Stealth startup Gainspeed has raised another $10 million in funding to develop its cable next-gen access network technology, the firm revealed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week (hat tip, Multichannel News).

Gainspeed, which co-sponsored a Light Reading webinar on distributed cable access architecture in October, reported that it secured the $10 million in a Series B investment round led by Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR). Besides Juniper Strategic Investments, investors include New Enterprise Associates, Andreessen Horowitz, and Shasta Ventures. The access network technology company has now raised more than $30 million since its launch in 2012.

Sources close to Gainspeed have said it will use the money to expand engineering and accelerate the development of its Virtual Cable Converged Access Platform (CCAP) solution. The funding will also be used to grow sales, marketing, and support.

Although it participated in that webinar with Juniper and Cox Communications Inc. three months ago, Gainspeed has remained relatively quiet about its product plans since its launch. But the company has made clear that it's working on a distributed architecture approach for cable networks. Even as many cable providers are now experimenting with CCAP solutions, there is also heavy debate over whether operators should consider shifting certain network functions out of the headend, pushing more intelligence down to the network node. (See Life After CCAP.)

Gainspeed's technology follows that distributed path. While the company wants to centralize network control in the data center, it's also aiming to distribute "cable-specific" processing functions to the edge of the network. According to a source, the approach would enable operators to move to an all-digital headend and add incremental capacity to their networks in a cost-effective way. It would also lower demand for power and cooling, and minimize space requirements in operator facilities.

Gainspeed was co-founded by Shlomo Rakib, who also co-founded and led cable technology company Terayon Communication Systems, which was later acquired by Motorola. The company also has some noteworthy advisory board members, including Dan Moloney, former president of Motorola Home, and Jim Henderson, a former vice president at both Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Charter Communications Inc.

— Mari Silbey, special to Light Reading