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Cable-Tec Expo '99:
The Exhibit Floor
The Ultimate Enginering Buffet
By the CT Editorial Staff

• Some notable entrees
• 3Com shows off the goods
• Proactive network management
• EAS Y2K demo succeeds
• For the bookworms
• Giveaways
• Observations From the Show Floor

If you came to Cable-Tec Expo 99 hungry for new products and solutions to make your system run more smoothly and your job easier, you most likely loosened your belt a couple notches before leaving the show floor.

With 387 exhibiting companies, this years Expo appeared to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. Heres a peek at just a few of the products whetting appetites on the floor.

Some notable entrees

The Alpha Technologies booth included some new powering products that Eric Wentz, Alphas director of marketing, said were a response to the new reliability requirements of lifeline telephony services. About 80 percent of the products that were on display were developed within the past 18 months, said Wentz, including its CESC-3X Powernode for unlimited backup power.

ADC demonstrated Internet protocol (IP) telephony calls using a development prototype IP integrated service unit (ISU). Ham Matthews, ADC director of IP business development, explained that the IP ISU will include many of the functions of a Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 1.1 cable modem and will allow a user to use a standard phone to make an IP telephony call.

Cable Innovations introduced a line of fuseless passives, which remove a potential weak link in the cable TV powering chain.

Raychem demonstrated its new TCS2 heat-shrinkable cable sleeve that insulates, seals and protects underground and aerial connections.

CommScope showed off a new series of corrosion-resistant drop cable called Bright Wire.

Hewlett-Packard provided a sneak preview of its new cable TV spectrum analyzer based on its L1500 series, which will be available for delivery this month.

Matrix demonstrated its new Model ASX-16-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) 256-QAM generator. This device can generate continuous wave (CW) carriers, plus AM, quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK), and 4-QAM through 256-QAM modulated test signals.

Philips Broadband Networks sprawling exhibit included interactive set-top box solutions, POD/NRSS-B type removable conditional access (CA) technology, and an MPEG-2 splicer called StreamCutter for standard definition TV (SDTV) and high definition TV (HDTV) switching applications.

Scientific-Atlanta introduced its "baseband digital reverse" family of products that provide a way to digitize the entire 5-40 MHz reverse spectrum at the node and, using time division multiplexing (TDM), combine that with three other digitized 5-40 MHz signal paths for transmission back to the headend on one fiber.

HSA Corp. demonstrated operating DOCSIS technology, including cable modem Internet access, voice over IP (VoIP) and video.

Broadband Access Systems demonstrated its Cuda 12000 14-slot, carrier-class IP switch designed from the ground up to support delivery of IP-based data, telephony and video services.

3Com shows off the goods

3Com unveiled its Bandwidth Manager quality of service (QoS) kit at Expo, touting it as the "cable industrys first ready-to use" QoS system that utilizes existing cable access router and upstream receiver cards within the 3Com cable modem termination system (CMTS) in combination with the EdgeServer integrated NT server card.

"What were able to do is actually limit the amount of bandwidth coming to and from a home so that theres a constant and committed information rate," said Joe Thomas, market development manager for 3Coms cable access division. "This system can track the amount of data that a customer is using so that (cable operators) will be able to tell whether a person has a Web server at their house and sell them the associated service. Basically, high-speed customers will be able to pay for the bandwidth they want and cable operators will be able to offer tiered services and assure the quality of the data service they are providing."

3Com confirmed that its Bandwidth Manager currently is being tested in the field, but wouldnt divulge where and with whom.

Data over cable isnt the only area that 3Com was placing its high-tech chips. The company also showed off its broad range of system solutions for Internet protocol (IP) telephony, including a system that delivers voice and data services over a robust broadband network routed through 3Coms CMTS.

3Com expects local area network (LAN)-based telephony systems to become the rage among small businesses, estimating that the market for LAN telephony will reach $5 billion worldwide by 2003, with more than 66 percent of the sales coming from small- to medium-sized businesses.

Proactive network management

The latest gee-whiz services arent enough in todays highly competitive telecommunications environment. Youve got to have the operational support systems (OSS) behind your network to guarantee that the new video, data and voice services you deliver are reliable.

