​Upgrading the Cisco uBR10K (uBR10012) – Getting to Gig

According to Nielsen’s Law, internet bandwidth consumption is growing at a rate of 50% per year. This puts pressure on operators to deliver more and more bandwidth as speeds are increased to customers. Most Cisco uBR10K systems launched in the recent past use the MC20x20V RF card, which is generally limited to about 640 Mbps of bandwidth (assuming a single bonding group of 16DS x 4US channels). If the RF card is being split into two 8DS x 4US bonding groups, each bonding group is limited to only 320 Mbps.

As customer demands for more speed increase, an operator has to find a way to deliver more bandwidth. This can generally be done in two ways – split the cable plant into smaller node sizes or find a way to inject more channels into each node in the cable plant. Sometimes the solution is to do both, although splitting the cable plant can get quite expensive if the system isn’t already optimized for new splits and requires extensive rebuild construction.

One way to dramatically increase throughput to customers is to upgrade from a standard Cisco uBR10K configuration using MC20x20V cards to what is called the “M-CMT” configuration. The “M” standard for Modular and this does require some external hardware. Using the more advanced 3GX60V RF card, up to 72 downstream and 60 upstream channels can be produced from a single RF card. Each 3GX60V card does need an external edgeQAM to produce the downstream channels. In addition an external Time Creator 1000 is needed to manage the timing and work in conjunction with the DTCC cards in the CMTS.

By implementing an upgrade of the Cisco uBr10K chassis to the M-CMTS configuration, most operators will be able to get at least FOUR TIMES the throughput from a single 3GX60V card as compared to the MC20x20V card. In addition, the 3GX60 supports 24 channel bonding, which can deliver 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps) of bandwidth to the node. In situations where a node has become saturated using 16 channel bonding and customers are complaining of slow speeds, by freeing up 8 more channels on the lineup, 24 channel bonding can deliver 50% more bandwidth without construction or node splitting in the field.

Cablesight can advise and assist customers with their systems that need to upgrade in order to deliver more bandwidth. We can supply all the necessary hardware and engineering support to help customers relieve bottlenecks and mitigate bandwidth saturation issues. Please feel free to call or email us with your situation and any questions we can answer.