An Economic Analysis of Distributed Access Architectures: The Next Major Cable Transformation

The use of Distributed Access Architectures DAA is one of the concepts transforming the future of cable networks in a way that has not been seen since the late 1980s early 1990s when fiber began to play a prominent role in access. We are moving from a network of today that provides asymmetrical multi Mbps of capacity to one defined by multi Gbps of capacity, and ultimately to one of hyper scaled symmetrical multi Gbps of capacity. And, DAA delivers these speeds at lower CapEx and OpEx than is achievable with todays networks. In this paper, we present an overview of cardinal drivers and technologies shaping future cable networks. We then present an analysis of three DAA architectures in comparison to the conventional I CCAP architecture on space utilization and energy consumption. We also compare the CapEx and OpEx of two of the architectures.