
Why This Matters: The emergence of distributed, virtualized cable access technologies is prompting operators to put off some infrastructure purchases.
It came as no surprise to anyone in the cable network-technology business that research company Dell'Oro Group's newly released first-quarter data showed that CCAP tech sales had slid 38% to $275 million during the first three months of the year.
Earnings reports delivered in April and May had already told the tale.
CommScope, making its first earnings call since closing on its Arris acquisition, reported an 18% first-quarter revenue slide in its network and cloud business. That was followed closely by the Casa Systems report that its overall business, which is more concentrated in CCAP sales, declined 55.6% during the quarter.
Harmonic, which is introducing a disruptive virtualized Converged Cable Access Platform technology called CableOS, saw a 30% decline in first-quarter revenue.
The cause of this downturn is hardly recessionary. Rather, the consensus is that operators have their hands full making decisions regarding Distributed Access Architecture, and how to reconcile it with CCAP virtualization and all the other 10G technologies coming down the CableLabs pipeline.
What, and Why, On DAA
DAA is the next-generation hybrid fiber coaxial network configuration in which functions like PHY and MAC/PHY, which have traditionally resided in the headend, are moved closer to the user. According to CableLabs, moving these functions into the network reduces the amount of hardware and power and cooling needs within the headend, creating efficiencies in speed, reliability, latency and security. All of these things are needed for the 10G future.
In his report, Dell'Oro analyst Jeff Heynen said operators are pushing off new capacity purchases while they determine how to move forward with distributed access architectures.
Both in North America and in Europe, cable access tech vendors had expected to see large-scale deployments this year for Remote PHY and Remote MAC/PHY. But so far, those deployments and their associated orders haven't materialized.
John Chapman, chief technology officer of cable access and a fellow at Cisco Systems
We have DAA just ready to get out the door, said John Chapman, chief technology officer of cable access and a fellow at Cisco Systems, speaking on a panel at the recent ANGA COM in Cologne, Germany, as reported by Light Reading. We have 100 customers that have bought DAA but are waiting to do it.
Asaf Matatyaou, VP of solutions and product management for cable edge business at Harmonic, sees the issue as multifaceted.
He compared sales of legacy CCAP technology to the consumer market for iPhones. Even if a user needs a new smartphone today, they're often going to push off that purchase until the next generation of hardware arrives.
In the case of DAA and virtualized CCAP, those products are available now. But operators, Matatyaou explained, aren't ready to deploy them in mass. He said operators were enthralled with early CableLabs lab demonstrations of DAA, the first of which showed interoperability with data.
But it's one thing to demo it in a lab, it's quite another to deploy all the other services you need [in DAA], Matatyaou pointed out. Even though there's a lot of value in DAA, you have to bring to bear operational best practices as well as people familiar with how to deploy and maintain it.
Beyond these reasons, operators are being slowed by the plethora of new 10G-related HFC network technology being put forth by CableLabs. Beyond just network virtualization, engineers need to reconcile such forward-looking technologies as Full Duplex DOCSIS, Extended Frequency DOCSIS and Low Latency DOCSIS, just to name a few technologies, into their DAA planning.
That's not to say the market is totally paralyzed.
In terms of CCAP virtualization, a source close to Buckeye Broadband told Multichannel News that the tier-2 operator recently cleared out CCAP gear in more than a dozen locations and was able to consolidate it into several off-the-shelf x86-powered servers running CableOS, all of which fit onto one rack.
In Europe, Vodafone Germany is trying to move quickly with DAA. And Com Hem, Stofa and TDS in Scandinavia are all in the midst of DAA projects, Heynen said.
Among U.S. tier 1 operators, Comcast is closest to a major deployment of CCAP virtualization and DAA. According to Heynen, the top North American cable operator is on the verge of deploying significant CableOS channels in the second half of 2019.
Comcast is in the very early stages of its R-PHY deployment and will likely use a combination of gear from Harmonic, Arris and Cisco, with Arris and Cisco providing R-PHY nodes tied to existing E6000 and CBR-8 CCAP cores, Heynen said.
Hurdles Leading to Lumpy' Rollout
That's not to say the overall business of selling network gear to telecoms is soft right now. The global market for all access gear was down by 2% in the first quarter to $2.9 billion. Dell'Oro said deployments of fiber-to-the-home networks capable of data speeds of 10 Gigabits per second, such as the one Altice USA is building in its Optimum footprint, drove increased shipments of XPON1, XGSPON and NG-PON2 OLT ports.
And while tier-1 operators are like Comcast and Charter Communications are largely done with the CCAP purchasing needed to build their DOCSIS 3.1 networks, deployments of 1-Gbps-capable modems are ongoing.
Dell'Oro found a 19% uptick in CPE units shipped during the first quarter.
Why This Matters: The emergence of distributed, virtualized cable access technologies is prompting operators to put off some infrastructure purchases.
It came as no surprise to anyone in the cable network-technology business that research company Dell'Oro Group's
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
08/07/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is applauding the passage of President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill and provision...
08/07/2025
SYDNEY RTS has announced that Channel 7 Sydney has deployed a new comms system from RTS as part of a larger ST-2110 upgrade....
08/07/2025
ATLANTA & CINCINNATI Gray Media, Inc. and The E.W. Scripps Company have entered into agreements to swap television stations across five mid-sized and small mark...
07/07/2025
SBS Farewells Chair George Savvides AM
7 July, 2025
Media releases
Born of Greek Cypriot parents, Mr Savvides joined the SBS Board as Deputy Chair in Febru...
07/07/2025
Advanced vision solutions deliver more than reliable night vision for tactical-edge warfighters. Today's technological advances can provide the capability f...
