By Karthik Krishna, Nokia
Cable operators are transitioning to Distributed Access Architectures (DAAs) in response to the dramatic increase in High-Speed Data (HSD) traffic on their networks. As cable operators begin planning the introduction of DAA into their networks, one of the critical decisions they need to make is how they will deliver video.
If an operator is not immediately migrating to an all-IP video implementation, they must continue to support Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) video, which also consumes significant capacity and spectrum. The good news is that a Flexible MAC Architecture (FMA) implementation of DAA enables a variety of options for carrying QAM video regardless of whether the architecture used is Remote PHY(R-PHY), Remote MACPHY (R-MACPHY), or a combination of both.
In this paper, we will address the factors an operator should consider in making the DAA video delivery decision and outline several flexible DAA QAM video delivery options, and discuss their pros and cons.