Cover Story
Home
improvements
Our annual survey examines the evolving world of
CPE. Most providers are shifting CPE workload to the
cloud, but there is still much to play for in perfecting
the balance of what should continue to run on the
CPE to provide the ideal service mix – both media
and Smart Home. Euromedia spoke to a range of
industry practitioners to define the role of CPE in an
increasingly cloud-based environment.
When Euromedia first undertook
its survey of the CPE sector in the
early years of the millennium, it
concentrated solely on STBs, asking such basic
questions as: “Do you offer an HD variant?”, or
subsequently: “Do you offer a hybrid option?”.
More recent years have included coverage
of Smart/Connected TVs, Home Gateways
and digital/voice assistants, reflecting the
increasingly-connected household and range
of content consumption within it.
At the start of 2020, few people could have
predicted that, given widespread Covid-19
lockdowns, the home would become not only
an office, but a ‘venue’ for entertainment
consumption, and in many cases, a school,
with related connectivity, bandwidth and
quality issues. Our questions, in part, reflect
this ‘new normal’.
With the aftermath of the Covid-19
pandemic likely to see a rise in home
working, will CPE need to evolve
accordingly?
AirTies: The Covid-19 lockdown and
continued reliance on home office has caused
both consumers and service providers
to recognise the critical importance of
home WiFi - beyond what was previously
imaginable. Greater dependency on home
WiFi is now the new normal. For this reason,
progressive service providers are investing
in next-generation WiFi software that can
automatically optimise home network
performance. This software upgrade to
deployed CPEs can be combined with cloud
solutions to provide real-time insights and
QoE diagnostics, enable device/service
prioritisation for critical activities (home
office, telemedicine, etc.) and proactively
10 EUROMEDIA
identify homes that need Smart WiFi
extenders for coverage issues.
Broadband Forum: This evolution applies
not just to the home gateway but all devices
behind the CPE from business working,
conferencing, smart home and IoT to support
the many areas of home working during and
post Covid-19.
Covid-19 has taught us the need for true
zero-touch installations and remote service
management. Operators must eliminate
installs and support ‘truck rolls’ set up whilst
honouring Quality of Experience (QoE) and
the increased demands for upstream as well
as traditional downstream performance
guarantees.
Furthermore, there is
a need for all services
managed throughout
the home using
connectivity, which
is predominantly WiFi
and Meshed WiFi. This
is precisely why the Broadband
Forum has developed the USP industry
standard that has evolved from TR-069
and its billion-plus managed CPE
devices to all devices in the WiFiconnected
home.
CommScope:
Home networks
have had to rise
to the challenge
and provide the
same experience
that you have
in an office
environment.
Not only has it
had to support
to be
working from home but also eLearning for
almost six months. The question we must
answer now is will this have a permanent
effect on the workforce and the future with
more of us continuing to work from home?
If this is the case (many of us believe about
30% of the work force will now work from
home) then then there will be more of an
emphasis on security, reliability and improved
support for more upstream services like
video conferencing. Reliable WiFi and access
networking connectivity is at core of working
from home. New features like low latency
DOCSIS will also have a new market for lower
latency and higher priority quality of services.
Netgem: One clear outcome of the Covid-19
crisis where everyone has been at home is
the increased usage of connected devices.
This has created a strain on Home networks
never experienced before, between Google
Meet meetings, School lessons via Zoom, and
generally lots of more streaming on various
devices. As a result, the immediate implication
for all households has been after lockdown to
look at their Internet connectivity, and there
are two sides to this challenge:
• The actual Broadband connection, with
a need to move increasingly to ‘Full Fibre’
(1Gb) type of connection
• A strong WiFi connection throughout the
home, typically involving an extended WiFi
of high-quality in the form of a WiFi Mesh
solution
This is where Netgem has invested, with a
fully managed solution for WiFi Mesh with
plug-and-play Pods and a simple Mobile App
to control the Home network and ensure that