07/07/2025
BALTIMORE Sinclair has named Narinder Sahai its executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective immediately....
07/07/2025
Riedel Communications today announced the launch of RefSuite, a powerful new Managed Technology solution tailored to professional sports workflows. RefSuite com...
07/07/2025
Regional base will foster client engagement, partner collaboration, and executive touchpoints
Skandha Media Services, a leading provider of cloud-native media ...
07/07/2025
Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, announced its Against All Odds - ASG Builds Cutti...
07/07/2025
Agreement secured on the strength of Skandha's proven track record in delivering reliable managed services across the full content life cycle for existing h...
07/07/2025
1-2 Punch: The Cloud, Generative AI, and the Future of Sports-Content Distributi...
07/07/2025
Tests and decisions: Formula E host broadcaster Aurora on launching new AR graph...
07/07/2025
Building tension: Using new AR graphics for storytelling at the Formula E penult...
07/07/2025
Altitude Sports' Matt Krol on the Success of the RSN's In-Arena Postgame...
07/07/2025
SVG Rewind: Four NFL Clubs Bring Us on Set of Respective Media Day Shoots An in-depth conversation with 49ers Laura Johnson, Ravens Jay O'Brien, Las Vegas R...
07/07/2025
Cosm To Build Fifth Shared Reality Venue in Cleveland as Part of Bedrock's ...
07/07/2025
Back to All News
She Walks in Darkness, Agust n D az Yanes New Film, Premieres ...
07/07/2025
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA As Apple Music marks its 10th anniversary this year, Apple unveils its most ambitious creative project to date: a brand-new state-of-the...
07/07/2025
RT has announced that Mark Bignell has been appointed Commissioning Editor for Comedy following a public competition. This senior editorial position will drive...
05/07/2025
Back to All News
Superestar, the Story of a Star Who Never Changed. Premiering July 18
Entertainment
05 July 2025
GlobalSpain
Link copied to clipboard
Dis...
04/07/2025
By Lucy Spicer
Editor's note: We are deeply saddened by the passing of Robe...
04/07/2025
The Summer Reading Challenge has inspired children across the U.K. to embrace a ...
04/07/2025
Introducing CVP Auctions: Trusted Tech, At Auction-Only Prices
Brie Clayton July 4, 2025
0 Comments
A New Destination for Film and Broadcast Gear at U...
04/07/2025
Unveiling China's Ecological Wonders with URSA Mini Pro 12K
Brie Clayton July 4, 2025
0 Comments
Nature Documentaries Freeze Epic Momentsin Extrem...
04/07/2025
Create Any Planet in After Effects
Graham Quince July 4, 2025
0 Comments
The Advanced 3D renderer in After Effects makes it really easy to import 3D o...
04/07/2025
Custom Gradient Colorize for Resolve Fusion
Simon Ubsdell July 4, 2025
0 Comments
Digging into the theory of the gradient colorize process to build ou...
04/07/2025
Watching live sports on TV these days is a delicate balance for broadcasters how much information is too much?...
04/07/2025
WASHINGTON As Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr works to achieve his goal of a very busy, productive summer at the FCC, the agency has rele...
04/07/2025
Other World Computing Launches OWC Guardian USB-C Hardware-Encrypted Portable SS...
04/07/2025
CANAL Brings MotoGP to Vision Pro with Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton July 3, 2025
0 Comments
Experience MotoGP like never before as CA...
04/07/2025
Friday 4 July 2025
Watch the trailer here https://youtu.be/Od5WpvWmDr8
Further...
04/07/2025
The Pitch comes to RT Radio 1 airwaves this Sunday at 7pm. The Pitch is a brand...
03/07/2025
For our Vario-Jib, as well as for a repertoire of weights, we now have carts that make transport easier...
03/07/2025
One of our latest innovations: Slider Drive Unit!
Our Vario Slider not only comes with improvements and new features, but also with its own drive unit!
Our i...
03/07/2025
The 360 EVO lives up to its name: 360-degree rotation not only on the pan axis, but also on the roll axis, enables filmmakers to take their creative visions eve...
03/07/2025
What a buzzing few days at BSCExpo in London!
We were thrilled to connect with so many talented professionals from the world of cinematography.
A huge thank ...
03/07/2025
ADOLESCENCE - Shot with Panther Tower"The whole rig had to be detachable mid-episode
Netflix limited drama series Adolescence has been gaining attentio...
03/07/2025
To achieve a true level of decisive overmatch, communication systems must be as ...
03/07/2025
The Broadcasters Foundation of America has named Ray Hopkins, president of U.S. distribution at Paramount Global, to its board of directors....
03/07/2025
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. In his first major policy speech, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr outlined his Build America Agenda for the agency'...
03/07/2025
As the industry is making a major push to transition to NextGen TV and develop new businesses that will fund the next generation of broadcasting, TV Tech's ...
03/07/2025
Despite enabling its subscribers to watch films and TV shows in the highest possible resolution, Netflix has revealed it is taking things old school with the in...
03/07/2025
WASHINGTON In response to news that Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit by President Donald Trump, Democrats and other administra...
03/07/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications today launched RefSuite for professional sports workflows....
03/07/2025
WEITERSTADT, Germany LYNX Technik, a provider of modular signal processing solutions, has announced that founder and longtime CEO Winfried Deckelmann is steppin...
03/07/2025
WASHINGTON Representatives from six trade groups representing tech, pay TV, broadband, LPTV and other sectors recently met with Federal Communications Commissio...
03/07/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wis. Dan Whealy has acquired Heartland Video Systems and will be its new owner and president, the systems integrator said....
03/07/2025
Acclaimed filmmaker, educator, and industry veteran Jay Holben has released his most ambitious work to date: The Director's Guide to Everything a sweeping...