ATX To Provide Preview Of Future Optical Node

ATX will provide a preview of a future optical node that establishes new benchmarks for performance and flexibility at its booth (1301) during this week’s SCTE Cable & Tec Expo in Atlanta.

ATX's next-generation node is a forward-looking, futureproof solution that enables MSOs to begin to capitalize on the capabilities of Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) and digital technologies, while seamlessly accommodating future technologies and architectures as they become available.

"The ATX optical node is being built from scratch to support MSOs' initial transition to DAA and digital access network environments, as well as to provide a roadmap for support of future capacity enhancements and technologies without requiring MSOs to make wholesale changes to their outside plant," said ATX CEO Charlie Vogt. "Demand for gigabit-and-beyond bandwidth will only intensify over the next few years as entire industries reinvent themselves to compete and thrive in an all-digital realm. ATX is laser focused on delivering innovative solutions that have the agility and adaptability to meet today’s and tomorrow’s market demands."

Legacy nodes place constraints on how efficiently MSOs can evolve their networks. Due to outdated designs and reliance on inefficient electronics, today’s installed base of optical nodes lacks the flexibility, power dissipation and efficiency that MSOs will require to increase capacity and support new standards and technologies as they become available in the future.

The ATX next-gen node's superior power dissipation and built-in support for future spectrum expansion empowers MSOs to address near-term requirements for Remote PHY Device (RPD) or Remote MACPHY Device (RMD) applications, as well as provides a roadmap for future and simultaneous support of additional DAA applications, including Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX), Remote OLT, wireless backhaul and Internet of Things (IoT). The unit’s new and environmentally-hardened housing ensures that MSOs are able to realize the unfettered evolution of their networks without the need to replace expensive outside plant equipment for the next several years.

Utilizing the latest-generation ASIC technology for RPD/RMD functionality, dynamic digital predistortion and ultra-efficient power supplies, the new ATX optical node will provide MSOs with the capability to deploy RPD/RMD-based 1x2, 2x2, 2x4 and even 4x4 service groups into node-serving areas with the lowest possible power consumption. Support for 2x4 or 4x4 segmentation allows MSOs to shrink the size of serving areas by adding more upstream capacity without deploying additional fibers or reconfiguring the current network. Optional embedded support for forward-path RF overlay provides MSOs with the ability to maintain legacy analog video infrastructures during the transition to DAA.

The ATX DAA-optimized optical node is also designed to complement the capabilities of the company’s recently introduced GigaWave DWDM optical gateway, a next-generation digital platform designed to provide cable operators with a powerful, futureproof and protocol-agnostic solution that enables them to expand the capacity of fiber access links between headends/hubs and outside plant facilities in a cost-effective and pay-as-you-grow manner.

www.atx.com