Omnitron supports DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON in iConverter NID

In a sign that DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON (DPoE) technology may finally be nearing deployment readiness, Omnitron Systems Technology says it has completed lab trials using its iConverter GM4 Network Interface Demarcation Device (NID) with support of the DEMARC Auto-Configuration (DAC) process. The DAC process, recently defined by CableLabs, enables NIDs to be automatically provisioned much like cable modems. Along with the recent arrival of a new, more expanded version of the DPoE standards, the DAC process is expected to help spur DPoE deployments when it is ratified later this year.

According to Rammy Bahalul, Omnitron’s vice president of marketing, the company used a DAC-enabled SFP-ONU “EPON on a stick” transceiver plugged into the iConverter in the lab trial. The lab trial partner was “a major MSO” whose identity Bahalul wouldn’t reveal when he spoke to Lightwave last week. However, Bahalul will chair a session this Thursday at the show entitled “Provisioning the Passive Optical Network” during which the trial will be discussed. According to copies of the presentations made available before the show to attendees, Time Warner Cable is the MSO involved and Finisar provided the SFP-ONU (see "Finisar intros EPON Stick in an SFP for DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON").

DPoE has been proposed as a means to overcome the current upstream bandwidth limitations of DOCSIS networks, including DOCSIS 3.0, that hinder its use in business services applications that demand symmetrical high-speed transmission and support of multiple classes of service (see "CableLabs preps EPON for MSO business services support"). Bahalul characterized DPoE as a pathway toward provision of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 services that would enable cable MSOs’ to further increase it growing market share in the business services segment. He says that the lab trail further demonstrated the ability of the DAC process to significantly streamline service delivery times while reducing operational expenses by 20% to 50%. In the trial, the iConverter GM4 retrieved management channel information via the DAC process and completed automatic provisioning through standard DHCP and TFTP.

Omnitron has at least one more trial with a major MSO on its dance card in the near term. Bahalul predicted that if the DAC process is ratified by the end of this year as expected, cable MSOs likely will begin to deploy DPoE as soon as the first half of 2013.

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