Nokia announced that Altibox, a regional telecom operator in Norway and Denmark, will deploy its Gainspeed Unified Cable Access solution.
The solution, based on a virtualized Distributed Access Architecture (vDAA), provides the network foundation for Altibox and its partner Eidsiva Bredband to deliver all-IP-based broadband services to residential and business customers.
Nokia said the deployment will enable Altibox and Eidsiva to significantly increase network capacity and establish a fully distributed and virtualized access architecture that can support Gigabit and multicast IPTV services over longer distances.
Cable operators are turning to software-driven, all-IP Distributed Access Architectures (DAA) to increase the capacity of existing HFC networks and improve signal quality. Distributed access architectures can also help reduce Opex and the number of hub offices required by effectively virtualizing the headend and network functions.
Nokia claims that Unified Cable Access solution is based on vDAA which delivers greater space and power savings, as well as superior architectural flexibility, compared to traditional DAAs.
Altibox and its partners can eliminate legacy cable-specific hardware, reducing the amount of power, space and equipment required in the headend — by moving the cable access layer functions in its headend and hub sites to the access nodes that sit closer to customers.
Nokia said its vDAA solution will enable Altibox and Eidsiva Bredband to reduce the number of hub offices, realizing significant real estate cost savings while simplifying network operations.
Altibox effectively pushes the digital portion out to the node, ensuring a better signal quality and experience for subscribers — by virtualizing the headend and network functions.
Altibox and its partner Eidsiva Bredband will start the deployment of Nokia’s vDAA solution, including the Gainspeed Access Controller and compact form factor Gainspeed SC-1D Access Nodes, into its network in the third quarter of 2019.
Sandra Motley, president of Nokia Fixed Networks Business Group, said: “Our vDAA solution enables Alitbox and Eidsiva Bredband to maximize their HFC network and move to an all-IP environment that has the scale to support vast amounts of IP data traffic while reducing operating and real estate expenses.”
“We expect spending on DAA to double between 2019 and 2020, as operators look to reduce their headend and hub sites while also improving the spectral efficiency of their outside plant,” Jeff Heynen, research director, Broadband Access and Home Networking, Dell’Oro Group, said.
