By Daniel Etman

It's that time of the year where pundits from the cable and broadband industry gather at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2016. This year we will be in the historic and largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. While many of us are looking forward Philly Cheesesteaks, we are also looking forward to hearing and sharing best practices, trends in broadband and pay TV, business and technology challenges and the latest innovative products and solutions to address those challenges.

At this year's event we will show how our cable access strategy can empower service providers to deliver new services faster, and transform experiences with a network that is more agile and elastic for the future. We have several event activities including demonstrations for video, cable access, optical, and services. Cisco subject matter experts will also participate in eight workshops covering key trends such as DOCSIS 3.1, Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and the Internet of Things (IoT).

We are also sponsoring the IP Challenge on Monday, September 26 at 5:30 p.m. ET. The IP virtual qualifiers took place in June and July, and now the eight highest scoring participants will face off to be this year's IP champion.

Speaking of IP-with the industry increasingly transitioning to "all-IP (Internet protocol)", it's no surprise that IP traffic is on the rise. According to Cisco's latest VNI report, IP video traffic is expected to drive 82 percent by 2020. Also on the rise is the Internet of Things (IoT), an array of devices, machines, and sensors that will be connected to the Internet. We expect 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. With this growth, we anticipate operators will need Gigabit speeds and an IP network that is more agile, elastic and virtualized. As service providers shift to a more virtualized infrastructure, technologies such as SDN and NFV will be essential.

It's with these key trends in mind that Cisco experts will share insights to service providers on the future of these technologies, how to deploy them and the opportunities they can offer. While this year's event workshops offer a plethora of informative sessions, we welcome you to attend a few of the sessions we are participating in including:

• As a Service with SDN/NFV
• Deploying SDN/NFV
• The Internet of Things (IoTs) Impact and Opportunity for MSOs
• Maintenance and Testing in an SDN World
• Beyond "DOCSIS 3.1: FDX and More
• Early DOCSIS 3.1 Deployments
• And several more....

We have a great line-up of speakers including:

• John Chapman, Cisco fellow and CTO, Cable Access, Chief Technology and Architecture Office (CTAO)
• Toerless Eckert, principal engineer
• Ben Bekele, Sr. Manager, Business & Technology Architecture Manager
• Amit Singh, Principal Engineer, Chief Technology & Architecture Office (CTAO)
• John Holobinko, Director of Strategy, Cable Access Networks
• and more.

On the demos front, Cisco will feature Infinite Video Platform, a cloud video entertainment solution that can help deliver live, linear, on-demand, and over-the-top TV services to multiple screens; cBR-8 converged broadband router, the industry's first integrated CCAP product designed for DOCSIS 3.1; Virtualized Video Processing "V2P" solution, which enhances business agility by reducing the complexity of video workflow operations; and so much more.

Don't miss all of our activities at the show. Come by and visit us at booth#648. Follow hashtags, #SCTE,#CableTecExpo &#IPChallenge on Twitter and tweet us @CiscoSPVideo if you have any questions or comments. See you in Philadelphia!