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BRIAN SANTO
"The Network" doesn't really exist. What's there is a multiplicity of networks - individual cable installations, a now-fractured telephone network, hundreds of data networks of various types and sizes - some designed to transmit video, others to audio, still others to digital data.
Convergence is all about getting each data type to play across networks that weren't built for them. Accomplishing this is harder than most people realized at first, which is why "convergence" is now a dirty word. However, if you could construct an efficient interface linking the disparate networks, if you could find a way to transmit all data types, particularly video and digital data, over any given network, then you might have something.
BigBand Networks says it has that something with its new Broadband Multimedia-Service Router (BMR) that Cox Communications and Rogers Cable (in Canada) are testing.
The company says its router would allow MSOs to more easily deliver broadcast-quality content and advanced, interactive services, such as video-on-demand, T-commerce, targeted advertising, Internet TV and other advanced services, to their customers over broadband networks.
The BMR handles content in its native protocol - MPEG for audio and video and IP (Internet protocol) for data. BMR switch/ routers can:
- Integrate, synchronize and route various data types.
- Allocate bandwidth to various data types on each channel.
- Determine the type of terminal each customer is using.
The BMR can also serve as an IP gateway that delivers data streams directly to legacy digital set-top boxes using the same transmission path as the video services, thus enabling applications such as Web browsing from the TV.
As an interface between hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) networks and the Internet, the BMR can be used in almost any network installation, the company says.
Based on an open architecture, the BMR supports standard interfaces and formats, such as MPEG, IP, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and others. Amir Bassan-Eskenazi, president/CEO, BigBand Networks, says BMR servers are hitting a unexploited niche, that they are not a replacement for anything that presently exists.
"The BMR incorporates a combination of technologies you don't normally see in one company," he says. "We built the BMR from scratch, which is what you have to do. You can't just take a video router, slap an IP stack on it and expect it to work."
He says BMR servers are easy to install and work with pre-existing equipment, including everything from QAM modulators to set-top boxes, protecting previous investments.
The BMR1200 and BMR100 are scheduled for general availability in the first half of 2001. Base pricing starts at around $40,000.
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