Arris re-announced the C4c, its newest cable modem termination system (CMTS), originally introduced last week (story here).
The C4c is a DOCSIS 3.0-based CMTS chassis designed for smaller installations, such as headends lacking the space or environmental capacity for a full C4 chassis, or simply not needing to support the volume of customers typically associated with a C4 chassis.
The C4c is, according to Arris, a high-performance, high-availability platform using existing C4 modules, such as the system control module (SCM), router control module (RCM), and 16 downstream and 12 upstream cable access modules (CAMs). CAM sparing capability is designed into the chassis hardware, as well as redundant dual-power supply modules.
The new CMTS can support a variety of downstream to upstream configurations, with a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 80 downstreams, and a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 60 upstreams.
“The C4c is ideally targeted for smaller headends that require 32 or 48 DOCSIS 3.0 downstreams,” said Derek Elder, senior vice president of product management for Arris. “These headends previously required only eight DOCSIS 2.0 downstreams, but demand for new DOCSIS 3.0 services will obsolete this DOCSIS 2.0 infrastructure. The C4c fills a gap in the DOCSIS 3.0 market where space and volume constraints are easily addressed.”
