Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch Makes "Triple Play" of Cable a Reality

Residents of Maine now have a whole new take on the meaning of cable. Yes, Time Warner Cable of Maine's new "Digital Phone" service lets residential customers watch television, but it also lets them surf the Internet and make calls-all for one monthly fee. The first service of its kind in the US, the bundle of consumer data, telephony and video services is proving irresistible to Maine residents. While the service won't officially launch until late May, nearly 800 customers have already signed up.

To deliver the service, Time Warner needed a carrier-grade infrastructure for voice, video and data-often referred to as the "triple play" of cable. Almost two years ago, Time Warner selected Cisco to provide a solution that would enable delivery of the bundled Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Digital Phone services on its cable infrastructure. The secret weapon behind Digital Phone is the Cisco BTS 10200 Broadband Telephony Services Softswitch.

BTS 10200 Softswitch: Proven for Cable

The BTS 10200 Softswitch allowed Time Warner to introduce the Digital Phone converged services over its existing cable network and proved rock-solid during the company's test phone service, Line Runner. "The BTS 10200 Softswitch has been running live in production environments at CLECs for more than two years," says Jay Mohanty, product manager in Cisco's voice technologies group. "Digital Phone has proven that the BTS 10200 Softswitch is ready for cable operators leading the broadband revolution."

The Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch helps cable operators reduce the cost of providing all-digital services through a single platform that supports many non-segregated types of traffic. Its innovative architecture, open platform and interfaces, and ability to operate in a multivendor network let operators deliver new services quickly while minimizing upfront and ongoing costs.

Advanced Call Management

For cable operators, preparing their infrastructures to support voice is only the beginning. Providing toll-quality telephony service on an Internet Protocol (IP) network requires call-control intelligence for establishing, maintaining, routing, and terminating voice calls. Also required is an interface to converged voice-and-data services and applications such as voice mail and unified messaging. A comprehensive call management server (CMS), the Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch tackles all of these issues.

Time Warner is taking advantage of the BTS 10200 Softswitch to offer a package of unlimited calling locally and in the continental United States, caller identification, call waiting and call waiting ID. Caller ID with the number displayed on a customer's television set and the ability to access voice mail through an e-mail program will be rolled out later.

Superior Quality of Service

To preserve call quality and streamline billing for Digital Phone, the Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch provides detailed reporting information for billing and quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. Call-detail records are generated for every call including QoS metrics such as jitter and average packet latency. Traffic data is collected at regular intervals during the day and stored for two days.

Further ensuring service quality and interoperability, the BTS 10200 Softswitch is CableLabs PacketCable certified. A major milestone toward the cable industry's vision of widely deployed broadband telephony services, PacketCable certification helps to ensure that telephony solutions can deliver on the promise of voice over cable services. PacketCable platforms, along with telephony applications, must now be integrated and tested end-to-end to ensure successful deployments.

"By meeting PacketCable requirements, cable operators are assured that Cisco's BTS 10200 Softswitch can deliver data and voice services efficiently and economically using a single QoS-enabled network architecture," says Billie Stagg, product manager in Cisco's voice technologies group.

Cisco is also working to provide certified, end-to-end solutions for cable operators in Europe. The company successfully completed the first steps toward IPCablecom interoperability and certification and is participating in the Euro-PacketCable project. IPCablecom is the European standard for voice over cable, based on CableLabs' PacketCable certification. Two different standards are required due to differences in the traditional telecommunication systems used in Europe and the US.

Building an All-IP Network

Increasing numbers of companies are taking advantage of the Cisco BTS 10200 Softswitch to provide converged communications services. Cbeyond Communications operates the world's first 100-percent IP local phone network. The company's goal is to give small businesses the same communication tools that large enterprises use, but at prices that small businesses can afford.

Cbeyond harnessed the efficiencies of a pure IP and softswitch-based network to deliver a suite of cost-effective services including high quality local and long distance service, high-speed Internet access, email and web hosting. Based on Cisco's Broadband Local Integrated Services Solutions (BLISS), the Cbeyond solution delivers packet-voice and data services and meets CableLabs PacketCable requirements. At the heart of the solution is the BTS 10200 Softswitch.

Today, Cbeyond is handling a million calls per day on its Cisco infrastructure. "Cisco has provided a great vision, tremendous resources, and a superior product set. Cisco is six to 12 months ahead of the competition for a local services solution," says Cbeyond President and CEO Jim Geiger.

End-to-End Solutions

Cisco is working to provide more than just products to make voice over cable a reality. The goal is to solve cable operators' go to market and mass deployment goals by delivering comprehensive, proven end-to-end bundles of Cisco and third party products within one offering. Cisco's key solutions for cable operators include the Cisco BLISS for Cable solution and Cisco Voice Infrastructure and Applications (VIA)-both based on the BTS 10200 Softswitch. "BLISS is the first carrier-class, end-to-end PacketCable compliant solution for voice over broadband," says Stagg. "Because of its rich subscriber and regulatory feature set, BLISS enables operators to gracefully migrate from legacy circuit-switched infrastructures to packet-based technology."

Other Cisco innovations are helping cable operators differentiate their services and generate new revenue streams. This May at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers' Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia, Cisco announced a number of integrated communications solutions for the delivery of voice, video, and data services. They include an intelligent broadband edge for advanced data services; a next-generation digital video network for scalable, on-demand services; and a fully integrated operational support system for broadband services. These innovations are designed to help operators increase revenues and reduce customer churn by offering bundled voice, data, and video services over an end-to-end, secure network with consistent QoS and network-wide availability.

"Cable operators have a wonderful competitive advantage in broadband because they can use existing hybrid fiber-coax networks to build digital, interactive networks to deliver converged communications," says Mohanty. "With advanced provisioning systems and end-to-end infrastructure solutions, Cisco can help cable operators develop and deliver a wide variety of services on a highly efficient and resilient infrastructure."