Lightbend > Case Studies > Typesafe aids CCAD in managing cable operations

Typesafe aids CCAD in managing cable operations

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Country

Other

Product

Typesafe Reactive Platform
CASMR
Akka
Spray
ScalaTest

Tech Stack

Scala
Akka
Spray
OSGi
AngularJS

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Digital Expertise
Innovation Output

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms
Analytics & Modeling - Machine Learning
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications
Software

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Process Control & Optimization
Remote Control
Remote Asset Management

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration
Testing & Certification

About The Customer

CCAD focuses on the development of current and future conditional access (CA) technologies and supporting control system infrastructure, which is deployed among major operators worldwide. Conditional access technologies enable operators to distribute and safeguard video content supplied by the numerous video program providers. CCAD's expertise lies in creating systems that ensure only authorized subscribers can access specific audio/video content, a critical function for cable companies that offer various promotional bundling packages. These systems are essential for managing entitlements, conditional access, and integration with billing systems, ensuring that subscribers receive the content they have paid for. CCAD's solutions are used globally, highlighting their significant role in the telecommunications industry. The company is known for its innovative approach to solving complex problems related to subscriber management and content distribution, making it a key player in the field of conditional access technologies.

The Challenge

Ensuring that subscribers have access to only the audio/video content they have purchased or subscribed to is an ongoing challenge faced by cable companies worldwide. The problem is further compounded as cable companies offer various promotional bundling packages from time-to-time that changes consumer entitlements on a regular basis. CCAD has solved this problem in an interesting way with a product suite of several different products, the largest one named CASMR. This product set - a combination of both hardware and software - is utilized by cable companies worldwide to solve the problems with managing entitlements, conditional access and integration with billing systems. It’s important to point out that these are predominantly “lights-out” systems that actually run the cable company and are used by employees who are trying to effect some change in the system. Subscribers today have more choices therefore forcing providers to constantly adjust content offerings and prices. In addition, technology and consolidation trends have enabled service providers to significantly grow their subscriber base. The subscriber experience must be flawless from both a timing and accuracy perspective regardless of subscriber population.

The Solution

CCAD's initial video control system was highly concurrent and entirely developed in Java, which led to issues such as boilerplate code and deadlocking due to their internal asynchronous state machine library. To address these challenges, CCAD transitioned to using the Scala programming language in 2009. Scala, known for its concise and type-safe nature, integrates features of object-oriented and functional languages, enhancing developer productivity. CCAD utilized Scala's standard library Actors for concurrency, implementing highly concurrent modules in Scala Actors with a Java façade for interoperability. This shift significantly reduced deadlocking and livelocking issues, leading to increased productivity. Over time, Scala's use expanded within CCAD, and the company adopted Akka and Spray, parts of the Typesafe Reactive Platform, to complement Scala. Akka, a toolkit for building highly concurrent, distributed, and fault-tolerant applications, replaced Scala's Actor model due to its technical superiority and performance gains. Spray, a toolkit for building REST/HTTP-based integration layers, was chosen to replace Spring MVC components, facilitating the connection of Scala applications to the outside world. The move to Akka and Spray, along with the adoption of Scala, led to significant performance and productivity improvements for CCAD.

Operational Impact

The transition to Scala and the Typesafe Reactive Platform significantly increased developer productivity at CCAD, allowing for more efficient code development and reducing issues related to deadlocking and livelocking.
The adoption of Akka and Spray, along with Scala, led to substantial performance gains and improved the overall quality of CCAD's product offerings.
CCAD's use of test-driven development with Scala and ScalaTest for automated acceptance testing resulted in the generation of PDF-based traceability reports, enhancing the testing process and providing clear benefits to downstream test teams.