CableLabs and Cisco on Wednesday announced their collaboration on a new open-source software project for the Remote PHY Device (RPD).

Dubbed “OpenRPD,” the software will reside in the Remote PHY Device and will be available to cable operators and RPD vendors around the world. CableLabs said Cisco will be contributing their Remote PHY interface software to the effort, which will form the project’s baseline.

The companies said the new open-source project is aimed at furthering interoperability and promoting virtualization that will speed time to market of new services. The new software will also allow legacy optical node vendors to build Remote PHY nodes without restrictions or expert knowledge of the latest cable standards and specs, the companies said.

“This is open source for cable access,” Cisco chief architect and CTo of Engineering Dave Ward said. “Not only does it help move the industry toward the future architecture but it also enables a new developer community. Open standards, open source and an open ecosystem community for developers is a key trajectory for networking. We see the Remote PHY architecture and RPD evolving to a more generalized and virtualized architecture that can be applied to all types of access networks.”

Originally developed by Cisco, the Remote PHY solution allows for the deployment of DOCSIS in Multi-Dwelling Units over digital fiber and enables two-way services over cable. Remote PHY works together with DOCSIS 3.1 to expand capacity of the cable hybrid fiber coax (HFC) plants.

According to CableLabs, the Remote PHY technology allows for the separation of a converged cable access platform (CCAP) into two components, including the CCAP Core and the RPD. The latter in turn allows the PHY layer components of a CCAP to be moved out into the fiber node in the field as a separate device, the lab said.

According to CableLabs, all interested developers in the CableLabs community are welcome to participate in the open source project.