BROADCASTS.com

Published: Oct. 29, 2007, 12:46 p.m.

Title: The Next Generation Cable Network: DOCSIS 3.0

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Intro: The\nfirst DOCSIS standard, short for Data Over Cable Service Interface\nSpecifications, standard was released by the company Cable Labs in\n1997. In this podcast we take a look at the history of these\nstandards and discuss DOCSIS 3.0 \u2013 the emerging standard in the\ncable industry.

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Mike:\nGordon, can you give us a brief history of the first DOCSIS\nstandards?

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Gordon\n\u2013 just covers up to 2.0

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Mike:\nWhat are \u201ctiered services??

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Tiered\nservices is business jargon for providing a service (such as telecom\nconnectivity or cable channel service) according to separate,\nincrementally distinct quality and pay levels, or "tiers."\nWe\u2019re seeing this term used a lot recently in political debate\nregarding \u201cnet neutrality?.

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Mike:\nCan you tell us a little more about DOCSIS 3.0?

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Sure\n\u2013 in a nutshell it\u2019s bigger, better, faster\u2026 It\u2019s\na needed response to products from competitors like Verizon with FIOs\nFTTH product and AT&T with the FTTN Lightspeed product. It\u2019s\ntriple play broadband \u2013 voice video and data. \n

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DOCSIS\n3.0:

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-\nMuch higher bandwidth through channel bonding \n

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-\nStarts at 160 Mbps Downstream, 60 Mbps Upstream and goes up from\nthere

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\xa0\xa0 -\nTI just rolled out their Puma 5 chip set a couple of weeks ago for\ncable modems. The chipset supports new DOCSIS 3.0 features, such as\nchannel bonding, enable ultra high\ndownstream bandwidth rates of at least 160 Mbps in the residential data\nand voice services configuration and 320 Mbps in video and business\nservices configuration. In addition Puma 5 also supports greater\nquality of service with IPv6 and security\nwith Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).

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-\nMultiple 6 MHz (or 8 MHz) channels are bound, treating them logically\nas one

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• Channel\n\tbonding in both upstream and downstream

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-\nIPv6 for advanced networking capabilities

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-\nExpanded address space (2128 or 3.4 dodecillion)

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• Improved\n\toperational capabilities

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Mike:\nHow will IPv6 be rolled out?

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There\u2019s\na lot of speculation now but it looks like it will be in to phases.\nJohn T. Chapman and Shalabh Goel from Cisco Systems have an\ninteresting piece we\u2019ve got linked in the shownotes\n(http://www.cable360.net/ct/sections/features/20942.html\n)

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\u201cThe\ninitial deployment phase allows the cable operator to set up an IPv6\ncontrol and management plane for managing the cable modems, set-top\nboxes, and multimedia terminal adapters (MTAs) with a cost-effective\nupgrade. In a subsequent deployment phase, cable operators can offer\nIPv6 directly to the home network. Many new devices are already IPv6\ncapable, and cable operators could soon be running the largest IPV6\nnetworks in the world.?

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Mike:\nWhat are some other key features of DOCSIS 3.0?

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Other\nkey related DOCSIS 3.0 features, which may be migrated over time,\ninclude:

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\u2022 Enhanced\nsecurity, including advanced encryption standard (AES), security\nprovisioning and theft of service features;

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\u2022 An\nupstream frequency range extension to 85 MHz and a downstream\nfrequency extension to 1 GHz that allows an operator to add existing\ncapacity with plant upgrades at a later date;

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\u2022 Enhanced\nplant diagnostic features, including a cable modem diagnostic log,\nenhanced signal quality monitoring, extension of IP data record\n(IPDR) usage and capacity management.

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Mike:\nHow about the commercial services?

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(from:\nhttp://www.cable360.net/ct/sections/features/20942.html)

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DOCSIS\n3.0 specifications define two technologies for business services over\nDOCSIS: layer 2 virtual private networks (VPNs) and T-1 circuit\nemulation.

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Business\nusers will be able to videoconference from their PCs and PDAs and tap\ninto corporate networks through VPNs; residential customers will\nsubscribe to video-on-demand (VOD) and IP telephony services with low\nlatency and minimum packet loss; and users everywhere will be able to\nupload and download files at much greater broadband speeds.

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Mike:\nWhen will it be available?

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• Comcast\n\tdemo\u2019ed 150 Mbps at the May 14, 2007 Cable Show in Las Vegas.

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• \u201cThe\n\tAssociated Press described a demo in which a 30-second, 300MB\n\ttelevision commercial was downloaded in a few seconds, while a\n\tstandard cable modem took 16 minutes?. \n\t

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• \u201cAlso\n\tdownloaded, in less than four minutes, was the full 32-volume\n\tEncyclopedia Britannica 2007 and Merriam-Webster\u2019s visual\n\tdictionary. With a standard cable modem, that download would have\n\ttaken three hours and 12 minutes (dialup would have taken 2 weeks)?.

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• \u201cComcast\n\tis currently trialing this in the Boston area. In one trial, the\n\tcable operator will set up an IP video headend to experiment with\n\tcarrying voice, video and data over a single IP connection?. \n\t

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According\nto FierceIPTV\n(http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/comcast-to-trial-docsis-3.0-iptv/2007-05-08\n):

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\u201cComcast's\nplanned converged-services trial will take place in a system that\nserves 50,000 homes, and will include an IP-video headend and DOCSIS\n3.0 STBs, as well as the Slingbox from Sling Media, dual mode\nWiFi-cellular handsets and mobile phones capable of playing video.?

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According\nto Chapman and Goel: The industry consensus is that fully compliant\nDOCSIS 3.0 CMTS* implementations will be available in 2008 to 2009.\nMany cable operators will require the most critical DOCSIS 3.0\nfeatures, such as downstream channel bonding and IPv6, far earlier.\nTo meet this demand, many vendors\u2019 CMTS products now include\nearly implementations of such a subset of DOCSIS 3.0 features.

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*\nCMTS: A cable modem termination system or CMTS is equipment typically\nfound in a cable company's headend, or at cable company hubsite and\nis used to provide high speed data services, such as cable internet\nor Voice over IP, to cable subscribers.

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In\norder to provide these high speed data services, a cable company will\nconnect its headend to the Internet via very high capacity data\nlinks, also known as a circuit (canonical form of telecommunication\ncircuit), to a network service provider. On the subscriber side of\nthe headend, the CMTS enables the communication with subscribers'\ncable modems. Different CMTSs are capable of serving different cable\nmodem population sizes - ranging from 4,000 cable modems to 150,000\nor more. A given headend may have between half a dozen to a dozen or\nmore CMTSs to service the cable modem population served by that\nheadend.

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One\nway to think of a CMTS is to imagine a router with Ethernet\ninterfaces (connections) on one side and coax RF interfaces on the\nother side. The RF/coax interfaces carry RF signals to and from the\nsubscriber's cable modem. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMTS\n)