Group meets on a bi-weekly basis and invites operators and vendors to share their AI/ML project status for the benefit of the overall industry. In the past year, a sampling of the projects presented within the group and at Expo presentations include node mapping, traffic forecasting, real-time impairment detection, continuous network health monitoring, extended reality services, voice-activated services, data lake capabilities, video transcoding, and video piracy.

SCTE is currently working on a project with Charter and AWS to apply a large language model (LLM) based chat interface to the data store of SCTE standards, technical papers, and presentations available on the SCTE website. The preliminary results look very encouraging to optimize the user-content interface versus today’s hunt-and-seek search methods.

Figure 3: Band splits leading up to DOCSIS® 4.0 Source: CableLab

All four of these tools, DAA, band splits, smart amplifiers, and AI are directly transforming today’s networks to create a better experience for our customers.

Focus on the Customer Experience

Cable operators are the leading provider of broadband services in the U.S. They have a long history of revenue growth and investing those earnings in improving their networks. Network upgrade programs are not done in a vacuum; they are performed to increase the level of customer satisfaction (and to provide a return on investment to the shareholders). In concert with network transformation, the customer journey also needs to be transformed. An April 2023 McKinsey report indicates that while the cable industry is positioned well with its network scale and capacity, investments must also be made to provide customers with a seamless experience such as they receive from streaming services, online merchants, and financial institutions.

When a network upgrade is performed, there must be minimal disruption to the customer. Communication with the customer should be timely and transparent. The benefits of said network upgrade should be readily apparent. While this article is focused on the network, the same applies to billing and provisioning upgrades. The expectation is that the digital experience is end-to-end, capturing the strengths of the network as well as back-office services. Customer experience, capturing both fact and perception, needs to be measured. While cable industry Net Promoter Scores are increasing, there is room for improvement. Network transformation is hand-in-glove related to online digital transformation. Technology is transforming the way people live, work, learn, and play, and network connectivity plays a huge role in that experience.

Charging into 2024

Network Transformation, especially as it impacts the customer experience, will continue to be a “hot topic” for years to come. SCTE is currently starting to plan which topics will take center stage for Cable Tec Expo 2024, which will be held next September 23-26 in Atlanta. The Expo program committee is being formed, and technology tracks will be selected that will capture the near future’s transformational path. If you are a technology innovator or leader in this space, please consider submitting an abstract through the Expo 2024 Call for Papers, which will open in February at expo.scte.org.