CableLabs
January/February 1995, Volume 7 Number 1

Contents:

CableLabs to Continue to Focus on Telecommunications and Digital in 1995
In response to the increased speed of the convergence of the cable, computer, and telephone industries, CableLabs in 1994 restructured its project development organization to emphasize the cable network's evolution to bi-directional, high bit rate/bandwidth, digital networks. This "MultiCom" project, in coordination with CableLabs' project planning process, has allowed the Company to focus on those projects that emphasize such evolution and development. That process will continue into 1995.

The two highest priorities for CableLabs in 1995 will continue to be helping members to find telecommunications hardware and to deploy digital compression and transmission technology.

In 1994, CableLabs also started the project-pool funding concept where projects are approached on an integrated basis, involving all departments. Funds are allocated on an ongoing basis and then only to project ideas that are approved as part of the project planning process. Management believes that this approach has strengthened the company and better positioned the company to add value to the industry. The funding pool program will continue into 1995 as well.

Operations Technologies Projects (OTP)
This department focuses on network operating systems and software, building upon previous projects in network reliability and optimized system operations.

The changes in network architecture and the types of services that cable systems will offer in the future will create new challenges for the network operating systems. This department seeks to educate the industry about existing techniques and how they might be applied to the cable industry.

The purpose of the MultiCom Project is to study the full service cable network to determine the elements needed to take advantage of the convergence of the cable, computing, and telephone industries for offering new types of services to cable subscribers . This effort will provide cable business and engineering planners information with which to predict, to design, and to specify those portions of a full service network that are required to support their business goals.

The MultiCom project has become the focus for integrating CableLabs' work over the past year. Activities undertaken by CableLabs must relate to the full service cable network, rather than having the different departments pursue independent areas of study. This is not really one project but instead the general theme for virtually all of CableLabs' projects.

Potential applications for the full service network are being considered for the issuance of Request For Information (RFIs) and Request For Proposal (RFPs). As part of MultiCom, CableLabs issued the telecommunications RFP, the Digital Media Servers RFI, the Multimedia RFI and, most recently, the Multiservice Communications Network request for information and industry developmental proposals (RFI/IDP).

The OTP department also is providing technical support for the Telecommunications RFP which CableLabs issued in 1994; striving to foster interoperability for the switching, transport, and network termination elements of the cable hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) broadband architecture; and developing plans for integration and interoperability testing.

A third major area of continuing work in the OTP department is the follow-up on video servers. As part of the MultiCom project, information about digital media servers is being gathered by meetings with selected server vendors. The reports and debriefings from this study will give CableLabs and its members a detailed understanding of the digital media server market, and the visits will help educate vendors about the cable industry. This project hopes to speed up the roll-out of near video on demand, video on demand, video games, and other media-server related business opportunities.

Engineering
The Engineering Department conducts the technical and operational engineering activities of CableLabs, performing theoretical assessments and providing laboratory and field evaluations of new technologies for compression, storage, transmission, and presentation of information on cable networks. This department is responsible for physical platform issues associated with full service cable television networks, providing support to other departments in areas including digital transmission and MPEG-2 development efforts.

The department has characterized the capabilities of upstream channels on cable systems in order to increase the understanding within the industry and its vendors regarding the provisioning of cable plant for two-way transmission. This project has characterized the nature of upstream transmissions on cable, with goals to understand fully the mechanisms causing upstream signal impairments, and to determine ways to build, operate, and maintain cable facilities that provide a reliable and consistent communi cations channel.

Engineering also will provide a venue for the verification of interoperability of bit streams, to further CableLabs' objective of fostering interoperability among the various physical distribution platforms anticipated for future digital services, as well as between source material that these platforms will transport. CableLabs' test facilities in Louisville, Colorado, will be used to test and to verify bit streams to determine their interoperability vis-a-vis the MPEG-2 standard. Such testing would determine the syntactic compliance of vendors' (hardware and software) encoded bit streams and would include the development of a suite of increasingly difficult bit streams intended to determine decoder conformance and performance.

Testing would be at the system layer level with a common, agreed-upon interface in order to test the video, audio, and data sync at the multiplexed transport stream level (and not just elementary bit streams). Tests would be carried out on baseband data after demodulation and other distribution-specific processes. It is contemplated that such tests would be a first step in an effort to test all encoders and decoders on an end-to-end basis as well as adding distribution-specific impairment testing to allow examination of complete encoding-distribution-decoding networks.

The department also is working to develop a means of mapping the MPEG-2 protocol to the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) protocol. The ATM protocol provides network features such as scalability and efficient bandwidth utilization for the delivery of voice, video, and data. MPEG-2 provides crucial compression technology. This project will explore the ways of mapping MPEG-2 to ATM. In another capital-intensive project, Engineering will build a cable test system (CTS), which simulates a set of critical cable television transmission impairments, for evaluation of new transmission equipment being developed for cable.

