Motorola Inc’s Motorola Personal Communication Systems and Hewlett-Packard Co have, as reported briefly (CI No 2,421) announced plans for joint development of an open architecture which they hope to have adopted as a standard – for the delivery of cable television, telephony and interactive video services over hybrid coaxial and fibre networks. Simultaneously, Motorola announced a prototype system called CableComm for the delivery of such services over hybrid networks. Specifically, the duo hopes to overcome the problems of interference between cable television transmissions and interactive services, and says that the goal of their relationship is to create interface protocols which will be freely offered to other suppliers for use in their systems. Hewlett-Packard also confirmed that the protocols will be used as the basis for its set-top boxes. While a Motorola spokesman said that existing Asynchronous Transfer Mode technology could be used to overcome many of the problems that the companies are aiming to tackle, he said that the costs associated with Asynchronous Transfer Mode are too high to make this a viable option. Motorola said that the protocols developed with Hewlett-Packard would be used in its new CableComm system, a prototype of which was demonstrated at the National Cable Television Association show in New Orleans. The system is said to overcome the two principle obstacles to delivering interactive services over hybrid coaxial and fibre networks the limited availability of bandwidth on the upstream path from the subscriber to the cable head-end, and the susceptibility of cable to interference and noise – through Motorola’s experience with wireless technologies, as similar effects occur with frequencies radiating from an antenna. Specifically, the company says that it has adapted wireless spectrum management techniques such as on-demand trunking and frequency re-use for the wired environment. Motorola says that CableComm will enable network operators to offer telephony, high-speed – 384Kbps – data services, interactive video services, and video telephony alongside television transmissions on the existing broadband infrastructure. In addition, the company says that the system also supports its PPS-2000 2GHz wireless telephony system, to enable cable operators to offer wireless local loop Personal Communications Services. The system comprises two components: the Cable Control Unit is designed for insertion at the cable headend, providing communications between the telephone network and the cable system (with interfaces to the Operations and Maintenance Centre), while the Cable Access Unit bridges the cable and separates the telephony from video signals at the downstream path at the customer premises, as well as inserting telephony signals into the upstream path. The system is to go into trial early next year, with first customer shipments set for mid-1995.
