One could argue that if you comply to the ITU-T G.984.4, G-PON: ONT management and control interface (OMCI) specification, there is no need to publish your OMCI specification.
The only benefit I see is when you have a proprietary implementation and you want to ensure that the 3rd party ONT vendors implement your specific flavor.
2Wire Inc. 's HomePortal GEM -- Definitely a forward-looking approach to home gateways providing the promise of much more interesting services for consumers and many more possible revenue streams for carriers. See CTO Jaime Fink's comments on this board for all the details.
Iskratel's Gemini40F -- Honestly, these guys get equal points for having vision and being scrappy enough to keep engaged and keep responding to our many queries. This is the more practical of our picks in fixed access -- it's readily available gear that has all the things carriers want -- low power, lower TCO, and lots of flexibility to change as their customers need new services.
Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. 's 160-Gbit/s Asymmetric PON System -- We've been watching this (still unreleased) product since it was talked about at OFC/NFOEC earlier this year. It claims to be the first time both Optical Time Division Multiplexing (OTDM) and Optical Code Division Multiplexing (OCDM)technologies were used together to create 10-Gbit/s x 16 channel system with the goal of providing between 1 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s of bandwidth per user. Definitely a cutting edge concept and that's what Top Picks are all about.
Here's the Calix entry, for your consideration:
Calix 766GX ONT.
Calix has seen a huge increase in interest in pulling fiber to cell towers in the past year, as service providers take advantage of existing RFPs and figure out an emerging communications industry axiom: The first service provider to the cell tower with fiber wins. As those with iPhones already understand in spades, traditional T1s cannot support the current, much less the emerging, backhaul demands of mobile networks. The Calix customer base has been proactively getting out in front of this issue over the past year by pulling fiber to cell towers and deploying GPON to specialized Calix 766GX ONTs. Why? Because not only does GPON provide a fiber-conservative and clean evolutionary path from multiple T1s today to gigabit Ethernet in the future, but the capital costs of deployment are anywhere from 50% to 80% less than competitive SONET or Carrier Ethernet solutions. Furthermore, from an operational perspective, the costs of maintaining fiber can be one-tenth the cost of copper solutions and significantly more reliable.
Deploying expensive electronics, laying pads, and placing cabinets in the field just to address mobile backhaul opportunities are now a thing of the past. The new approach, revolutionized by the introduction of the mobile backhaul-optimized 766GX ONTs and complementary to the Calix C7 and E5-440 GPON-capable platforms, require only the deployment of passive splitters to tap into existing fiber rings in the network, and the wall- or rack-mounting of this cost-effective, environmentally hardened ONT. In fact, our data shows that service providers who pitch Calix mobile backhaul solutions enabled by the 766GX ONTs win 90% of the time in competitive bids.
We recently announced the 766GX ONT for mobile backhaul at the FTTH Show. It is now being deployed widely by CenturyLink throughout its nationwide footprint as well as by a wide variety of service providers throughout North America. Please see the following links for press releases:
CenturyLink Release: https://www.calix.com/news/press_releases/press_release_20090928.html
New ONT Release: https://www.calix.com/news/press_releases/press_release_20090922.html
The 766GX ONTs have the following key differentiating features:
• Wall- and rack-mounted options for the ultimate in flexibility when deploying outdoors at the cell tower or in a tower hut.
• The only auto-detect capabilities on the market, allowing service providers to synchronize, or switch, from GPON to Active Ethernet in a matter of seconds, with no truck rolls.
• Integrated support for 24 volt DC powering, a requirement for deployment at cell towers (a departure from the traditional negative -48 volt DC power used in central offices).
• Support for eight T1s and four GE ports, allowing the flexibility to continue to support traditional service provider operational models while transitioning to gigabit Ethernet.
• A simple migration path from T1s to gigabit Ethernet, with Psuedowire support as a deployment option.
We believe the 766GX ONT is a revolutionary mobile backhaul solution, unique in the industry and redefining not only the costs of deployment, but the ease of mobile backhaul evolution and ongoing operational costs for years to come. Our customers are extremely excited about this product – we hope that you are too.
Alcatel-Lucent has just launched an innovative Green DSL solution that consumes up to 25% less power compared to conventional DSL solutions - thanks to line card and outside plant innovations, and the usage of Alcatel-Lucent Smart DSL technology.
