Infinera Solutions

Cable operators are well positioned to compete for market share against traditional broadband service providers. They were the first operators to be able to run multiple services over their network infrastructure — first with "double play" video and broadband, then "triple play" added fixed line voice to the mix. Today MSOs are continuing to drive bandwidth growth by offering mobile voice, VoIP and multimedia services to form a new combination generally called "quad play".

Cable transport networks are seeing dramatic growth in Gigabit Ethernet and 10GbE-framed circuits, as Ethernet becomes the interface of choice, replacing SONET or proprietary interfaces.

Many MSOs have large volumes of traffic in metro and regional network, while some are considering long-haul builds as well—partly driven by consolidation with other regional ISPs and Cable Operators.

As multi-service operators, MSOs are finding different drivers behind each of their services:

• Video is all about bandwidth. More customers wanting more channels with more resolution — ultimately HDTV quality.
• VoIP is about high availability and voice quality. Customers have expectations of quality, reliability and availability that were set by conventional POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) over the past century of operation.
• High speed data is, of course, the foundation of the broadband Internet. Access speeds have increased dramatically in recent years, from around 128kb/s in the late 90s to tens of megabits per second today. Coupled with the rapid increase in broadband subscribers this has placed tremendous pressure on network backbone capacity.
• Commercial (B2B) services are great business for the MSO because it's possible to charge a premium compared to residential services. One important commercial service is the provision of backhaul capacity for cellular telephone radio masts. MSOs are particularly well placed for this application because they inevitably have capacity that is co-located with residential communities.

The Infinera Solution

Infinera offers a very clear set of advantages to a typical Cable/MSO customer:

• We offer the highest density Gigabit Ethernet over DWDM solution in the industry. This makes Infinera the best solution for carrying Gigabit Ethernet across an optical transmission network. Infinera equipment can be installed in the metro, regional and long haul portions of the backbone to create a seamless Digital Optical Network solution.
• Rapid growth in Cable/MSO networks makes excellent use of Infinera's industry-leading 100Gb/s line cards. By scaling bandwidth 100Gb/s each time a new line card is added, MSO personnel need less hardware, fewer fiber jumpers, and less network intervention to grow.
• We have designed our MTC chassis option specifically for the 19" communication equipment racks found in most Cable/MSOs. However, in doing so we have retained full plug compatibility for our existing DLM line modules and TAM access modules to make sure existing investments in our DTC 23" chassis options are protected.
• Many Cable/MSO carriers have a wealth of IP and TV expertise and, given their lean operational models, prefer not to invest staff time and dollars managing the optical intricacies of conventional DWDM. Infinera's Digital ROADM technology uses operational procedures that are very similar to those used in the IP world for the provisioning and protection of services. Existing IP-based skill sets are more than adequate to operate an Infinera network.