High-speed data services continue to win new subscribers and DOCSIS 3.0 with the Next Generation Network Architecture (NGNA) is poised to be the core platform for a wealth of enhanced services. As subscribers demand higher bandwidth to support next-generation applications such as video telephony, gaming and IP streaming video, you can secure their satisfaction and loyalty by going beyond best-effort delivery to offer guaranteed SLAs for network availability, throughput, latency and jitter.

Challenges

More than 95 percent of all CMTS traffic originates or terminates at or beyond the headend, rather than locally or at another d-hub on the same ring. Metro networks designed as packet rings (e.g. routers connected hop-by-hop at each hub) waste capacity and degrade service quality.

Solution

You need a more simplified, scalable and cost-effective CMTS transport architecture to address the bandwidth and service quality demands of profitable data services. Optical Ethernet allows you to deliver protected transport of the CMTS GbE channels directly back to the headend-without the cost and complexity involved in deploying routers at each d-hub.

Ciena's offerings

Ciena’s architectural approach to CMTS transport results in the highest-quality services while reducing the cost and complexity of service delivery. Managed Optical Ethernet multiplexers, or triple-play optimized Ethernet switches in the distribution hubs, efficiently aggregate CMTS traffic into GbE or 10GbE channels for transport over a 10 Gigabit wavelength to the headend or primary hub. There, services are switched by Ciena’s Ethernet Services Provisioning Switch to the appropriate service element (e.g. service edge router, VOD server, etc.) You can therefore leverage Optical Ethernet to deliver protected transport of high-speed data and VoIP, rather than requiring the deployment, interconnection and management of complex latency-inducing routers at each d-hub.

Benefits

• Simplify traffic engineering and increase scalability
• Improve QoS through guaranteed packet delivery with deterministic, low latency and jitter
• Provide greater economies of scale for centralized servers and routers
• Reduce CAPEX by requiring fewer routers and servers
• Lower OPEX by reducing the space and power requirements at d-hubs, simplifying management and driving down transport and switching costs through simplified Layer 1 convergence
• Accelerate troubleshooting via SONET-style transport performance monitoring