BizAnalyst Network: Mobile WiMax Gets Rolling

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Mobile WiMax Gets Rolling

Mobile WiMax Gets Rolling

Cable operators, who have long been the leaders in high-bandwidth networking, are reacting as traffic spikes and their networks show signs of maxing out.

Cable Prepares for Bandwidth Crisis
The cable industry has long held the advantage over other delivery platforms because of its surfeit of bandwidth. But the emergence of HDTV and other factors is threatening to overload cable systems. At a conference, approaches discussed included splitting fiber nodes in half, digital video delivery, channel bonding based on the emerging third version of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, expanding the radio frequency to 860 MHz or 1 GHz, boosting modulation power, using out-of-band overlays, employing Motion Picture Experts Group 4 transmission, and utilization of FTTH architectures. Research says approaches such as rate shaping and switched digital video are less expensive but don't provide much extra capacity, while others — such as fiber-to-the-home/passive optical network (PON) — are bandwidth-rich but "outrageously expensive."

The cable industry has long held the advantage over other delivery platforms because of its surfeit of bandwidth. The emergence of high-definition television (HDTV) and other factors, many of which are convergent in nature, is threatening to overload cable systems. Comcast, the nation's biggest operator, is testing a new system called switched digital video. Cablevision, the fifth largest operator, has also joined the fun by rolling out the platform in its New York City region. In most cable systems, all programming is sent to all customers; the subscriber chooses which programming to watch. In a switched digital approach, only the programming requested by the subscriber is transmitted, saving a tremendous amount of bandwidth. Two vendors of these systems, BroadLogic and BigBand Networks, are mentioned.

Current headlines:
- Cable Operators Confront Bandwidth Shortfall :: Red Herring
- Big Bandwidth Problems, Many Possible Solutions for Cable Ops :: Cable Digital News
- SDV Offers 33 Percent Bandwidth Gain :: BroadcastNewsroom.com
- Bandwidth Increases Must Be Carefully Considered :: ABI Research

More articles on the cable and telecom industry.

cable, telecom, broadband, digital technology, bandwidth, WiMax, mobile internet

Labels: bandwidth, broadband, cable, digital technology, mobile internet, telecom, WiMax