It’s that time of year again – no, I’m not talking about the autumnal equinox and the start of fall – but SCTE TechExpo!  The largest broadband event in the Americas is a tremendous annual gathering of service providers, vendors, component suppliers, analysts, media and all others who want to discuss the latest in technology, map out the future of the industry, and catch up with our colleagues and peers. I’m excited to be there and look forward to seeing everyone at booth 2231, especially if you are in need of good espresso – it’s a lonnnng week.

A cornerstone of the fall SCTE event has always been the technology tracks with peer-reviewed paper presentations and the Tech Talks happening on the show floor. I’m proud of the work done by the Vecima team this year as one of the only vendors to have two presentations in the peer-reviewed track.  If you’re attending the full conference, I highly recommend checking out one of our presentations:

September 25, 12:30-1:45 PM, B313

Automating R-PHY in the Transition to vCMTS

Vecima’s Doug Johnson through collaboration with Moe Iqbal of Cox Communications, focuses on how an API-first approach to vCMTS and applying the lessons learned from existing national scale R-PHY automation allows the move to a full no-touch deployment and ongoing configuration management model.

September 25, 12:30-1:45 PM, B314, Optimizing Your Edge session

The Multi-CDN Dilemma: Aggregated Edge Networks at Scale

Vecima’s Nick Dunkin, based on a paper co-authored with Ben Rosenblum, will be presenting on optimizing IP video delivery with Open Caching: Exploring the drivers behind the need for regional service providers to consolidate behind a single Open Caching controller and Open Caching request router and describes the key technology to manage both downstream caches and provide observability to upstream content providers.

The work behind these papers ties into Vecima’s overall vision for how today’s access and content distribution networks advance to the next generation. As a maturing but still evolving industry, we need to be mindful of the continuous improvements in speed we’ve always pursued but increasingly, our focus should be on improving reliability, cost of delivery and overall customer experience.

Here’s a sneak peek from my own Tech Talk stage presentation on Tuesday September 24 at 2:30-2:50 on the show floor, where I explore next-generation network evolution.

Key areas of consideration for next-generation networks:

SCTE GAP:  As Scott Raaf is explaining in his blog series on the Entra EN9000 GAP Node, SCTE Generic Access Platform (GAP) provides a strong open, interoperable foundation for the future of the cable node.

Cloud-Native Flexible Deployment:  Building next-generation vCMTS and vPON solutions with control and user plane separation, as done with Entra Cloud™ platform, provides many opportunities for service providers to optimize their infrastructure, and facilitate the shift of back office to private or public cloud.

Modernizing APIs and Integrations: A shift from legacy management protocols to streaming telemetry and open multi-vendor integrations helps to reduce cost of delivery and improve reliability by increasing visibility in the network. When systems are built with an API-first mindset and are combined with pipeline automation techniques to allow zero-touch provisioning and “infrastructure as code” configuration management, this allow improved reliability and service uptime.

Advancing DOCSIS®: The migration to vCMTS and RPD allows for Turbo DOCSIS 3.1 to take services to the same downstream capability as Fiber. DOCSIS 4.0 scale deployment is just around the corner and Unified D4.0 solutions will allow flexibility in considering Extended Spectrum DOCSIS, Full Duplex DOCSIS, and hybrid modes. Of course, DOCSIS 4.0 won’t be the last chapter written in the storied history of HFC networks.

Where is PON going and how is Cable making it better?  10G PON technologies such as 10G-EPON and XGS-PON will serve subscriber needs for many years, but the supplier ecosystem is shifting rapidly towards what comes next, especially the scale potential of 50G worldwide.

I look forward to seeing you all at SCTE TechExpo in Atlanta! Stay tuned to this blog after SCTE TechExpo for a recap of the best of the show and a detailed summary of our vision for next-generation networks.