April/May 1995 -- Volume 7 Number 3
Contents:
CableLabs has issued a request for proposals (RFP) to more than 300 companies internationally soliciting for hardware, software, and operational support that would allow cable operators to deliver high-speed data services (HSDS) over a hybrid fiber/coax cable network.
Responses were due at CableLabs June 30.
The high-speed cable data service RFP is a continuation of the Telecommunications RFP to which CableLabs received 43 responses. CableLabs staff continues to follow up with vendors on the Telecommunications RFP.
A key objective of the high-speed data RFP is to facilitate cable company efforts to implement these services cost effectively. CableLabs' member companies will negotiate contracts individually and, as in all CableLabs RFPs, pricing volumes are to be sent by respondents directly to participating CableLabs members.
Vendor evaluation
CableLabs will assist members in technical evaluation of responses to the RFP as well as testing and evaluation of the vendors' equipment and systems. And, as with all its projects, CableLabs will be encouraging vendors to ensure integration and interoperability.
"The cable network is a very capable and robust broadband foundation," said Dr. Richard R. Green, president and CEO of CableLabs. "What we are doing here is helping our members build yet another major revenue opportunity on that foundation. And right now, cable is in a good position to do that and to capture a major portion of that enterprise of delivering bits to the home through devices such as cable data modems," Green added.
Scott Bachman, vice president of operations technologies projects, is heading the high-speed cable data services effort.
The RFP document is available via anonymous FTP at CableLabs' server (ftp.cablelabs.com), under the /pub/RFIs directory. You may obtain a copy immediately here.
The cable industry continues to forge ahead as a leader in the HFC telecommunications market and plans to begin offering high-speed data services (HSDS) to residential and small business customers by the end of 1995. CableLabs is responding by escalating its research, design, and experimental efforts in HSDS. The demand for high-speed services is a result of the prevalence in society today of growing numbers of communication links and the demands set forth by users. For instance, according to Sun Microsystems, there are today 27,000 World Wide Web (WWW) sites and, more astonishing, the WWW user population doubles every 53 days. (Business Week, 2/27/95)
For the most part, the public telephone network is used to access the Internet from remote locations and data is transmitted at speeds ranging from 2400 to 9600 bits per second. With cable, however, data may be transferred at speeds up to 10 million bits per second (about 1,000 times faster than telephone wire). Quite simply, cable introduces speed into the equation and the net result is an impressive increase in computer communications power.
This increase in communications power has the potential to satisfy a variety of HSDS needs that are both technical and societal in nature. For example, in the research environment at universities where the transfer and retrieval of large data files is a common practice, the delivery time is seconds using a cable system, as opposed to hours using a telephone system.
A cable delivery system also plays a critical role in K-12 education. One U.S. Department of Education report reveals that "only one-third of the nation's public schools have access to the Internet. However, 75% have computers, 74% have cable TV, and 70% have broadcast TV." (Broadcasting & Cable, 2/13/95) With the ingredients needed to access the Internet already on hand children in grades K-12 have the opportunity to bring the world into their classrooms via cable.
Research into improving and developing HSDS that is focused on residential and small business customers will indirectly benefit educational institutions.
Difficult Audience
Advanced communications power is just one part of the HSDS equation. Other factors to consider involve finding answers to the technical challenges that arise from providing HSDS to an audience that is, by nature, difficult to accommodate. Customers are spread out across a wide geographical area, their needs vary, and they may not all be equipped with the right hardware. In order to expose these technical challenges, CableLabs has established a series of five projects that will take place in laboratories and at employee's homes. These are:
Cable operators are looking to deploy new, reliable services and thereby to increase revenues. If the services do not operate reliably and effectively, it is an indication that the industry has failed to meet the challenges of providing quality telecommunication services. Yet the obstacles to reliability and quality of service are largely unknown. Unveiling these obstacles requires a series of trial tests and simulations.
Demand
In its Internet study, CableLabs will assess the outside forces that affect cable companies' existing capability to support Internet access services by examining regional and backbone IP networks. The demand by customers for thorough access to Internet sources is widely recognized, but customers will hold the cable provider responsible for the quality of their connections throughout the Internet. A key question to consider is whether the quality of that access will be affected by the quality and reliability of the regional and IP networks to which cable companies will interconnect, as well as limitations that may exist within the servers of content providers not affiliated with the cable provider.
