CableLabs is pleased to announce that trailblazing researcher and distinguished technologist Dr. Zhensheng “Steve” Jia has been advanced to CableLabs Fellow, our greatest distinction for technical achievement. Dr. Jia is a true pioneer in communications technology and possesses both exceptional hands-on skills and a strong theoretical background.

The prestigious credential, which recognizes and rewards outstanding contributions to technology, is the highest level of CableLabs’ Technical Career Path (TCP). The TCP is a unique competency-based program that affords researchers the opportunity to advance their careers and be promoted without leaving their area of expertise. Steve’s recommendation from the TCP board was recently reviewed and approved by the CableLabs Board of Directors.

Dr. Jia has more than two decades of experience in technology and research innovation. During that time, he’s made significant technical contributions to the fields of optical fiber and wireless communications systems and networking. He has twice been named CableLabs’ “Inventor of the Year,” and he has published more than 180 peer-reviewed journals and conference papers. He’s the author of Coherent Optics for Access Networks, one of the earliest books focusing on coherent optics for access networks. The book elaborates on technology development, economical modeling and application scenarios to adapt coherent technology to the access environment in ways that address major cost/power challenges and hardened requirements.

In each of his seven years at CableLabs, Dr. Jia has published an average of 24 technical articles, including journal manuscripts, conference papers, patents and book chapters. He holds 148 patents, including 117 U.S. patents and 31 international patents, several of which have been adopted for commercial development.

In recognition of his accomplishments in the advancement of optics and photonics, Dr. Jia was named a Fellow of Optica (formerly Optical Society of America) “for outstanding contributions to the development of interoperable coherent optical systems and fiber-wireless converged technologies for broadband access networks.”

Most recently, Dr. Jia has been the Technical Lead for Point-to-Point Coherent Optics specifications development and coherent transceiver interop testing. He is the Working Group Chair of the coherent passive optical network (CPON) project for next-generation 100G access networks; co-chair of the Industry Advisory Board (IAB) for the NSF Industry/University Collaborative Research Center for Fiber Wireless Integration and Networking (FiWIN); a Technical Editor of IEEE Network; and an Associate Editor of IEEE Photonics Journal.

We’re profoundly grateful for Dr. Jia’s foundational role in establishing CableLabs as an important source of insight in the optical and cable industry and advancing our capabilities in optical technologies. He has been instrumental in leading and participating in 10 successful technical demonstrations for the Board of Directors (BoD), including Coherent Optics, Coherent Passive Optical Network (CPON), Delta-Sigma Digitization, Full-Duplex Coherent Optics, Edge-Wavelength Switching System (EWSS), Coherent Optical Injection Locking (COIL), Coherent Upstream Burst (CUB), Extreme Cable, Flexible Full Fiber Capacity Comb for Converged Access (F3C3) and Real-Time Flow Identification.

Dr. Jia’s technical achievements have been crucial toward advancing the field of coherent optical systems and networks. As an innovator and visionary leader, he continues to make a notable impact on the cable and telecommunications industries.

Dr. Jia holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

CableLabs is delighted about his advancement to Fellow and grateful for the invaluable contributions he continues to make to the global industry.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful that I can enjoy a nice dinner at home with my family. Others, however, don’t have that luxury on Thanksgiving Day. When I first participated in some of the programs supported by CableLabs Gives, I was honestly surprised to learn how many people lack the basic necessities of a safe shelter and food, even here in Colorado.

What is CableLabs Gives?

CableLabs Gives is the umbrella program that helps with numerous charities here in Colorado. Habitat for Humanity, which advocates for affordable housing to those who need homes is one program we support. Housing costs in Colorado have risen dramatically in recent years, making it even harder for lower-income families to achieve self-reliance. 

In June 2017, I organized a volunteer day with Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley and CableLabs employees. We took a day off to work on homes at a construction site in Longmont. I even convinced my boss to come, and as you can see below, he really got into the work! Together, we cleared out nearby rocks, cut wood and painted the outsides of homes being constructed by Habitat. I organized a second event at the same site a few months later, where we painted interior portions of the house.