Alcatel-Lucent's Green DSL uses the latest generation of DSL line cards - which consume up to 20% less power than the previous generation, all while supporting higher densities/capacities (i.e. more users, and higher bandwidths per line card).
From an outside plant perspective, Alcatel-Lucent's distributed DSLAM concept makes a significant difference as well. Alcatel-Lucent's distributed DSLAM architecture consists of remote DSLAMs that are managed as remote line cards, connected to a central host. This model not only results in reduced aggregation capital expenditure and in cost-effective operations, but also lowers the overall power consumption (up to 20%) since the remote nodes share a central controller.
Finally, from a DSL physical layer technology perspective, standards exist that allow DSL modems to reduce power consumption either when user traffic is low (L2 mode) or when the service rate can be achieved with excess margin (maxSNRM). Whereas these varying modem signal levels result in varying crosstalk noise that can destabilize the network, these issues can now be overcome using Alcatel-Lucent's Smart DSL technology, enabling a significant reduction (-25%) of the modems' power consumption across a service provider's subscriber base without causing any line stability issues.
AlcaLu says it has worked out a way for service providers to use multiple GPON vendors in their access network. This definitely points to the future -- vendors writing manuals so that service providers can add other vendors to their network.
Alcatel-Lucent's OMCI Initiative
Last month, Alcatel-Lucent announced the start of an initiative that will help service providers create a true multi-vendor GPON infrastructure. Concretely, Alcatel-Lucent publishes its "OMCI Interoperability Implementer's Guide - Version 1". Using this guide, ONT-vendors will gain insights in Alcatel-Lucent's ONT management and control interfaces (OMCI), which they can then integrate in their own terminals to interoperate with Alcatel-Lucent's embedded base of GPON central office equipment.
Service providers will thus be able to benefit from a more competitive ONT environment and a huge choice of third-party ONT models working seamlessly with Alcatel-Lucent's GPON product, the 7342 ISAM FTTU. This will translate into faster time-to-market, fewer engineering constraints and a reduced need for interop events. For ONT vendors, this will mean new business opportunities and less OPEX by having less interoperability events.
Alcatel-Lucent is the first vendor to announce this type of initiative.
Calix planned to say something about their 766GX product series, used for Mobile backhaul. Not sure that they ever did on these boards. But we'll consider the product's merits anyway as they are indeed a hard name to leave out of anything fixed access related.
The third party app development is intriguing. not sure there's a lot of money in it for operators, but might be an interesting sideshow for consumers.
We are working on several partnerships with third-party application developers. The first wave of GEM applications is expected to include technology from companies such as Logitech, OpenDNS, and SharedBand. New third-party applications will include home surveillance, home automation, digital media server, and digital life backup services, among others. We anticipate the roster of both developers and applications will grow upon publication of the planned HomePortal GEM software development kit.
We believe that convergence between retail home networking and consumer electronics devices is a winning proposition for both service providers (who can capitalize on opportunities to deliver and manage services and devices throughout the home) and consumers (who can experience the full benefits of digital lifestyle services without complications from complex setups, mismatched formats, and proprietary systems). Thus, the HomePortal GEM platform is built for integration with other devices and systems within the home. HomePortal GEM services, applications, and overall user experience are designed to be easily displayed across virtually any set top box or mobile platform (including Microsoft Mediaroom) using standard user interface technologies (e.g. HTML 5, CE-HTML, Flash, etc.)
Please let me know if you would like additional information regarding either facet — third-party application development or system integration — of the HomePortal GEM platform.
I haven't been a fan of tablet computing, per se, but I saw this Thomson device at CES in January and I really liked it.
Sure, it does all the same stuff I can already do on my iPod touch. But with this device I can actually watch linear TV, live, anywhere in range of my home network.
I think you can even take it to the dentist's office or somewhere else where there's WiFi and watch your TV programs there, too. No slingbox required.
That vaults this over any digital picture frame, Web tablet, or netbook. You'd be surprised how often you could use a multi-purpose portable TV around the house or around town.
Again, not an amazing device. But when served up by an IPTV provider, a very interesting lever to pry consumers away from cable, satellite, and other forms of pay TV.
Is any third party writing apps for a 2Wire-enabled system yet? It'd be interesting to hear a case study or an example of this "openness."
It's a compelling story anyway, but how well does the HomePortal GEM system, with all its components, play with other systems, like Microsoft Mediaroom?
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