Nokia introduced its new Gainspeed portfolio for unified cable access, supporting all cable access networks including hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC), passive optical networking (PON) and point-to-point Ethernet.
Nokia said its new platform takes a software-defined Virtualized Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) approach that provides the capacity, agility and flexibility cable operators need to deliver new revenue-generating services while significantly reducing operating expenses.
The architecture pushes cable-specific functions out to access nodes close to the subscriber while centralizing control and management. This approach significantly reduces the costs of traditional cable architectures by eliminating the CCAP as a physical box and replacing the analog optical transmission with 10Gbps Ethernet.
“The cable industry is at a crossroads and facing change at a level it has never seen before. The current way of building cable networks simply will not scale to meet the tidal wave of IP video and high-speed data demands faced by cable operators. We’re helping operators add capacity, greatly simplify the network operations and prepare for an all-fiber, all-IP network,” stated Jeff White, head of business development and strategy for cable in Nokia’s Fixed Networks business group.
The new Nokia portfolio of cable access products includes:
- Gainspeed Access Controller
- Gainspeed Video Engine
- Gainspeed Access Node SC-2D supporting DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1
- Gainspeed Access Node SF-4X supporting 10G EPON
The company said lab and field trials are underway.
Nokia to Acquire Gainspeed for Virtualized Cable Architecture
Nokia agreed to acquire Gainspeed, a start-up specializing in DAA (Distributed Access Architecture) solutions for the cable industry via its Virtual CCAP (Converged Cable Access Platform) product line. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Gainspeed’s Virtual CCAP enables cable operators to increase the capacity of their existing HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coax) infrastructure and rapidly deploy new services, while simultaneously reducing space and power requirements in the headend. The solution also enables cable operators to migrate their networks to a software-driven, all-IP architecture.
Gainspeed’s design eliminates the physical CCAP by leveraging SDN and NFV to distribute the CCAP’s functions to other devices and locations in the network. This centralizes routing, control and management in the data center or cloud and pushes
the physical layer, DOCSIS processing and RF modulation into the node, deep within
the access network
Gainspeed is based in Sunnyvale, California and has approximately 70 employees.
Federico Guillen, president of Nokia’s Fixed Networks business group, said: “We are very excited to have Gainspeed, the technology leader in its field, joining us. Cable is one of the fastest growing areas in our fixed networks business, and we are committed to delivering a complete solution set to cable operators. Gainspeed’s Virtual CCAP perfectly complements our leading fiber access solutions for cable MSOs.”
http://www.nokia.com
http://www.gainspeed.com/
- Gainspeed is headed by Krish Padmanabhan, who previously was Senior Vice President of Products and Solutions at Harmonic Inc., where he oversaw overall strategy for its video playout and compression portfolio.
- Gainspeed was founded in 2012 by Shlomo Rakib (previously co-founded Novafora and Terayon Communication Systems, where he invented the SCDMA technology that was the basis for DOCSIS 2.0), Jeff White (previously president of Hatteras Networks), Mark Stalica (previously Vice President of Strategic MSO Accounts for Metaswitch Networks), and Drew Perkins (previously a co-founder at Infinera, On-Fiber Communications, Lightera Networks, FORE Systems, and InterStream).
