Cisco Introduces Video Gateways for Cable VOD

Cisco Systems introduced a digital video quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) product series designed for cable operators deploying new video-on-demand (VoD) services. The new product series consists of the standalone Cisco uMG9820 QAM Gateway and the Cisco uMG9850 QAM Module, which both serve as IP-to-MPEG-2 gateways between a Gigabit Ethernet transport network and an HFC network. The uMG9820 is a smaller, QAM-only platform optimized for smaller deployments, and the uMG9850 inserts into a larger, more scalable chassis optimized for larger deployments or mixed switching-and-QAM architectures.


Cisco said its new video gateways allow for up to 240 standard-definition video streams per device, thereby fully utilizing the capacity of a Gigabit Ethernet link. Previously, cable operators needed to daisy-chain less-efficient QAM devices together in order to take advantage of the full capacity of a Gigabit Ethernet link. The Cisco products have been certified for use in nCUBE VoD network deployments. http://www.cisco.com