By Asaf Matatyaou, Harmonic, Inc.; Richard J. Walker, Shared Services
The promise and potential of virtualizing a cable hub has been discussed over the past few years. There are many opportunities when discussing virtualization. One possible starting point is virtualizing a CMTS in a centralized deployment model in a headend or hub.
While the benefits and general considerations of a virtualized CMTS (vCMTS) have been described in past technical papers, this paper will focus on real-world experiences and lessons learned deploying a vCMTS in a centralized architecture. Areas of consideration when enabling virtualization via shifting from a hardware-based CMTS to a vCMTS will include the use of Remote PHY as a protocol/specification between a vCMTS Core and a PHY Shelf in a centralized facility (e.g. headend or hub), and usage of IEEE-1588. The ease of expandability will be highlighted, including node splits with PHY shelves, as well as Remote PHY Nodes (RPN). Lastly, the usage of streaming telemetry will be explored in comparison to legacy monitoring techniques.