Cisco Remote PHY Devices for Cisco 1x2 / Compact Shelf RPD Software 5.1

Modular Headend Architecture version 2 (MHAv2) is a set of specifications for the Cisco Remote-PHY solution. It uses digital fiber compatible baseband networking technology to drive the fiber portion of the HFC plant. The coaxial portion of the plant remains the same. The upstream and downstream PHY are located on the remote side and acts as the remote PHY system. The Cisco GS7000 node with the Cisco DOCSIS R-PHY node acts as the remote PHY system. It connects the digital fiber and the coaxial portions of the plant together. The remote PHY system resides near or in buildings and has both RFI and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. It provides layer 1 PHY (downstream and upstream PHY) functionality, layer 2 MAC functionality, and layer 3 tunneling and forwarding support. The CMTS remains unchanged with the exception of the upstream and downstream PHY being moved to the remote PHY system. The Cisco RF line card installed in the Cisco CMTS does not have the RFI interfaces for downstream and upstream, instead, it has Gigabit Ethernet interfaces for both downstream and upstream.