Developers and vendors of DOCSIS 3.1 technology have accelerated their activities, which has resulted in the achievement of several milestones over the past year. CableLabs’ Belal Hamzeh, director of broadband evolution highlights and summarizes some of them in a blog post.
CableLabs hosted the first official DOCSIS 3.1 equipment interoperability event last December. Four more have been held since, and cable industry member participation was high and strong for each, Hamzeh recounted. The next event is slated for September.
DOCSIS 3.1 Interoperability
Testing and demonstration of DOCSIS 3.1 equipment and devices during these interop events gave visible signs of the significance of DOCSIS 3.1 technology and the deep and lasting impact it will have on the cable industry and beyond, according to Hamzeh.
More specifically, DOCSIS 3.1’s ability to deliver multi-gigabit network speeds and high-order modulation densities are among the achievements shown at the interop events, capabilities that have not been seen before in other technologies.
As DOCSIS 3.1 research and development work by cable modem and cable modem termination system vendors continues, excellent progress is being made by test equipment vendors, who are developing, testing and rolling out the tools to support field deployments.
Cable network operators, for their part, are readying their networks so that they are ready for DOCSIS 3.1 deployments. Early indications hint that utilization of high-order DOCSIS 3.1 modulation schemes will result in significant increases in network efficiency.
Ending his report, Hamzeh points out that CableLabs has opened the door for DOCSIS 3.1 certification of products and expects to see the first submissions in the near future.
