Some of the best and the brightest converged on CableLabs’ headquarters just outside of Denver last month for the first interoperability event for PacketCable 2.0.
The weeklong interop event featured 11 industry vendors who came together in the PacketCable Application Lab (PAL) to focus on pre-PacketCable 2.0 IMS core networks, voice applications services, and voice clients. According to CableLabs, the sessions also “achieved an impressive level” of interoperability for SIP-based services across the various equipment combinations provided by the vendors. The testing also included voice interoperability with PacketCable 1.5.
Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Gallery-IPT, and MetaSwitch provided the networking foundation for the event with their pre-PacketCable 2.0 IMS core networks. Alcatel-Lucent recently became the second major equipment manufacturer to permanently install its pre-PacketCable 2.0 IMS core in CableLabs’ PAL.
The voice applications servers were provided by Alcatel-Lucent, BroadSoft, Cedar Point, Gallery-IPT, IP Unity, MetaSwitch, Sonus, and Sylantro. Embedded digital voice adapters, or E-DVAs, were brought to the event by Broadcom and Motorola. An E-DVA is a DOCSIS cable modem with an embedded PacketCable 2.0 SIP client for making voice calls.
“This event was highly successful, thanks in large part to the excellent level of participation and support provided by the equipment manufacturers,” said Ed Miller, CableLabs’ vice president of Broadband Network Services, in a statement. “Having established a solid base of voice interoperability, we’re looking forward to upcoming events when we begin exploring applications that extend beyond voice to cover areas such as cross-platform features, unified messaging, and presence.”
PacketCable 2.0 is an architecture and set of specifications developed by CableLabs, cable operators, and vendors that is designed to extend the cable industry’s VoIP platform’s capabilities beyond basic telephony into new services such as wireless, fixed-mobile convergence, business communications, video communications, and cross-platform features. The IP-services delivery platform will also help cable operators to rapidly deploy new services in a cost-effective manner.
“The ability to rapidly innovate advanced IP services is an important part of the cable industry roadmap,” said Tony Werner, CTO of Comcast, in a prepared statement. “Comcast appreciates the support that the vendor community provided for this first event and looks forward to their continued involvement.”
The lab, launched in April, will also be used as an interoperability test bed to help CableLabs and manufacturers prepare for PacketCable 2.0 certification, but timetables for certification waves and future interoperability events were not given.
