About a year ago, Peleg Aker clung to a flimsy bamboo ladder that was teetering three stories above the bustling streets of New Delhi, India. Dizzy yet determined, Mr. Aker ascended to the roof of an apartment building, where he found a service provider’s termination box in a nest of coaxial cables. Mr. Aker’s mission: to bring broadband to every apartment within the multi dwelling unit (MDU). (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2.

His mission is part of a global trend: digitization.

Today, everything is becoming digital. Voice, video, music, books -- the entire entertainment and informational experience is moving from analog-based to digital-based. Whole economies are evolving as a result of this shift and countries around the globe want to stay with the digital shift. Citizens need access to the digital world. Governments have recognized this need and are providing billions of dollars in subsidies for creating broadband infrastructure to stimulate their local economies and create new, higher-salaried jobs. They recognize a country whose citizens are connected to the Internet connect to the global economy and tend to have better, more prosperous lives.

Connecting these citizens creates a tremendous opportunity for service providers. Already, telcos have been riding this digitization wave. Companies such as AT&T, Verizon, France Telecom, and others have benefited from the digitization of entertainment. Over the last few years, telecommunications service providers have generated substantial increases in average revenues per subscriber or user (ARPU) by adding IPTV, VoIP services, VoD, and broadband access. These Quadruple Play services have reduced customer churn as well.

MSOs Face Challenges with MDUs
Yet, not every service provider has fully benefited from the global digitalization trend. Around the world, many Multiple Systems Operators (MSOs) -- traditional cable companies -- have not participated in this digital revolution to the degree they could. They would like to, but there are several challenges that are holding them back.

First, a large segment of this broadband market consists of Multi Dwelling Units, or MDUs (row-houses, apartment buildings, condominiums, and townhouses). An estimated 1/3 of the world’s population lives in them. The MDU environment represents a different infrastructure than stand-alone homes. Often, these MDU environments have users share the same coax or phone infrastructure which makes delivering broadband to these environments more challenging. (See Figure. 1)

Figure 1. Networking solutions for multi dwelling units (MDUs) must be robust enough to work over existing wires.

Second, most MSOs don’t have bidirectional data networks. Traditionally, they have a unidirectional analog or digital broadcast TV network with one-way amplifiers, splitters, and related passive components. Moreover, this infrastructure is often old and degraded. As a result, it has been historically very expensive for an MSO to upgrade its one-way network to support two-way data communications standards such as DOCSIS that run at high frequencies. That is why DOCSIS is confined to only the most affluent markets. (See Figure 3.)

Figure 3. Many MSOs have not participated in the digital revolution to the degree they would like to because the infrastructure is old, degraded, and is expensive to upgrade.

Rolling out broadband, VoIP, VoD, and other digital services by MSOs can, indeed, be very expensive. In many markets, the ARPU for an MSO is quite low and the ARPU for data services is also low in comparison to North America or Western Europe. These MSOs are looking for affordable solutions that don’t require huge up-front capital investments.

Finally, in single-family dwellings, the broadband access bandwidth is reserved exclusively for each home. Yet, in an MDU environment, the bandwidth needs to be shared among a larger number of users. As a result, MSOs targeting MDU customers need a technology that can support many users over a shared, out-dated infrastructure.

Service Providers Have Several Broadband Options
It is possible for service providers to deliver broadband and Triple Play services to MDU customers -- and to increase ARPU. There are several ways to go: DSL, DOCSIS, and Ethernet over Coax (EoC).

One option is to deploy xDSL, an established access technology with a large install base. However, xDSL is expensive because it is a point-to-point technology requiring a dedicated DSL chip on each end of every telephone line. This makes the DSLAM (the xDSL central switch) expensive. Moreover, xDSL runs over telephone wires. The MSO does not have access to these wires and is therefore excluded from providing Internet connectivity using phonelines.

