Cable Can Play a Role, Liao
Tells Smart Grid Forum

Print This Page

Following is the text of keynote speech delivered by CableLabs President and CEO Dr. Paul Liao at the Grid Interop Nov 17, 2009, in Denver.

I am honored to be here to speak with you about the "Road to the Interoperable Grid." My name is Paul Liao, and I've just recently joined CableLabs as its President and CEO. Prior to joining the cable industry, I was the Chief Technology Officer of the consumer electronics manufacturer Panasonic in North America, which is a company that prides itself in the advances it has made in making its products energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

On a personal note, I believe the issues of global climate change and energy independence are challenges around which all citizens should unite. We need to work together to create effective solutions and I have no doubt that by working together we can harness the power of the free market to meet these daunting challenges. An you know, these are issues about which President Obama and his administration have focused considerable energies. I know that Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, is very much serious about finding the necessary solutions. I've known Steve for a very long time. When I was still a research scientist, Steve and I both worked at Bell Labs. In fact, when I left Bell Labs, he took over my lab and he did his Nobel prize winning work in that lab. Unfortunately, I cannot claim I had anything to do with that work, but still, I think that maybe he owes me. But seriously, I'm confident that with his leadership, we as a Nation will find ways to address the issues of global climate change and energy independence.

Some of you may not be familiar with the cable industry, and CableLabs in particular. Well, CableLabs is a non-profit research and development consortium dedicated to pursuing new broadband technologies and services that enable cable operators to rapidly deploy new technologies so as to benefit consumers and businesses. It is a membership based organization that is owned by cable operators.

Dr. Paul Liao

Our board is composed of the CEOs of all major cable companies: Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Charter, as well as some of the smaller companies such as Bend Broadband, who serve rural communities throughout the country. CableLabs also serves and international cable companies such as Liberty Global. We were founded in 1988.

At CableLabs, its our job to develop the requirements and specifications for the technologies that are used by cable companies. In addition, CableLabs does testing and certification of supplier products as well as hosts interoperability events, or interops, on a regular basis. These activities help cable suppliers in their efforts to assure cable equipment and technology is interoperable. Our focus is on collaborating with our member companies, their suppliers and other related industries to develop innovative technologies that benefit from the economies of scale when deployed by the cable companies throughout the world. It's from that perspective that I'd like to talk about the Smart Grid. Specifically, I want to emphasize the importance of three things:

1. The power of open architectures and standards that foster interoperability and especially the power of a process that leverages innovation across all industry players to create economies of scale on not only a national but global basis.
2. The importance of recognizing the important role that consumers should play in achieving the goals of the Smart Grid and thus defining architectures empowering consumer choice.
3. The potential to leverage existing communications network infrastructures that can support Smart Grid initiatives.

As I have already noted, one of CableLabs' primary functions is to create the requirements and specifications for, as well as testing and certification of, cable industry technologies and equipment. To be effective, these specifications are designed with common interfaces that inform suppliers on how to connect devices within, and to, a cable system. In a fashion similar to NIST Smart Grid process, CableLabs specifications are developed in a collaborative process by multiple parties and industries including manufacturers, software developers, application programmers, and cable operators.

We have found that these specifications are most powerful when they are open and non-proprietary. This encourages suppliers to collaborate in ways that strengthen the cable marketplace with innovative new products. Many of these specifications become national or international standards. As a result, this process has propelled the cable industry into a leadership role in broadband service delivery, as well as voice services and interactive digital video.

Now, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the architectural challenges facing the Smart Grid. However, it is my hope that the experience of cable operators in the development of their broadband networks, which in themselves can play an important role in the Smart Grid, may provide some insight.

One of the successes that the cable industry has had is its broadband deployment. That success was built on the cable modem specification, which is known as DOCSIS, or the "Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification."

Quick history: in the 1990s, modems were proprietary and the cost was over $500. By building to common non-proprietary interoperable DOCSIS specification, you can now find cable modems integrated on a chip for around $5. Today, more than 100 million cable modems are now deployed around the world. And continuing industry innovation has created new DOCSIS technology, known as DOCSIS 3.0, (no-one ever said that we were good at creating exciting names for technology) that is capable of providing hundreds of megabits per second to end-users.

CableLabs believes that an open architecture driven by consumer needs and desires is necessary for the long term market success of the Smart Grid. In anticipation of a market for managed home services of all types, CableLabs has developed a specification know as SMA, for security, monitoring, and automation. The SMA specification defines a common protocol for SMA services that provides for a highly flexible network interface for communication with sensor networks inside the home.