As most of us lead busy lives, we are fortunate that CableLabs gives its employees paid time off to volunteer. Not only does this help our community, but by empowering employees to get actively involved in charitable projects, we are more committed and proud of our work.

Other Endeavors

Other charitable endeavors supported by CableLabs seek direct contributions from employees. This past May, I championed the 23^rd Annual Compete to Beat Hunger Corporate Challenge through Community Food Share. Community Food Share is an organization whose mission is to eliminate hunger in Boulder and Broomfield Counties through engagement, collaboration and leadership. The Corporate Challenge is a friendly competition among thousands of employees in Boulder and Broomfield Counties to collect food and raise money for those in need of assistance.

People are familiar with food donation bins at their grocery store, particularly around the holidays. Sometimes these are a quick, easy and maybe even a fun way to give a little to those in need. In reality, though, food banks such as Community Food Share buy food in bulk and usually get more food per dollar than what we can buy at a grocery store. Since it’s sometimes a little harder to get financial donations, it was important to let our employees know about the cause and how they could support it. Employees met the challenge by providing monetary donations, as well as some important food items requested by Community Food Share.

At CableLabs, we are fortunate that our company matches employee donations to charitable organizations, up to $100 per person each fiscal year. As the Corporate Challenge neared the end, it anticipated that it would not meet its community-wide goal of raising $500,000. When they extended the deadline for donations, I encouraged my co-workers to donate to the cause, ensuring they took full advantage of their matching donations for the cause. Due to this, CableLabs ended up donating $6,500 and 28 lbs of food!

Every year, we also collect new school supplies for backpacks for local school children in need. Additionally, we have yearly chili cook-offs to raise funds for United Way, which not only raises funds but gets the employees together in a fun and relaxed atmosphere - except for those hoping to win the cook-off, they take it pretty seriously! CableLabs Gives is a great way to encourage employees to participate in their community through charitable work or donations. By matching financial donations or giving workers paid time off to volunteer, CableLabs lets us know that it cares about us and our community.

Interested in a career opportunity where you can make a difference? Click the link below to see open positions. 

At CableLabs, we are proud to employ working mothers and fathers that promote meaningful change for future generations. "What impact could we have?", "What challenges would we face?", "What solutions might be possible?" As a woman in technology and a mother of three, these are some of the questions Project Manager Gabby Gordon asks herself every day.  

Gabby Gordon started her career with CableLabs in 2015 as the Service Delivery Specialist for the Lab Services team. During that time, she helped support the successful launch of the CableLabs DOCSIS 3.1® Certification program. In 2017, Gabby transitioned to CableLabs subsidiary Kyrio as the Customer Success Specialist. At Kyrio she worked closely with cable operators and technology partners in leading the delivery of key services for critical testing areas such as certification, interoperability and custom wired and wireless testing. Gabby was also responsible for rapid onboarding of new and existing customers across many lines of businesses. 

In mid-March, Gabby rejoined CableLabs as part of the Strategy & Innovations team as a Project Manager. She now helps coordinate the design and development of a wide range of Innovation and R&D ideas. On top of her work schedule, Gabby is a busy mother of three young children ages 10, 8 and 2. As one of the rare Colorado natives, she enjoys spending her free time outdoors with her kids skiing during the winter, fishing during the summer and recently embraced her fear of speed taking up mountain biking. She is inspired to provide an example for her children as a dedicated mother, friend and employee.

Now, meet the woman helping enable innovation at CableLabs.  

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We often say that many of our proudest moments are the result of a “team effort.” While it is true, we can’t overlook the efforts of all the extraordinary individuals who consistently face big challenges, turn a “no, can’t do” into a “yes, let’s try it” and blaze the trails for the rest of us. Their dedication, perseverance and strong leadership are instrumental to our success. Here at CableLabs, we are proud to employ many men and women who fit these criteria, but in this post, we’d like to focus on five people who have recently been recognized by the technology and cable industries for their outstanding performance.