Another option is to deploy DOCSIS, which is another well-known technology used for years to deliver broadband over coax wiring. Yet, DOCSIS also has a series of challenges for MSOs. First, DOCSIS is very expensive. A DOCSIS deployment requires the purchase of a cable modem termination system or CMTS (a primary system and a back-up system). Each CMTS can support a large number of users, but can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece to deploy. Furthermore, whether an MSO supports one single customer or 100 customers, it has to spend all the money upfront for the CMTS. Also, as stated above, DOCSIS often requires a complete overhaul of the entire outdoor cable plant to improve its sensitivity to line quality and to support the high frequencies required by DOCSIS.

A third option, Ethernet over Coax (EoC) is another potential option that is proving to be a highly reliable and cost-effective alternative. Here’s how it works:

The service provider runs IP from its head-end over fiber to an optical node (ONU) at the curb, the basement, a central point in the building, or on the roof. At the ONU, the traffic is routed to a master EoC unit. The master is connected to the existing coax wiring inside the building (typically in a tree or star topology). IP traffic is streamed across the coax to each apartment or residence where an end point is placed to bridge back to Ethernet. (See Figure 4.)

Figure 4. With Ethernet over Coax (EoC), a service provider runs IP from its head-end over fiber to an optical node (ONU) at the curb, the basement, a central point in the building, or on the roof. IP traffic is streamed across the coax to each apartment or residence.

Because EoC solutions use existing coax, there are several key benefits. One is cost savings. Using the already installed coax infrastructure reduces the need to install new wiring. A second benefit is longer distances. CAT5 has a maximum range of 200 meters. Distances longer than 200 meters require the addition of a router. With EoC solutions such as HomePNA, more than 1 kilometer of distance can be reached without the need for an intermediary network device. Lastly, EoC is relatively fast delivering higher speeds than DOCSIS.

EoC solutions are also easy to integrate into existing infrastructure. They use lower-frequencies than DOCSIS for the downstream; therefore, they can work with existing amplifiers and splitters, bypassing them through the use of diplexers.

EoC solutions are pay-as-you-go solutions. Because they don’t require the purchase of large, complex head-ends such as a DOCSIS CMTS, they are more practical for global service providers. Instead of paying as much as $200K upfront to reach 1 customer with DOCSIS, MSOs with EoC solutions can pay as little as $100 for the first user and as little as $30/subscriber when fully deployed.

One leading EoC solution is Fast EoC, a next-generation solution based on HomePNA technology. Fast EoC is a SARFT-qualified, robust MDU solution that delivers up to 160 Mbit/s total system throughput to up to 126 end points. Fast EoC is based on the same HomePNA technology used by more than 70 service providers worldwide in more than 2 million homes.

Fast EoC works over existing coax infrastructure and coexists with many existing services such as digital TV and, when necessary, DOCSIS. This HomePNA-based technology supports long distances and retains very high system throughput -- even when more users are added to the system.

Fast EoC is also very affordable -- especially on a cost-per-megabit-of-throughput basis. In fact, Fast EoC is the most affordable EoC solution on the market. More than 10 equipment vendors are now shipping Fast EoC solutions including Cisco. Over time, Fast EoC is expected to become the leading technology and will be integrated directly into CPE devices and ONU/ONTs as well. (See Figure 6.)

Figure 6. An MSO Solution.

MSOs Now Have Hope
With the advent of Fast EoC, MSOs and other service providers can now truly participate in the globalization of broadband access and the digital revolution. They can benefit from the full potential of the trend by leveraging their core asset, coax infrastructure, to add broadband access, VoD, interactive services and VoIP to their existing services -- all at an ROI that service providers can justify. With Fast EoC, these service providers can quickly join this global trend and meet the needs of their customers who crave high-speed connectivity to the Internet to enjoy the wide range of today’s and tomorrow’s digital applications. (See Figure 5.)

Figure 5. With Fast EoC, service providers can meet the needs of their customers who crave high speed connectivity to the Internet so they can quickly enjoy the wide range digital applications.

 About the Author
Michael Weissman is Vice President of Marketing, Americas at CopperGate Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sigma Designs, and the only company whose chipsets enable carrier-class distribution of broadband digital content over all 3 types of existing wires in the home: coax, phone, and power. Michael brings more than 20 years of high technology management experience to CopperGate. For more information, e-mail Michael_w@copper-gate.com or visit www.copper-gate.com.

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