Remote MACPHY gaining steam with cable ops, CommScope says

Recent deployment deal with Alaska's GCI is indicative of a trend that is seeing cable operators shift more attention to remote MACPHY in their distributed access architecture (DAA) rollouts, CommScope's Tom Cloonan says.

Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor

October 12, 2021

4 Min Read
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After getting a cool reception from cable operators early on, remote MACPHY is starting to catch on with MSOs as they pursue distributed access architecture (DAA) upgrades that could later lead them to DOCSIS 4.0.

Or at least that's how the world of DAA appears to be shaping up at CommScope, which announced last week that Alaska's largest cable operator, GCI, will use the vendor's new RD2322 RxD device to support a deployment of remote MACPHY. The deployment will feed into a plan underway at GCI to use a blend of DOCSIS and fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technologies to bring 2Gbit/s capabilities to the state on a widespread basis.

"We think it's the beginning of the first of many, many deployments in the RMD [Remote MACPHY Device] world," Tom Cloonan, interim chief technology officer of CommScope, said of the GCI deployment. "We think a lot of operators are warming up to it."

Early on, the bulk of the DAA activity centered around remote PHY, an approach that moves the PHY layer of the DOCSIS network – in the form of a Remote PHY Device (RPD) – to a node or shelf at the edge of the network. Remote MACPHY does that as well, but also places the MAC (Media Access Control) processing at the edge. However, power requirements and limited vendor support for remote MACPHY back then made it something of a non-starter.

"In the early days of DAA, it didn't cut the mustard with respect to power," Cloonan said of remote MACPHY. "It was just a little bit too power-hungry to fit easily in most of the node configurations that are out there."

Thanks to Moore's Law and design improvements, that situation began to change drastically about two years ago, when CommScope realized it could pack all of that power into the node. Cloonan estimates that the power delta between remote PHY and remote MACPHY is down to 3-5 watts.

"The two worlds are getting close to parity" in terms of the power requirements for a remote PHY device (RPD) and a remote MACPHY device (RMD), he explained. "Even operators that started with remote PHY are starting to shift and more toward remote MACPHY for a bunch of reasons," including future plans that will involve DOCSIS 4.0, he said.

"We think there's going to be a lot more remote MACPHY coming down in the future," Cloonan predicted.

Agnostic approach to DAA

But CommScope and other suppliers are supporting both approaches today. For example, CommScope's latest line of DAA devices can function as RPDs or, with a firmware update, be configured as RMDs. Meanwhile, CableLabs has come out with its Flexible MAC Architecture (FMA), a set of specs that supports DAA with the MAC deployed centrally in a headend or distributed out at the node.

Both options will have a role to play, as there's still plenty of action occurring with remote PHY. As a recent example, Liberty Global announced it will use CommScope's High-Density R-PHY Shelf for the rollout of a next-gen gigabit-class broadband network.

"Operators are choosing both paths," Cloonan said.

And while CommScope's HD Shelf, a cabinet-style node that fits in with the way many European cable networks are constructed, will factor into Liberty Global's DAA strategy, it won't be the only path the cable operator is traveling with DAA. Liberty Global has also announced DAA-focused deals with Vecima and Teleste.

DAA activity is heating up this year after many operators put those efforts on the backburner in 2020 to instead add capacity to their legacy platforms so they could stay ahead of network traffic growth driven by the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, other operators are holding off on DAA to instead invest further in their current DOCSIS networks. Still others are thinking about upgrading their HFC (hybrid fiber/coax) networks to fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP).

"Customers are really trying to see how they are going to optimize their network in the near term," said Ric Johnsen, SVP of broadband networks at CommScope. The challenge, he added, is to build out a product strategy and roadmap that support all of those options.

"The answer isn't obvious. It's operator by operator," Johnsen said. The decision on how to go forward in the near term can be driven by multiple facets, including competition, the operator's current financial situation and the demographic makeup of the particular areas being served by the operator, he said.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading

About the Author

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

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