Cisco Systems said it has a new, compact and lower-priced version of its Universal Broadband Router (uBR) cable modem termination system. The new CMTS is being tried by Danish cable operator Dansk Kabel TV.
The new uBR7225VXR, each of which can support up to 5,000 subscribers, is targeted at smaller entry and greenfield deployments. As such, it will have a lower price when it becomes commercially available later this year.
Cisco claims it is the first compact CMTS in the industry designed for compatibility with CableLabs DOCSIS 3.0 and channel-bonding technology. It provides up to 16 upstreams and 4 downstreams per two-rack-unit form factor. It is also compatible with Euro-DOCSIS 2.0 and PacketCable 1.1 technology.
Dansk Kabel has been a Cisco customer. Jakob Kristjansen, the company’s technical manager, said, “We believe the compact Cisco uBR7225VXR CMTS can serve areas with lower density requirements and its modular form factor provides us the flexibility to add capacity and functionality as we need it.”
The uBR7225VXR platform has also been in field trials at A+, the third largest broadband service provider in Denmark.
Separately, Cisco said its Content Delivery System (CDS) will natively support Flash streaming capabilities, in addition to traditional progressive delivery. Service providers using CDS will be able to deliver video that is compatible with Adobe Systems Flash Player to PCs and TVs.
Cisco said its agreement with Adobe will include the recently-announced Adobe Flash Media Server 3 software. Adobe Flash Media Server 3 will offer faster user response and increased streaming protection to ensure that valuable content is better protected. The CDS platform provides additional benefits for the hosting and distribution of Flash Player compatible video content and services including content and service routing, dynamic hierarchical caching, load balancing, failover protection, IP multicast extensions, unified management tools, and end-to-end quality-of-service (QoS) support.
