Seven reasons we're crazy about cable

Telecommunications Americas, Nov, 2004 by Jim Barthold, Sean Buckley, Sue O'Keefe

Remember the days of rabbit ears, and of stringing wires as high as you could to get better reception for the big game? Those days are merely memories that families laugh about over their Thanksgiving dinners. Today's cable networks are robust and--dare we say it?--carrier class. With true VoIP services from MSOs oh so close, and a real race heating up worldwide between cable modem and DSL, this industry is fun to watch again. There are too many reasons to count, but here are seven reasons we're crazy about cable.

Reason #1 PacketCable Multimedia Enables VoIP and Much, Much More

If PacketCable is cable's VoIP roadmap, then PacketCable Multimedia is a GSM system that gives the industry pinpoint accuracy. PacketCable is part of cable's DOCSIS specification effort. DOCSIS, as many now forget, stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specifications; VoIP, as everyone remembers, transmits data packets.

"PacketCable Multimedia is a generic framework for providing QoS and call accounting information for a number of applications, one of which could be VoIP, over the cable network," said Glenn Russell, director of Multimedia Applications at CableLabs.

PacketCable Multimedia drives "a generalized QoS framework that leverages the work we did [with PacketCable] but it's not specific to any particular application like voice," added Kevin Johnson, CableLabs' senior architect-communications protocols.

PacketCable Multimedia especially comes into play with IP video so it would have an impact on how videophones ride on cable networks. "The current PacketCable DQOS (dynamic QoS) is very specific to the way you describe the traffic for constant bit rate voice service," said Johns. "When you add video, you now have a variable bit rate service and you need to describe that in a different way."

That could guide companies like WorldGate Communications, which is developing the Ojo videophone product. "I'm happy because it's pushing the latest standards and I think it will help move video telephony forward in the cable industry," said Rich Westerfer, WorldGate's COO.

On the other hand, he said, PacketCable specs evolve slowly and vendors can't always wait for standardized specs to happen if they want to get products ready for a volatile market that spreads beyond cable's borders. "Right now I think we're a little ahead of [CableLabs]," said Westerfer. "We're watching and hoping they don't diverge from that path."

Because it's likely to play in a wider space than just cable, WorldGate keeps "abreast of all the standards" including those to which PacketCable may not adhere. "We're trying to be open. We are cable guys [and] we've been meeting with all the players in the cable field ... to accelerate the pervasiveness of video telephony, but we are keeping our options open," Westerfer said.

Net2Phone, with an IP product aimed at cable, also looks at the bigger picture, said its president, Mike Pastor. "I like PacketCable," he said. "With PacketCable you get a fairly robust specification in terms of the DOCSIS spec as well as some level of certainty that there's going to be a big enough market that will develop and adopt that specification."

But because VoIP is bigger than cable, Net2Phone has "two different platforms today. We follow both a PacketCable spec and what was evolving on its own as a SIP specification so we could support other broadband high-speed data network providers," Pastor said.

While admitting he hasn't deeply researched the subject, Pastor said he likes what he's seen so far with PacketCable Multimedia. "People within our engineering organization ... see a lot of promise in PacketCable Multimedia," he said. "It's a risk mitigator for cable operators today because they can make a decision to deploy a SIP solution ... and manage those installed customers with SIP end points off a PacketCable platform if they choose."

Every CableLabs development must in the end satisfy the cable operators who are providing the funding and management of the research and development consortium.

"They're the main inputs that we have here at CableLabs in defining technical requirements and what they need for their networks," Russell said.

So cable operators who want to follow the PacketCable roadmap can find their way to reliable VoIP deployments over a path that's been built specifically for cable networks. Those who want more bells and whistles can use Multimedia as a GSM device.

PacketCable Multimedia is "architected such that it can coexist with PacketCable voice or it can live on its own without any of the PacketCable architecture," said Russell. "It doesn't shut out [non-cable VoIP providers]; it doesn't enable anything more; it's merely a technology that the operators now have to put in their networks to handle a wide variety of services."

--Jim Barthold

Reason #2: Cable Has Finally Gotten Down to Business

For Leon Thomas, president of managed hosted service provider Jelecos, what matters the most is not the technology that delivers his service or that a company can offer multiple services on one bill, but rather the ability to deliver on what he promises.