The last time I blogged about CCAP, we were checking the online anagram universe for words one could make out of “CMAP” and “CESAR,” then two competing labels for the work of converging the QAM modulators used by digital voice, video and data services in cable.

Happily for me (because the anagram selections were abysmal), it settled out as what is now “CCAP” – the Cable Converged Access Platform. Watch for it to be a pretty hot topic at next week’s Cable Show — and not just because we announced a pretty incredible new downstream line card (the DS-384) related to it. Although…

CCAP matters at this year’s Cable Show for the same reason it mattered last year: Because consumer usage of broadband is off the hook, and cable operators need to stay ahead of that very tight curve, because narrowcast services are Read More »

Tags: ccap, qam, Service Provider, video, videoscape

By Mark Palazzo, VP/GM, Cable Access Business Unit, Cisco Systems

One of the more nuanced aspects of hard-core technological developments in the cable industry these recent months is the “CMAP v. CESAR” debate. Haven’t heard of it? Boiled way down, it’s a different set of viewpoints about the best way to migrate to a converged CMTS and universal edge QAM architecture, in conjunction with cable’s HFC (hybrid fiber-coax) plant migration.

To put this in historical context, cable operators “went digital” in phases. Digital video was first, followed by broadband data via cable modems, followed fairly shortly after by voice over IP. Operators use a form of modulation called “QAM” (quadrature amplitude modulation) to get video, data and voice signals over the plant to subscribing homes and businesses.

At issue was simple market timing: Digital video vendors built QAM products specifically to support video; broadband-side vendors built different QAM products, for high-speed data; and voice equipment vendors built QAM based TDM products for voice. The proprietary data and voice products where later replaced with the standardized DOCSIS CMTS platform. Read More »

Tags: cable, cmap, cmts, qam, Service Provider