Anju Ahuja

Role at CableLabs: Vice President of Market Development and Product Management

Recognition: Anju has been listed as a Silicon Valley Business Journal Woman of Influence 2018 award recipient for her outstanding results in leading a team that uncovers potential innovations that have broad applicability for the cable industry across international markets. The award will be presented to her in San Jose, California on May 31.

Why she’s an exceptional leader: Since joining CableLabs in 2015, Anju has focused on the future and the technologies of tomorrow. Her team is charged with the not-so-simple task of identifying potential applications of emerging innovations, like AI, AR, VR and MR, across various fields to determine what will be required of the network of tomorrow. Her talent for recognizing the next big thing has been honed by years of experience investing in tech startups and working on their product and strategy. Under her leadership, the market development and product management team has achieved outstanding results and further solidified CableLabs’ role as the engine of innovation within the cable industry.

Anju also serves on the board of directors of Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) and on the President’s Advisory Council of Northern California Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT).

Dr. Jennifer Andreoli-Fang

Role at CableLabs: Distinguished Technologist

Recognition: Dr. Andreoli-Fang recently received the Leading Lights Women in Comms Hedy Lamarr Award for Female Tech Pioneer of the Year 2018 for her work in developing state-of-the-art broadband technologies and defining the networks of tomorrow. She was chosen out of five finalists in the communications field.

Why she’s an exceptional leader: Since 2007, Dr. Andreoli-Fang has been tirelessly working on making the mobile experience as seamless as it can be. She and her team have made incredible strides in improving cable data networks, increasing upstream speeds and making sure CableLabs’ technology is ready for the high-speed networks of the future. Dr. Andreoli-Fang has spent over 15 years developing state-of-the-art broadband technologies, including major contributions to the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS projects at CableLabs. The results of her work impact millions of people around the world who rely on high-speed Internet every single day.

Dr. Andreoli-Fang has a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from University of California, San Diego. She has served as a vice chair of the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) Coexistence Task Group since 2016 and holds 49 patents with several pending.

Rachel Beisel

Role at CableLabs: Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

Recognition: Rachel was recently promoted to Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.

Why she’s an exceptional leader: Rachel joined CableLabs in 2017 as VP of Marketing and Communications and in just one year has proven herself as an invaluable member of the senior management team. Rachel is responsible for overseeing all of CableLabs’ marketing, communications and events strategy, however, her packed schedule doesn’t keep her from continuing her efforts to grow Colorado’s tech community. She has organized multiple community groups, including Boulder Startup Week, and cause-based nonprofits. She is also the founder of three companies.

Rachel’s long list of accomplishments includes being a Denver Business Journal’s CMO of the Year finalist, BizMagazine’s Top 25 Most Influential Young Professionals in 2014, Boulder Valley’s 40 Under Forty honoree in 2016 and Colorado Technology Association Women in Technology Luminary in 2016.

Dr. Arianne Hinds

Role at CableLabs: Principal Architect

Recognition: Arianne has been named among The Fierce 50: The executives reshaping the business of pay TV for standing on the forefront of geometric-based display research and her vision for holographic displays: 3D without glasses. The award was published by FierceCable on April 18, 2018.

Why she’s an exceptional leader: Arianne joined CableLabs in 2012 and is a software engineer and computer scientist where she is responsible for the overarching standards strategy on behalf of CableLabs and its members. She is also a video expert and serves as the primary video subject matter expert in CableLabs. Arianne holds the position of INCITS L3.1 Chairman, for which she is the head of the U.S. delegation of experts for participation in the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). At the international level, she is the chair for an MPEG project team that is actively developing new specifications to support virtual reality services; she serves as the primary voice for the cable industry in MPEG and other video-related standards bodies.

Lisa Schwab

Role at CableLabs: Program & Marketing Director - UpRamp, Director of Community- CableLabs

Recognition: Lisa was recently named as one of the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Women to Watch 2018 at the Walk of Fame Awards.

