Mediacom taps CommScope to power 10G smart home trial

Sept. 22, 2020
Mediacom is using CommScope's headend, IP network, outside plant, and CPE technology to deliver end-to-end networking capabilities for 10G smart homes of the future.

CommScope announced that Mediacom Communications has selected its portfolio of end-to-end connectivity products to power the ultra-fast broadband network displayed in that company's milestone 10G smart home trial.

Mediacom is conducting the trial in partnership with CableLabs and NCTA — The Internet & Television Association, to deliver ultrafast, low-latency, reliable, and secure connectivity to a 10G smart home. The groundbreaking 10G trial allows Mediacom, CableLabs, and NCTA to evaluate the capacity of Mediacom’s 10G platform in supporting future home automation, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), gaming, holographic display, and consumer applications in a real-world environment.

Mediacom will also use the 10G smart home as a working technology laboratory to test these demanding applications. Insights from the trial will inform Mediacom’s 10G strategy as it works towards expanding its existing fiber-rich network to include the delivery of symmetrical residential internet speeds ten times faster than its current 1 Gbps offerings, as well as improve its network’s latency, reliability, and security.

“CommScope was one of our key partners as we built the platform for our 10G trial,” said JR Walden, CTO at Mediacom. “With CommScope, we were able to secure all the headend, IP network, outside plant, and customer premises solutions we needed to deploy an end-to-end network able to support our 10G smart home of the future.”

Mediacom’s 10G end-to-end network delivers ~2.4Gbps downstream connectivity as well as ~1.3Gbps upstream connectivity to more than 70 smart devices throughout the trial home. The service is passed over both wired Ethernet connections and wireless Wi-Fi6 connections within the homes. These devices included a smart refrigerator, cleaning robots, security cameras, 8K TV, VR and AR headsets, pet feeder, and more.

CommScope supplied Mediacom with all the key technology solutions to achieve a fast, low-latency, distributed access architecture (DAA) network to deliver 10G connectivity to its smart home.

These solutions include the:

  • Video Unified Edge (VUE), a suite of modular headend software used for network virtualization and to transmit viewing guide, emergency information, and other data to customers.
  • vManager, a suite of microservices for facilitating deployment, configuration, and management of DAA networks.
  • E6000 Converged Edge Router (CER), provides the CCAP Core functionality by converging all of Mediacom’s services (video, high-speed data, and voice) prior to forwarding them over digital optics to the Remote PHY Devices (RPDs) in the fiber nodes, enabling Mediacom to use DOCSIS 3.1 in both the downstream and upstream to provide more bandwidth to its subscribers.
  • OM6000 Opti Max Optical Nodes, in combination with the E6000n Remote PHY Devices (RPDs), enable Mediacom to deploy a DAA to extend the digital portion of their headend out to the fiber optic node to improve end-of-line performance, increase spectral efficiency, and enable more bandwidth to Mediacom subscribers.
  • Touchstone TG9452 Telephony Wireless Wi-Fi 6 Gateways, which connect all IP capable devices in the Mediacom 10G smart home and its 10G trial participants’ homes to Mediacom’s high-performance broadband network.

CommScope also developed desktop and mobile apps for Medicom’s 10G smart home which allows testing of the network connection speed at any time.

“Mediacom’s 10G trial demonstrates that cable companies can build 10G platforms capable of providing the fast, symmetrical internet speeds, ultra-low latency, and high reliability needed for the smart home of the future,” said David Grubb, senior vice president, Architecture & Strategy at CommScope. “We are excited to provide the end-to-end portfolio of solutions that are powering this groundbreaking 10G trial, and we look forward to helping Mediacom transform their customers’ smart home experiences as they expand the reach and capabilities of this 10G platform.”

Brian Dietz (NCTA), Debbie Fitzgerald (CableLabs), David Grubb (CommScope), and JR Walden (Mediacom), will participate in a virtual panel entitled, “The 10G Platform: Powering the Smart Home of the Future”, on Oct. 12th at 1:30pm ET at the SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Virtual Expo 2020 in the SCTE Imagine Zone.

Moderated by Ralph Brown, founder of Brown Wolf Consulting and former CTO at CableLabs, the panel will examine insights gained from the 10G trial to date and consider how 10G will transform consumer digital experiences and the cable industry over the long term.

More information about Mediacom is available at www.mediacomcable.com.

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