As was the case of the DOCSIS specification, the SMA specification was developed in collaboration with many companies, in this particular case, next generation IP-based "Smart Home" product companies. As a result, it reflects the state of the art in IP-based home automation. It is designed to allow interoperability among products, systems, and devices, and supports a broad range of services, including energy management. It also enables multiple providers of consumer premises equipment to compete for use in the home.

As we take the first steps down the road to Smart Grid interoperability, CableLabs is designing an Open Energy Management Architecture , extending SMA with the idea that not only a utility or service provider, but also the end-user, could leverage SMA to fulfill a variety of Smart Grid functions.

For example, this Open Energy Management Architecture can collect power meter data, aggregate the data, and forward the results to the utility for reporting neighborhood power demand in the home and in the distribution network. In this way automation can increase efficiency, provide security and protect the greater grid by isolating problems within a particular area so that they do not become widespread. Using Open Energy Management Architecture applications, end users can monitor and control their own energy consumption. For example, dynamically adjust usage during peak loads as negotiated with their utility providers.

We believe that the projects we are working on and the automation they can create are ideally suited to promote Smart Grid interoperability. As I mentioned earlier, our SMA specification enables the delivery of a variety of home services, including energy management by off-premises servers managed by a service provider. This specification was created to allow delivery of SMA services by both cable and non-cable service providers.

As such, a key benefit of SMA is that it may be deployed by utilities, by cable operators, or by third party service providers. By being an open specification, it fosters innovation, while at the same time ensuring interoperability.

As you can tell, we are proud of the SMA specification. And we were especially pleased to know that the SMA system is included as part of the draft Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Release 1.0 issued by NIST last month.

As part of the cable industry review of the NIST Framework and Roadmap, CableLabs recommended ten core principles to NIST. I'll not discuss these principles in detail here today, except to note that many of these 10 principles are motivated by our understanding that consumer choice and control should be a key tenet of the Smart Grid.

Consumer behavior needs to be driven by incentives, not deterrents. Consumers should have flexibility to control energy management and consumption beyond the meter. Load control can be done more effectively with long-term customer cooperation rather than only by direct load control, or shutting down devices in the home via commands from the utility.

We need to think beyond just smart meters. Consumers also need easy to use applications and interoperable communications tools that can not only monitor their smart meters but also help them make real time decisions that will reduce costs and increase efficiency. An open architecture that allows applications developers to innovate and market their applications and services independently will drive the most value and create "the most bang for the buck" for consumers.

We note that innovative technology that empowers new consumer behaviors will not be developed if the consumer energy management marketplace in any way hinders or discourages entrepreneurship. While the closed models may seem to expedite early deployment, these approaches will not scale, or create that sustainable competitive marketplace that is needed for innovative energy management products. To this end, we believe the Smart Grid architecture should leverage existing and emerging in-home communication and networking standards and systems. These standards and systems include IP, HTTP, XML and SSL.

Having said this, we also recognize that the thriving consumer market may have different dynamics from the market place for products purchased by the utility industry. Thus it would be best for the utility domain to be logically separated from the consumer domain with each governed by potentially different "standards," albeit with appropriate interfaces between the two domains.

Finally, I recommend that the emerging Smart Grid take maximum advantage of the many communication network infrastructure options already available today. As a result of decades of investment, both the telephone and cable industries have much to offer. For example, today's cable network is available to 96% of all homes in the US. Since 1996, the industry has invested over $145B in fiber optic and coaxial cable networks, as well as data centers, all of which have transformed what was once a one-way cable TV video only distribution plant into a vibrant interactive broadband grid that that can be accessed by 92% of homes. Indeed, there are more than 40M subscribers in the US that use a cable company as their broadband Internet service provider and over 25 million homes rely on voice over IP and their cable company for telephone service. In fact in some markets, the cable operator serves the majority share of residential customers. For example, Comcast has become the third largest residential phone provider in the U.S. today.

And as we speak, many of these same cable companies are involved in broadband wireless networks as well.

So, I'm proud that cable operators operate dynamic communications networks, and that these networks are is both scalable and evolvable to meet future consumer needs, including those associated with Smart Grid applications. Cable operators provide a ready-made platform for web services and content that can be readily adapted to offer managed home services such as energy management in addition to home security, monitoring, and automation services.

At CableLabs, we are working to further develop the unique attributes of cable networks that play directly to the aspirations of utilities, Smart Grid application developers, consumers and policy makers. We are eager to work with others that share the vision of what the Smart Grid can deliver to our country. By empowering consumers, focusing on open specifications, and fully leveraging the investments already made in existing network infrastructures, together we can turn the vision of a Smart Grid into a reality.

Thank you.

Next story