tie it all together under one roof," he said.
Motorola is not detailing speeds and feeds yet, but
Cozzolino said Motorola's Video Edge Services Platform will be in the same
league as the Cisco ASR 9000.
Within five years, Motorola expects densities to increase
from four QAMs per RF port today to 64 QAMs per RF port. "Having that high
density is important," Cozzolino said. "We believe the number of QAMs will go
up exponentially."
Cozzolino was careful to note that operators will be able to
use their existing CMTS and edge QAM infrastructure with the new platform.
"This is an evolutionary story, not a revolutionary story," he said. "We're not
saying, forklift your edge QAMs out."
Cozzolino is overseeing Motorola's shift to the
next-generation Video Edge Services Platform after the departure of his boss,
Dan Moloney, previously in charge of Motorola's Home & Networks Mobility
group, who is leaving the company to become CEO of electronic components
manufacturer Technitrol.
Cozzolino now reports directly to Sanjay Jha, who is
now CEO of Motorola's newly created Mobile Devices and Home business.
