Posted by Stephane Bourque on May 21, 2013
We operate in a fast-paced industry that is constantly inundated with fascinating new technologies. In a world where providers are continuously pushed by higher traffic demands, the rumor that DOCSIS 3.1 has the ability to increase bandwidth has the entire industry waiting with bated breath for its arrival. Although the standard has not yet been written, it looks as though multiple gigabits per second are on the horizon. At the current pace, the standard should be ratified by the end of the year, setting the scene for silicon availability in 2014, and deployments finally sometime in 2015. (Read More)
Posted by Stephane Bourque on May 14, 2013
You may think that there’s nothing wrong with manually managing your IP resources on spreadsheets – after all, you’ve done it that way for years. But just because this has worked for you in the past doesn’t mean that this method will hold up when you migrate to IPv6. Even if you haven’t started thinking about IPv6 yet – although you should – there’s a good chance that you’re already spending too much time and money on inadequate IP management. (Read More)
Posted by Stephane Bourque on May 7, 2013
Two years ago, TR-069 was a relatively novel standard that the cable industry only heard about in conferences and on technology panels. One year ago, awareness had greatly improved, and a number of you had started looking at TR-069 devices for your labs. This year, there’s been even more progress, and many of you are now preparing TR-069 deployments. Although some of these deployments are small and target only set-top boxes, it seems clear that TR-069 is here to stay. (Read More)
Posted by Ronan Bracken on May 2, 2013
The ultimate goal of any service management solution should be to provide a strategy that you can use now and well into the future. So what are the ingredients for a successful solution? An impressive array of features? Configurability? Scalability? Redundancy? I think the answer is all of the above and more. To keep things simple, I’ve narrowed down the top five features that you should consider when looking for a service activation solution. (Read More)
Posted by Stephane Bourque on April 30, 2013
By now, it’s likely that many of you have started looking at which IPv6 transition option is best for your business. Regardless of your decision, you can be sure that IPv6 will present a steep learning curve when it comes to the provisioning process. To give you a practical example, below is a short video outlining IPv6 address acquisition for a cable service provider. This video demonstrates how the process of acquiring an IPv6 address differs considerably from IPv4: (Read More)
Posted by Stephane Bourque on April 23, 2013
Every year, I attend a number of conferences all over the world to find out more about technology trends and what’s happening in the industry. There are certain pluses to this: firstly, you gain so many frequent flyer points that people envy you (although I no longer know if this is envy or pity — it depends on who you talk to), and secondly, the airlines like you. They really, really like you. On the flipside, it’s not always so good for your personal life. After racking up 80,000 miles this year already, and attending about six conferences, I can identify three themes that keep popping up. Here they are, in no particular order. (Read More)
Posted by Stephane Bourque on April 16, 2013
After decades of talk, the time for IPv6 has finally arrived. There are several transition options available, but whatever approach you choose, the challenge will be to make sure that your subscribers don’t experience a reduction in quality of service. (Read More)
Posted by Stephane Bourque on April 9, 2013
Bandwidth is one hot topic that really isn't going away anytime soon. I was recently interviewed for Informationweek about which applications use the most bandwidth in the workplace –– and which ones are complete myths. The answers might surprise you. Here’s just some of the myths (and realities!) floating around about the worst bandwidth-hogging applications: (Read More)
Posted by Will Yan on April 4, 2013
The numbers are big. Official figures quoted at the recent 21st annual China Content and Broadcasting Network (CCBN) conference indicate that China has 400 million TV households, of which 210 million subscribe to cable TV (CATV). Of these cable subscribers, 140 million receive digital service while the rest are still on analog systems. This means that the country’s CATV network is still largely a one-way network, limiting the growth of on-demand and interactive services. Compared to broadband offered by the dominant telecom operators – China Telecom and China Unicom – the country’s CATV high-speed Internet service is tiny at a mere 5.64 million subscribers in total. (Read More)
Posted by Stephane Bourque on April 2, 2013
The sheer physical size of an IPv6 address, along with its new notation, can make the transition from IPv4 a complex task. Further complicating this transition is the fact that there is more than one type of IPv6 routing configuration to choose from. A number of different feature topologies are available, and no matter which one you select, each autonomous system (AS), will have its own interior gateway protocol (IGP) technology. While issues related to AS will differ between service providers, the selection of a primary IGP core routing platform will be a fundamental decision in your transition to IPv6. The two most common platforms are OSPFv3 and IS-IS, and the factors that may affect your decision between the two are outlined below: (Read More)
