By Tony Andruzzi, Bill Wallace, Patrick Hibbs
The voice over cable (VoCable) market is defined by both constant bit rate (CBR) and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technologies. Operators that have previous CBR VoCable experience have provided significant input on the features required for next-generation VoIP. VoIP has gone through an initial deployment ramp in 2004 with many of the world’s service providers either rolling out a commercial service or conducting extensive, large scale field trials. Feedback from this process along with industry input on the future direction of the market has provided a valuable set of features and optimizations to be included in next generation products. This paper will explore the features necessary in a next generation EMTA and the integrated, cost effective silicon necessary to support these features. The paper will explore the integration options that can reduce the component count and cost of the design. The paper will focus on factors and tradeoffs associated with silicon integration that can optimize power supply, battery charger and telephony interface costs. The paper will also explore the integration level necessary to support add on of peripheral components such as wireless LAN technology and convergence with mobile voice technology.