Why she’s an exceptional leader: Lisa’s been managing our UpRamp Fiterator program since 2016. Her passion for startups makes her a perfect fit for this role which connects radical entrepreneurs at various stages of development to our CableLabs member companies. Specifically, Lisa searches for startups that are working on breakthrough innovations in emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, VR and AR. She is recognized for her expertise in digital marketing, community development and her passion for the startup world and helping them achieve success.

On behalf of everyone at CableLabs, we’d like to thank these five exceptional leaders for their great work and wish them continued success in the future!

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Spectrum is the bandwidth in the sky that has fueled our wireless technology revolution. However, there's been a lot of talk about spectrum shortages recently. With an essential resource in such high demand, the focus has become how do we free up more spectrum and make the best of what we have? Now, meet the man shaping technology policy and standards to meet these challenges.

Rob Alderfer is Vice President of Technology Policy at CableLabs. An expert in wireless spectrum, Rob is responsible for CableLabs’ technology policy and standards strategy. His team has been instrumental in the development of wireless spectrum and broadband policy, as well as cybersecurity and energy efficiency standards.

Rob has been involved in communications technology policy for over a decade. Before joining CableLabs, he was the Chief Data Officer for the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireless Bureau, where he guided United States wireless broadband policy. While at the FCC, Rob engaged regularly with the Chairman and other senior Commission leaders as a trusted advisor on spectrum policy and data analysis. Previously, he was an analyst at the White House Office of Management and Budget and was responsible for the development and implementation of communications policy and programs across two administrations.

Outside of CableLabs, Rob serves as chair of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) program committee, the world's foremost communications policy research conference. He is also a partner with Social Venture Partners of Boulder County, helping non-profits deliver strong results. When not preparing policy, you may find him enjoying beautiful Colorado with his family, hiking, biking, and skiing.

Now, watch the video below to learn more about the man working on freeing up spectrum for broadband use.

You can read more about what Rob’s working on in his blog posts and Inform[ED] Insights: “Cable: 5G Wireless Enabler” and “Cable Broadband Technology Gigabit Evolution.” Subscribe to our blog to learn more about CableLabs and spectrum in the future.

As our world becomes increasingly connected, the demand for bandwidth is outstripping efforts to supply it. Meet the man working on improving signals, so they use less bandwidth, keeping our technology revolution from grinding to a halt.

Tom Williams is a Principal Architect of Access Network Technologies at CableLabs. Beginning his career at Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco), he is a veteran in the industry with 37 years of experience as a cable engineer. He is a prolific inventor and author, with 46 patents granted, several patents pending and publications in several journals.

Tom doesn’t sweat the small stuff - he likes to tackle problems at-scale. Since he’s been at CableLabs, he’s worked on testing digital broadcast signals for compatibility with cable plants, evaluating the ability of cable lines to transport high-speed digital signals, PHY-layer issues associated with the delivery of gigabit data over cable networks and advanced networks diagnostics. Currently, his focus is on cyclic prefix elimination.

What is cyclic prefix elimination you ask? In a nutshell, cyclic prefix elimination improves wireless signal efficiency, so more data is sent to a device in less time. A benefit of more data moving through the air faster is that transmissions are finished earlier, resulting in your data doubling on a fraction of your cellular battery power.  

Watch the video below to learn more about Tom and how he’s shaping the way we communicate, work and live.

You find out more information on cyclic prefix elimination in Tom's blog post "Sharing Bandwidth: Cyclic Prefix Elimination" and "Getting Rid of a Big Communications Tax on OFDM Transmissions."

Everyone has a story. Ask the person sitting next to you if they give to charity, and you will hear everything from “Yes I give,” “I have a handful of causes I like to support,” “No, I can’t afford to,” to “I give when I can, to things that I think are important.”  Then ask what they do to help others, and the responses will be as varied as the people responding.

CableLabs endeavors to impact our community by supporting our staff in their varied responses to these two questions.  “CableLabs Gives” is the umbrella program that supports our philanthropic champions.  Through matching contributions and monetary support for volunteer projects our employees are encouraged to get involved in what they are passionate about and share that passion.

