By Jim Walsh & David Hering, VIAVI Solutions; David Judge, Vodafone New Zealand
The Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) plant is rapidly evolving to economically address subscriber bandwidth and service quality demands, and technologies like DOCSIS 3.1 and distributed access architectures(DAA) are key to this evolution. While these breakthrough technologies will enable HFC to remain the dominant broadband service medium for years to come, they also present challenges to the folks who must maintain the plant. This paper will touch on the drivers behind adoption of these technologies and follow the early planning, preparation, and live-plant rollout of DAA and DOCSIS 3.1 from an early adopter MSO and test vendor including early successes and lessons learned. Examples will be provided demonstrating how industry-wide collaboration and standardization have been and will remain keys to success.