Is Charter using vCMTS yet?

cypherstream

I’m spinning off this query based on some discussion over in the Comcast thread here:
https://broadbandbulletin.com/d/3614-vcmts-unloaded-latency-and-jitter/

Comcast is a huge customer of Harmonics CableOS vCMTS platform. Once switched over to vCMTS, what is evident is in a traceroute the first hop past your router is now a private IP / or CG-NAT IP, and slightly higher latency than the legacy CMTS that preceded it. After this private vCMTS IP, packets are traced throughout Comcasts “CRAN” for as long as possible until it reaches a larger datacenter with appropriate peering to the final destination.

I wasn’t sure if Spectrum had any other vCMTS vendors in operation today, or even different configurations. I was curious if anyone had traceroutes from before and after an upgrade.

Browsing the very long high split thread, I take it that vCMTS DAA hasn’t been fully certified yet to Charter’s liking? So all of your High Split upgrades are tied back to traditional CMTS’s like the Arris E6000 for example?

Thanks in advance.

CommunityMember

cypherstream Browsing the very long high split thread, I take it that vCMTS DAA hasn’t been fully certified yet to Charter’s liking? So all of your High Split upgrades are tied back to traditional CMTS’s like the Arris E6000 for example?

Correct (at least as of a few months ago). Charter Phase 2 (not yet formally started) will be the first DAA (and vCMTS) deployments, and Charter has chosen Harmonic (same as Comcast) for their vCMTS provider (interestingly, Cox chose Vecima, although should the merger be consummated it seems likely that there will eventually be only one choice, although it will likely take years to complete; in theory, with DAA/vCMTS, the vendors are reasonable interchangeable as desired, although the practical details always get in the way of theory).

cypherstream

CommunityMember interesting. I thought I read somewhere that Charter also had Vecima as a supplier for nodes.

I’m guessing with DAA RPHY nodes maybe the backend is interchangeable. Maybe the industry (CableLabs) developed standards so a Vecima node wasn’t locked in to a Vecima vCMTS. I mean it’s all 10g fiber ethernet to the node.

We already see with Comcast they have Arris OM6000 nodes as a second supplier. So apparently they figured out how to get Harmonics CableOS to work on more than just Harmonic Pebble nodes.

MacLeech

cypherstream So apparently they figured out how to get Harmonics CableOS to work on more than just Harmonic Pebble nodes.

Harmonic makes adapter plates (they call it a Raft) for their Pebble-2 rPHY module to fit in other nodes.
https://www.lightreading.com/the-edge-network/harmonic-goes-network-agnostic-with-pebble-2-module
https://www.harmonicinc.com/insights/blog/legacy-system-modernization-extend-the-life-of-ciscos-gs7000

BTW, the Harmonic nodes are named the Ripple, Oyster, SeaStar, or Shell depending on the model.
https://www.harmonicinc.com/broadband/ripple-remote-phy-node/

cypherstream

MacLeech all great information, thanks for the links. The adapter plate is slick. With a name like Hertz, the guy demonstrating it was just destined to work in RF.

There’s a lot of GS7000’s deployed in Montgomery County PA. Yet a lot of the area hasn’t been upgraded yet. Curious to see what route they go. In general it’s a popular node. Spectrum uses them in New York where I visit family.

I will be curious how different the Comcast vs Spectrum DAA implementations go. Interested to see how latency changes between each MSO’s configuration. Pebble-2 in the ripple node (or others) seems like the best option supporting both RPHY and MacPHY along with docsis 4.0. I can understand why Charter wants to perfect DAA before rolling it out.

nucleartx

cypherstream Recent node splits in my area are using Vecima nodes, Killeen/Temple market.

Motorola870

North Texas is using E6000s and NC4000 1.2GHz high-split configured nodes. Digital return but the forward is still analog mode fiber.

cypherstream

Motorola870 that’s wild that Comcast literally CUT OUT all NC4000 nodes. It’s clear they are upgradable as you guys are running high split on them, a one up on Comcast.

Oh well it’s not my money.

CableGei

I know it’s likely not the context you’re asking about, but Charter launched and has been using Harmonic CableOS vCMTS since 2021 for Enterprise customers.