According to Network for Good, there are 14 motivators for giving and volunteering:

• Someone asked me to give, and I wanted to help them
• I felt emotionally moved by someone’s story
• I want to feel I’m not powerless in the face of need and can help (this is especially true during disasters)
• I want to feel I’m changing someone’s life
• I feel a sense of closeness to a community or group
• I want to memorialize someone (who is struggling or died of a disease, for example)
• I was raised to give to charity—it’s tradition in my family
• I want to be “hip,” and supporting this charity (i.e., wearing a yellow wristband is in style
• It makes me feel connected to other people and builds my social network
• I want to have a good image of myself/my company
• I want to leave a legacy that perpetuates me, my ideas or my cause
• I feel fortunate and want to give something back to others
• I give for religious reasons—my faith teaches me to help others
• I want to be seen as a leader/role model

At CableLabs, we take an active interest in our own community by supporting numerous programs:

• Denver Fire Fighters Burn Foundation
• College of Engineering & Applied Science
• Therapeutic Riding Center
• Community Food share
• Humane Society of Boulder Valley
• Humane Society of South Platte Valley
• Niwot Elementary PTAC
• Foothills United Way
• The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
• Freedom Service Dogs
• Habitat for Humanity St Vrain
• Movember Foundation

For this holiday season, employees voted and selected the Wild Plum Center for Young Children and Families as the recipient of our holiday giving program.

Why Wild Plum?

Wild Plum Center empowers families and prepares children for the future.  The center has been providing early childhood education and development services to Longmont’s low-income families offering pre-school programs for three, four and five-year-olds since 1965. In 2010 they began providing developmental services for children aged zero to three, as well as pregnant women. In addition to the pre-school programs, families are assigned a Family Education or Program Specialist that offer individualized, in-home support.

Wild Plum Center relies on contributions from the community with gifts of financial support, supplies and services to provide essential assistance to children and their families. This year’s holiday program is asking employees to give materials needed to build art or literacy bags for children enrolled at Wild Plum Center. Bags will be delivered to each child so that they can build creative and quiet spaces for an “art studio” and “library” in their home.

Creating art promotes self-esteem, teaches children to use their senses, stimulates the brain and nourishes a child’s creative spirit. Reading develops stronger language skills, demonstrates how communication works and helps bond parent and child. It’s never too early to help shape the success of our future generations and help children creatively learn.

With the holiday season in full gear, it’s natural to get into the spirit of giving. But here at CableLabs, charitable giving is always in season. Subscribe to our blog to find out more about our CableLabs Gives program and how you can help us give back to our community.

Distinguished Technologist and superwoman, Dr. Jennifer Andreoli-Fang has over 15 years of experience in the development of state-of-the-art broadband technologies. Through her work at CableLabs, she is recognized as a DOCSIS® and mobile wireless thought leader. Spearheading many highly impactful projects including the development of Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.1 and Full Duplex DOCSIS, Dr. Andreoli-Fang’s efforts have been critical to the success of the cable industry.

Contributions to our community

In 2016, Jennifer’s work in unlicensed mobile technologies led to the mobile industry’s international standardization of fair coexistence mechanisms for LTE. As a vocal supporter of Wi-Fi, her contributions have enabled 20 million cable, public, home and enterprise Wi-Fi networks worldwide. In the past year, Jennifer has been working on the Low Latency Mobile Backhaul Project, developing an innovative solution that unites LTE and DOCSIS, improving the latency on cable data networks, enabling gigabit-per-second mobile traffic.

Before joining the CableLabs team in 2007

Jennifer received her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, San Diego. She is frequently consulted by the cellular and cable industries for her expertise and has served as the vice chair of the Wi-FI Alliance (WFA) Coexistence Task Group since January 2016. Additionally, Jennifer organized and served as the chairwoman of the IEEE International Conference on Communications LTE-U in 2015 and was a keynote speaker at the IEEE Globecom Conference in December 2015. She holds 49 patents with several pending in the U.S. and internationally.

