CableLabs^® Hosts Winter Conference

Paul Baran, chairman of Com21, and the unofficial "Father of Packet Technology," delivered the conference’s luncheon keynote address on The Past, Present, and Future of Convergence.

Baran spoke on the "first time the light bulb went on" regarding convergence, 38 years ago. While working at the RAND Corporation, a non-profit organization set up to preserve the operations research capabilities of the Air Force during World War II, Baran identified communications as the "Achilles’ heel" of the U.S. strategic forces. He recognized that "the highly centralized nature of long-distance switching meant that even relatively slight collateral damage essentially could block all long-distance communications." As a result, he envisioned a network in the form of a fishnet that would utilize digital modulation and packet-routing capabilities.

Admitting that the idea seemed "nutty" at the time, Baran also saw the potential benefits of error detection and repeat transmission—in effect, a more reliable network. Thus, "convergence" was born; the ability to transmit teletypewriter signals, data, and voice over the same network.

Baran went on to describe the formation of Packet Cable, Inc., a company he founded in the early 1980s to support impulse-pay television channels, locally generated videotex, and packetized voice transmission. Understanding the need for high-quality telephony, Packet Cable, Inc. used short 192-bit packets and was able to pack "96 channels of excellent quality voice on a T1 circuit normally limited to 24 channels." Unfortunately, Packet Cable faced financial problems with its major investor and, although eventually purchased by Stratacom, it was never able to meet its long-term goal of providing digital video, telephony, and data on cable TV systems.

The main conference began with a welcome address from Dr. Richard R. Green, CableLabs’ president and CEO.

Decker Anstrom, president and CEO of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), followed by thanking Dr. Green for his leadership during an "historic" time for the cable industry. Encouraged by the developing cross-industry cooperation and the evolving relationships between cable, consumer electronics and retail industries, Anstrom continued by suggesting some of the significant challenges that lie ahead, including the need to "endorse competition and reject regulation," and the importance of meeting OpenCable benchmarks and in getting set-top boxes to retail.

A financial analysts panel followed, featuring Tom Wolzien, senior media analyst, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.; Richard A. Bilotti, managing director, Morgan Stanley; and Gordon Crawford, research analyst, Capital Group Companies, Inc. Moderated by the conference chair, Mike Schwartz, CableLabs’ senior vice president of communications, the panel discussed the cable industry’s current financial climate, as well as potential trends for the future.

PacketCable issues occupied the morning sessions. A panel on PacketCable service strategies began the day, with panelists Dr. David Reed, CableLabs’ vice president, strategic assessment; Mark Coblitz; Mark Dzuban, technical business development director, AT&T; and François Rousseau, project leader, Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée.

David Bukovinsky began a PacketCable project update by defining the roles of the PacketCable technical team and outlining the project’s accomplishments and challenges. CableLabs’ PacketCable team members, Frank Christofferson, project director, software systems; Ed Miller; and Andrew Sundelin, project engineer, integrated services architecture, followed Bukovinsky.

Christofferson moderated a panel focusing on PacketCable product availability. Mark Bakies, product manager, packet voice for Cisco Systems, offered insight into Cisco’s plans to bring end-to-end voice and data solutions to market this year. Michael Noonen, vice president of business development for 8x8, described the hardware and software requirements for enabling new PacketCable terminal devices, and addressed the new generation of communication appliances and services. Mary Turney, vice president of next generation network solutions for Bellcore, outlined the market drivers that will dictate the migration from today’s PSTN architecture to one that allows the efficient transport and switching of data and mixed data-voice traffic.

The afternoon sessions were devoted to OpenCable issues. Following Paul Baran’s luncheon keynote address, Laurie Schwartz, CableLabs’ vice president of advanced platforms and services, provided the audience with a clear overview of the OpenCable project, including accomplishments from the past year and key benchmarks for 1999. Other topics covered by Schwartz included service portability, set-top box interoperability, and device functional requirements.

Don Dulchinos, CableLabs’ director of business development, moderated a platform reports panel with Jim Chiddix; Tony Werner; and Joseph Wetzel, vice president of technology, MediaOne.

Eric Kirsten, CableLabs’ OpenCable project manager, moderated the POD module development status report panel and presented a brief overview on the purpose of bringing the POD module to retail, as well as on the upcoming POD interoperability testing schedule. Luc Vantalon, business development manager, digital TV, SCM Microsystems; Bill Wall, technical director, subscriber networks, Scientific Atlanta; and David Robinson, senior vice president, General Instrument Corporation, joined Kirsten. Vantalon focused on the POD module’s architecture, while Wall and Robinson outlined business strategies relating to POD deployment.

Philip Abram, director of business development for Sony Electronics, discussed the relationship between OpenCable and the consumer electronics industry. With a focus on digital televisions and in-home networking, Abram discussed the importance of certification, interoperability, and retail availability.

The final day of the conference began with a DOCSIS project update panel discussion. Moderated by Robert Cruickshank, vice president, technology program management for Road Runner, the panel consisted of CableLabs’ DOCSIS team members, Rouzbeh Yassini, Andrew Sundelin, and Bill Kostka, project director, broadband Internet access. Attendees were presented with updates on field trials, as well as the schedule for the 1999 DOCSIS certification wave.

A session on strategic assessment followed with Dr. Terry Shaw, CableLabs’ project director for network systems, who presented a competitive analysis of the xDSL industry and growth trends in the high-speed data market. David Reed followed with a PacketCable cost-model discussion, which focused largely on IP telephony, high-speed data traffic, and operations support systems (OSS).

Following lunch, attendees heard two different panel discussions. The first panel focused on DOCSIS and cable modem rollout issues. Moderated by Tom Elliot, CableLabs’ senior vice president of technical projects, the panel included Jim Kersnowski, vice president, engineering, Time Warner Cable; Clarence Caldwell, vice president, launch operations, TCI; Steve Silva, vice president, corporate development and technology, Charter Communications; and John Fountain, Jr. , high-speed data operations manager, ExpressNET.

Throughout the conference, attendees were able to view product demonstrations in a separate area of the conference. Participating vendors displayed various products and services related to the DOCSIS, PacketCable, and OpenCable projects.

Vendors and their products included: