Prepare for the reverse path surge.

Publication: CED

Publication Date: 01-JUN-01

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COPYRIGHT 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US)

How to determine if digital reverse will work for you

For decades, the cable industry has operated, to a large extent, on a one-way street. Today's primary applications--digital video, cable modem and telemetry--are asymmetrical in nature, and put limited demand on the return spectrum. While the next major application, video-on-demand (VOD), also puts limited demands on the reverse path, applications and trends that will significantly change the way the return path is used and increase the demand for more bandwidth are lurking around the corner.

As a result, whether you are a traditional MSO who has recently completed a system upgrade or a new broadband service provider (BSP) just beginning to make system architectural decisions, new services and applications are likely to challenge your ability to provide sufficient bandwidth, particularly in the reverse path.

At the recent SCTE Emerging Technologies conference, it was clear that while 2001 is the year for the emergence of VOD, 2002 might be the year for large-scale deployment of voice-over-IP (VoIP. The arrival of VoIP and other peer-to-peer applications that use bandwidth symmetrically, such as video teleconferencing and streaming video, and the tremendous growth projected for the small office/home office market, point to a significant increase in the use of the reverse path of hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks.

The advantages of digital reverse

We have seen digital reverse technology bring dramatic improvements to today's increasingly interactive networks. Digital reverse delivers high performance, increased fiber efficiency, and stretches network reach.

Digital reverse technology benefits include:

* Increased fiber efficiency through the use of time division multiplexing (TDM) and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM). As an example, one system on the market enables four 5 MHz to 42 MHz data streams to be sent over...

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