We are excited to announce that on November 18, 2017, Jennifer won a Silver Stevie Award in the category of “Most Innovative Woman of the Year in Technology." 

Watch the video below to learn more about Jennifer’s bold vision for the future of mobile:

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Interested in learning more about mobile backhaul? Jennifer is holding a webinar with CTO of Cable Access at Cisco, John Chapman, in early 2018. You can find more information here.

Today, technology pioneer and futurist, Dr. Bernardo Huberman joins CableLabs as a Fellow and vice president of the Core Innovation Team. Based in our Silicon Valley office, Bernardo will lead our innovation efforts in the areas of artificial intelligence, PHY and MAC layer communications network technologies, and Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization.

A former senior vice president at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company and director of the Mechanisms and Design Lab at HP Labs, Dr. Huberman has over 30 years' experience in innovation. Originally from Argentina, he received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently a consulting professor in the Department of Applied Physics at Stanford University.

Dr. Huberman has played a key role as a thought leader in numerous highly innovative solutions in technology. He began his career working in condensed matter physics and was one of the discoverers of chaos in numerous physical systems. He uncovered the nature of electronic markets, designed novel mechanisms for enhancing privacy and trust in e-commerce negotiations, and invented ePrint - the first system to allow remote printing from a mobile device anywhere in the world.

Recently, at HP, he discovered that unstructured information contained within the web could be harvested in the service of innovative new tools. An example of this is the development of technology-based machine learning that uses Twitter postings about movies and products to predict the precise amount of money and demand they would generate.

Bernardo has been an active participant and advisor in a number of important global technology and policy forums. He has participated in TEDx and has been a member of the Council of Nordic Ministers and the European Commission. He is a former Fellow at many influential technological societies and was co-winner of the IBM Prize of the Society for Computational Economics. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Paris, the University of Copenhagen, and the European School of Business. He holds 46 patents (with several pending) and has published hundreds of reports and several books.

As an accomplished leader and disruptor, CableLabs is delighted that Dr. Huberman is joining the team to continue our efforts in innovation.

Bernardo is taking the helm as VP of Core Innovation from Peter Smyth, who is retiring from CableLabs this week. Pete pioneered many initiatives in wireless technologies and has been instrumental in propelling our innovation efforts over the years. We would like to thank him for his contributions and wish him the very best in his retirement in the U.K.

CableLabs is pleased to announce the advancement to Fellow of thought leader, visionary and distinguished technologist Dr. Alberto Campos. Our greatest distinction for technical achievement, Dr. Campos is CableLabs’ first Fellow in its 29-year history.

The prestigious credential recognizes and rewards outstanding contributions to technology and is the highest level of our Technical Career Path (TCP). The TCP is a unique competency-based program that affords researchers the opportunity to advance their careers and be promoted without leaving their area of expertise. Employees are nominated for promotion by their supervisors and a board of peers inside and outside the cable industry collaborate to assess competence in the areas technical innovation, technical knowledge, relationship management, leadership, mentoring, problem-solving and analytical/critical thinking, communication, and business acumen. Alberto’s recommendation from the TCP board was reviewed and approved unanimously by the CableLabs Board of Directors on September 28th.

With 30 years’ experience in technology and 15 years at CableLabs, Dr. Campos is regarded as the “Founding Father of Proactive Network Maintenance (PNM)” and the subject matter expert in QoE, DOCSIS technology, RF, wireless optics and network management. He is the current CableLabs’ “Inventor of the Year”, conducting seminal work in PNM, DOCSIS 3.1 technology and coherent optics. He holds 21 patents in the areas of wireless networks and optical communications with 36 patents pending and 58 patent disclosures submitted.

We are profoundly grateful for Dr. Campos’ contributions to our community and his inspiring example to technologists worldwide. I invite you to watch the video below to learn more about Dr. Campos’ work in optics, virtual reality and telepresence and how he’s inventing the future.

You can read more about Alberto’s work in his blog post “Future Proofing Cable Optical Access Network: A Coherent Story”.