By Sudheer Dharanikota, Duke Tech Solutions, Inc.; Charles Cheevers, CommScope Inc.
Telecom for Wellness (T4W) is a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity for cable operators. This opportunity begins with the connectivity and device base that is already in place and expands simply to move into new high-value revenue opportunities in the wellness, telemedicine, and aging-in-place markets. In this paper, we analyze different in-home networking architectures that can be added to the existing Broadband and Wireless networks in the home to support T4W services such as Aging in Place (AIP) and Telehealth. To minimize CapEx investment for this new service evolution we will show how the existing infrastructure can support sensor-based networks, audio networks, video networks, and IoT for medical device networks in a simple incremental architecture from today's quad-play services. The paper will provide an analysis of the home networking components needed for the AIP and Telehealth applications to overlay into existing backend services, processes, and even technician in-home support. This paper will leverage the work done within SCTE Working Groups to derive an outline of the standardization of cable industry premises devices with wellness capabilities used for T4W services. It will highlight the interfaces for wellness solutions to be added to Broadband Gateways, STBs to provide access to resources like BLE and Wi-Fi, such as simple secure onboarding, messages and notifications on the TV / Video and Audio networks. It will also look at the cloud-to-cloud interfaces that can be standardized to allow partnerships between Service Providers and Cloud wellness partners to create inter-industry opportunities.