Comcast is getting engineering support from its MSO brethren for a Converged Multiservice Access Platform (CMAP) a dense network device--also known as a God Box--that would combine edge QAM and CMTS functions to deal with narrowcast services.
According to a story in Light Reading, Cox Communications was the first to sign on supporting the initiative that would become part of a larger project to deal with an anticipated onslaught of narrowcast services like IPTV, voice and high-speed data while simultaneously reducing space and power consumptions within the headend. Now it's said that Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Liberty Global and Rogers Communications are also on board.
Of course, vendors like Alcatel-Lucent, Arris, Cisco, Harmonic, Motorola, Juniper and RGB, always looking for the next big thing to build, are frothing over the prospects of building products that would essentially combine elements of the network equipment into one big box.
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