At Expo, C-COR was basking in the glow of its recent acquisition of Convergence.com, which will enable the company to offer a broad array of network management products and services.

Engineers stopping by the booth sporting the new C-COR.net name could preview some of the services the merged company will offer including network design, activation, sweep and balance, Internet design, and network monitoring.

"As you merge all these types of data and the loads and the needs of those, they all put different kinds of requirements on the network. Its imperative that you are able to manage and operationally support the network with full integrity," said David Woodle, president and CEO of C-COR. "The subscribers will put all their eggs in one basket, which means they will hook up a cable modem, TV, as well as their phone, onto one network. That basket better not have a hole in it."

C-COR also held a press conference during Expo to reveal that it was buying fiber-optics specialist Silicon Valley Communications Inc. By adding SVCIs cable headend products to its line, C-COR also will be able to monitor and manage headends as well as power supplies, RF equipment and cable modems.

Network managements rewards: Proactive network management can bring all manner of benefits to the cable operator, including reduced operational costs resulting from automation, shorter mean time to repair MTTR), quicker service activation, and increased customer satisfaction, said Brett Price, president of Cheetah Technologies.

"The network management systems provide you with an integrated view of the condition of your network, and they point your resources in the direction of the problem, thereby reducing your mean time to repair and your costs to repair," Price explained.

By automating provisioning processes, network management systems also enable providers to activate new services more quickly.

This ability will enable MSOs to be more flexible and creative with their service bundles, which will be a key to remaining competitive, Price added.

Getting the gear: If you were looking to beef up your network management systems, this years show had plenty of products to choose from.

Here follows a quick run-through of some of the companies showing network management wares:

• Tollgrade displayed its Lighthouse Cable Status Monitoring System, which features three components: transponders that can be attached to power supplies, line amplifiers, and fiber-optic nodes to gather status reports from the equipment; a headend controller for managing network communications with the transponders; and user-interface software for control and configuration.
  
• Cheetah touted its NetMentor 2.5 network management software, featuring two new modulesBattery Analyst and Phasor Analystfor power supply and return path management.
  
• ADC Telecommunications showed off its OSWorx Commander network management system.
  
• Harmonic, which is working with Cheetah to develop a transponder for Harmonics PWRBlazer HLN 3844 scalable node and to integrate Harmonics headend products into Cheetahs NetMentor software, displayed its NETWatch element management solution.
  
• AM Communications showed its new QuickStat plant management system that can track fluctuating RF signal levels or power levels and pinpoint their location in the plant.
  
• Lucent Technologies talked up its Netcare offering, which includes both services and products for planning and consulting, installation and integration, operations and management, and maintenance and support.

EAS Y2K demo succeeds

The SCTE Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) Y2K Compliance demonstration proved to be a resounding success at Expo.

MegaHertz, Trilithic, Sprint North Supply and Frontline Communications/ Vela Broadcast demonstrated Y2K compliance with their emergency alert equipment to representatives from major system operators, including Time Warner Cable, AT&T Broadband and Internet Services and Comcast. The SCTE Standards Department and its EAS Subcommittee organized the demonstration.

"All vendors successfully demonstrated Y2K compliance," commented EAS Subcommittee Chairman Steve Johnson of Time Warner Cable. "The demonstration was well-received by 100 attendees, and the operators were pleased that SCTE provided a forum for one demonstration that would satisfy all interested parties."

"I was highly pleased with the outcome of this public event," stated National Cable Television Association Director of Engineering Andy Scott.

For the bookworms

The SCTE bookstore featured more than 60 items and included a number of book signings. Walt Ciciora, Ph.D., Jim Farmer and Dave Large were on hand to sign their highly acclaimed 873-page tome, Modern Cable Television Technology. Also signing away were Jim Kuhns, Steven Biro, Jay Junkus, Dean Stoneback, Jeffrey Thomas and Francis Edgington.

Giveaways

In addition to handing out $100 bills on the show floor, Communications Technology magazine also awarded two $1,000 Grand Prizes to Eric Hall, regional sales engineer for Comcast Network Services, and Larry Sayre, a regional training and development manager for Time Warner Cable, in its annual Deployment Professional drawings. - CT

What were your observations? Visit our Discussion Forum and tell us your thoughts.

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