This year, I once again had the opportunity to join colleagues, customers and competitors from around the globe at ANGA COM in Cologne, Germany. This is one of my favorite trade show events, because it is brimming with innovation and thought-provoking discussions specifically focused on the future of the service provider industry. When leaders and progressive thinkers of this magnitude join together on this scale, it's impossible not to be inspired about breakthrough technologies for cable operators worldwide and where we can go.

We've proven time and time again over a 20-year cycle that supply needs to stay ahead of demand, because we just don't know what's possible. With original Ethernet, we thought "We have an Ethernet speed network... what are we going to do with all this?" And, now we're talking about capacities that are just mind blowing.

At the show, we demonstrated how we can help service providers thrive in the new age with Cisco leadership and innovations across key areas, including:  cable access, Converged Interconnect Network (CIN), Full Duplex DOCSIS, mobile backhaul over DOCSIS, cloud video and network automation, just to name a few.

We also had the opportunity to talk about some of our major announcements surrounding the event, including the launch of our Cloud Native Broadband Router, offering cable operators a new approach to support core broadband routing functions and simplify network operations. In addition, our customer SKBroadband, a leading cable operator in Korea, has just set a speed record with its Cisco-powered DOCSIS 3.1 broadband service. And, we have jointly deployed Remote PHY with our cBR-8 RPHY Core with a Teleste OpenRPD RPHY node at Telia and announced our interoperability with BKTel RPHY digital nodes.

Our theme for this year's show was "Automated. Intelligent. Simple. -Cable Redefined. Infinite Opportunities." Cable operators are in unique position. They have a valuable competitive asset -a robust and dense network with the lowest cost per bit in the industry. The window of opportunity is open to take advantage of this asset and shape their future. By reinventing, automating and securing the entire cable network to better control CAPEX, gain velocity and agility, reduce OPEX and increase revenues, they can expect to achieve critical business outcomes -and that's exactly how we're helping our customers transform their business.

Follow my blog and visit our cable solutions site and SP360: Service Provider to learn more about how Cisco is leading the disruption in the industry with our technology innovations. And be sure to join us in Atlanta at SCTE 2018, October 23-25 and compete in the IP Challenge.