Network Architecture and Design Development (NADD)
NADD worked in the area of network architecture and design, focusing on what architecture will be needed to support various applications, including telecommunications and multimedia. However, the company's architecture and design concerns are now being addressed in the MultiCom activities and by the OTP department. Management is contemplating revising the name and mission of this department to reflect that this department is no longer responsible for project management, but instead provides advice to all departments. The group will also help CableLabs keep track of standards issues in the area of PCS and ATM.

Communications & Technology Transfer (CATT)
The company has increased its focus on transferring technology to our members and the industry. Communications and Technology Transfer is responsible for this activity. It is of note that this department is responsible for the CableNET activity as discussed below.

To help the industry demonstrate its interest in leading-edge technology, CableLabs has created several technology demonstrations, such as CableNET. These projects are important to the cable industry to: (1) bring new vendors into the industry, (2) educate audiences on cable's technological capabilities, (3) promote CableLabs and reinforce its contributions in the technological aspects of the telecommunications process, and (4) educate and inform CableLabs members about the technology. Additional CableLabs technical resources have been involved with CableNET in order to help CableLabs gain a working knowledge of the equipment involved in many of these leading technologies.

The department is working on a project to assist member companies in reducing system outages by providing information for use in designing systems and bench-marking customer satisfaction.

The department is creating a training module which will be disseminated to cable operators on ways to reduce cable system outages. CATT is creating a reference guide to provide chief technologists and other technical employees of member companies with a comprehensive guide to fiber optic technology.

CableLabs is a participant in the Boulder Community Network (BCN). The BCN will provide on-line access to local and national information for the general populace in order to promote civic participation, educational excellence, economic vitality, and community involvement. CableLabs will help set up interactive kiosks in area hotels for access to the community network by visitors and the general public. The kiosks will be connected to the rest of the BCN via cable facilities.

In conjunction with Technical Services, CATT is actively engaged in the ongoing effort known as the Cable/IT Convergence Forum which affords computer industry representatives an opportunity to learn more about the cable industry. Also in conjunction with Technical Services, CATT is pursuing electronic publishing capabilities in order to use the internet for disseminating CableLabs publications to member companies. The group has created a home page for CableLabs and is posting general information about the cable industry and about CableLabs.

Advanced Television (ATV)
The Advanced Television department is continuing to work with the Advanced Television Test Center on the U.S. ATV standard, and is focusing on other applications that will be carried by fully evolved cable television networks. It is anticipated that field tests of the complete Grand Alliance ATV system will be conducted in FY 1995. CableLabs, on behalf of the cable industry, has conducted testing of proposed advanced television systems with the ATTC under the direction of the FCC Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service. Continued participation with the ATTC until the completion of testing is important to assure the cable industry that it has the information it needs to make proper judgments on the developing ATV standard, and to influence the standard where necessary so that it serves cable industry interests regarding system performance and functional capabilities.

Technical Services
The Technical Services Department provides engineering and systems integration support for testing of R&D projects at CableLabs' Louisville, Colorado, laboratory. Technical Services also integrates voice, data, audio, and video communications systems onto the internal CableLabs distribution network. This department manages the coordination, shipping, and receiving of lab equipment, and the efficient use and sharing of these critical resources. The department is also responsible for maintaining CableLabs' internal computer network as well as the CableLabs' Internet connection. The department staff is also available to conduct tours, in conjunction with CATT.

Among its projects, the Technical Services Department is developing a combining network suitable for today's regional headends, by eliminating the use of RF broadband amplifiers in the headend. Such a network will have the minimum loss possible by combining all the channels and splitting the combined signals to feed trunks and laser transmitters at a level that does not require amplifiers. This will improve both quality and reliability.

The department is creating a demonstration of the power of accessing the Internet over a cable network. This will provide CableLabs' members and cable industry vendors with a fully functional demonstration of Internet delivery over the CableLabs' laboratory cable system. The project will use existing vendor RF modem, router and switch technology to create a TCP/IP network to demonstrate Internet services (including e-mail, WWW, Internet-based video conferencing and MBONE multicasting). Such a network will have the minimum loss possible by combining all the channels and splitting the combined signals to feed trunks and laser transmitters at a level that does not require amplifiers. This will improve both quality and reliability.

The department is creating a demonstration of the power of accessing the Internet over a cable network. This will provide CableLabs' members and cable industry vendors with a fully functional demonstration of Internet delivery over the CableLabs' laboratory cable system. The project will use existing vendor RF modem, router and switch technology to create a TCP/IP network to demonstrate Internet services (including e-mail, WWW, Internet-based video conferencing and MBONE multicasting).

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