DOCSIS 3.0 Deployments-Shades of Gray

Bob Wallace
06/26/2008

When Comcast Corp (CMCSA) announced a DOCSIS 3.0 deployment in Minneapolis/St. Paul a few months ago, what they didn’t say about the spec was more important than what they focused on.

If you define a DOCSIS 3.0 deployment as a full implementation of certified equipment based on the entire spec, than the Comcast project in the Twin Cities didn’t come that close.

Comcast later confirmed that the CPE used in the effort was pre-DOCSIS 3.0, which meant that it didn’t embody all the capabilities of the spec. Further, the implementation used the channel bonding technology in D3, but didn’t bond the maximum amount of channels defined according to Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO)

DOCSIS 3.0 – according to everyone from cable companies and their suppliers to analysts and the media – has a max theoretical downstream top bandwidth of 160mbps, and 120mbps on the upstream link.

But as is the case with any hugely-anticipated and sorely needed specification, CPE vendors don’t usually wait for the document to be completed to produce products. And service providers deploy them to gain early experience with what they can.

Further, Cable Laboratories Inc., which drove the spec, has been testing and certifying DOCSIS 3.0 products. Its leader said last week at NXTCOMM that certification was finished.

It can be confusing – especially with a recent flood of vendors announcing gear based on it -- that there are different levels of certification. They correspond with how much of DOCSIS 3.0 the devices implement.

Since the time DOCSIS 3.0 certifications began -- with Cisco as the first to be certified -- several vendors have announced equipment that they call DOCSIS 3.0. Press materials rarely include details on the certification and what pieces of the key spec are implemented.

Cableco interest in deploying DOCSIS 3.0-based technology to bulk up networks and Internet service speeds builds by the week, with Comcast on the record since CES, as planning to pass 20% of its customers with it by yearend.

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