Another project is the deployment of High-speed Cable Data Services with products from DEC/ LANcity, Hybrid/ Intel, and Zenith. Cable companies are eager to deploy HSDS for commercial use. CableLabs proposes testing the equipment from all three vendors simultaneously and implementing multiple return paths (cable, telephone and wireless).
To assist in the performance evaluation of HSDS, CableLabs has hired two University of Colorado graduate interns. Beginning in mid-May, these interns will be involved in evaluating internetwork configurations and their effect on speed of content delivery. This project will look at dissolving bottlenecks that occur from moving large data files and will, in turn, educate vendors and members on these findings.
User's Group
A CableLabs online user's group (COLUG) has been organized for the purpose of bringing together interested CableLabs employees who are presently involved, or want to be involved, in online activities. These gatherings will allow everyday users of online services to voice their positive and negative criticisms about accessing the Internet and online services and to discuss for what purpose they use online services. It may also serve as an early warning system for cable systems of any special demands that may be made on cable architecture by new services introduced by consumer online companies.
To enhance its testing facilities, CableLabs has developed and is presently having manufactured a Cable Test System (CTS). The CTS is a tool for evaluating television transmission systems via coaxial and fiber optic cable. The CTS simulates a set of critical cable television impairments such as noise, composite second-order, and composite triple beat. The CTS will be integrated into the headend and distributions systems in the CableLabs facility to allow complete evaluation of new transmission equipment.
These HSDS projects are varied enough in scope to produce a comprehensive analysis of the future success of HSDS and CableLabs is in a unique position to test the HSDS projects. For more information about these projects, please contact Bob Cruickshank at CableLabs (email:r.cruickshank@cablelabs.com).
CableLabs has received U.S. patents for a system that uses cable networks to deliver wireless telephone services, and for a system used in the transmission of data in a television signal. Manufacturers interested in licensing the technologies should contact CableLabs.
The wireless telephony patent is for a technology called "Digital Remote Antenna Driver" or "D-RAD." This technology will be used to provide personal communications services (PCS), expected to be an important new business area as the cable television industry expands into new telecommunications services markets. Several CableLabs members and manufacturers are incorporating the RAD into their wireless approaches.
The technology digitizes and time-compresses the telephone signal between a base station and one or more remote antenna sites, connected via a cable television system. The CableLabs' patent on digital technology flows out of work done by Rogers Cablesystems Ltd. on analog technology, or RAD. CableLabs has a patent pooling agreement for remote antenna driver technology with Rogers Cablesystems, one of its members.
Rogers Communications
Rogers Communications, on behalf of CableLabs, issued an RFP last year for RAD technology for use in Canada. Rogers Communications is the parent company of Rogers Cablesystems Ltd.
The other patent focuses on data sent via a television signal in the vertical blanking interval, which is modulated using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) techniques. This invention provides robust digital data transmission at a significantly enhanced rate over a broadcast channel, while also providing immunity to multipath interference.
Tom Williams, senior member of technical staff with CableLabs' Engineering Department and the inventor, explained that this system is an improvement over conventional OFDM broadband systems because it allows more time for processing the data that are transmitted.
CableLabs has promoted David Eng and Eady Broscheit and hired two staffers from the BDM International consulting firm.
Eng has been promoted to director, laboratory testing where he will join the CableLabs Engineering Department to focus on an extensive testing program which the Labs will conduct over the next few years. This is a new position.
Broscheit was named membership communications coordinator, a new position, in the Communications and Technology Transfer Department. In this capacity, Broscheit is the new contact for CableLabs members interested in receiving deliverables such as technical reports and other materials.
The Operations Technologies Projects Department has added David Harrison and Craig Owen. Harrison is project manager, network systems development. This function involves developing network architectures and financial models associated with providing telecommunications services over evolving cable systems. He holds a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University and a masters of science in telecommunications from the University of Colorado.
Craig Owen has been named project manager, network integration and planning. His responsibility is to focus on projects that focus on uses of cable telecommunications networks. He holds bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering from Michigan State University.
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