Cisco’s New CMTS and Nodes

SCTE EXPO 2013 – Fresh Tech

Feeling special having been invited into the “whisper suit” at CISCO’s booth to get a first look at Cisco’s new CMTS and Node.  No one was permitted to take photo’s so my description will have to be enough.

Cisco has gotten completely out of their normal box for their new CMTS.  It is much smaller than the traditional 10k.  It’s also much quieter than the 10k.  It also looks cool.  Those are the small things…

What really surprised me is that the architecture is I-CMTS.  Yes – everything you need is in one small box.  The blades are horizontal instead of vertical – another big change.  You will see some familiar cable connectors, but things are a lot more dense.  Forgive, but I forget the density of QAM ports on this guy because I was too busy lost in excitement.

Next I was shown the optical ports.  It took me a little while to understand how these would be used, but then I was shown their fiber node.  This was one really cool looking node.  Great detail was taken on cable management.  It also had support for 1G and 10G SFPs.  These connections were meant to be integrated with the optical ports on the CMTS.  The concept is this node is the remote PHY for the CMTS.

Sure, I said this was an integrated CMTS, but I also said that these guys went outside the box.  One of the challenges with DOCSIS 3.1 and even 3.0 is sending a lot of data back on the upstream.  Whether its laser clipping, ingress or any number of upstream impairments, Cisco has put together a solution to bring the CMTS return closer to the home.  Speaking of DOCSIS 3.1 since they have made the card modular it can be up-graded to DOCSIS 3.1 by just swapping it out the DOCSIS 3.0 card.  Not bad indeed.

So I’m intrigued.  I cannot wait to work on this CMTS and ultimately see it work with a remote fiber node optically connected to the return.

I wish I had some photos and documentation as well, but I guess we will all have to wait.  It was a great Cable-Tec Expo this year!