CableLabs® Completes DOCSIS™ 2.0 Specs, Enabling More Advanced Modems
Louisville, January 16, 2002—CableLabs® has finished specifications for an advanced
generation of cable modems called DOCSIS™ 2.0. The specs were completed by year
end, as promised, and test plans are now being finalized to allow for interoperability
testing in the first quarter this year and possible certification testing in the
third quarter pending product maturity.
"CableLabs' work in the cable modem arena has added immense value to the cable industry's
broadband business and to the industry's consumer offerings," said Mark Coblitz,
Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for Comcast Corporation. "The modem
effort has reinforced cable's role as the leader in broadband service deployment,"
he added.
"Once again our DOCSIS team, under Rouzbeh Yassini, has met another difficult milestone,
allowing cable operators to continue advancing their customer service offerings,"
said CableLabs President and CEO Dr. Richard R. Green. "I am very proud of this
team and its achievements."
Yassini added: "Silicon and product suppliers already are hard at work with CableLabs
to develop necessary automated test execution packages and test equipment that will
be used to perform interoperability, certification, and qualification of the products."
Yassini is executive consultant to CableLabs and is CEO of YAS Broadband Ventures.
DOCSIS 2.0 builds upon the capabilities of DOCSIS 1.0 and DOCSIS 1.1 and adds throughput
in the upstream portion of the cable plant—from the consumer out to the Internet—creating
a network that has 27 megabit per second (Mbps) capacity in two directions. That
tripling of data capacity enables services such as videoconferencing and peer-to-peer
applications. DOCSIS stands for Data over Cable Service Interface Specification.
DOCSIS 2.0 enables operators to create new services for both home and business use,
including symmetrical and critical applications. The specification enhancements
are also geared towards providing an even more robust communications channel than
was available with the current versions of the DOCSIS Specification, which provides
additional functionality and support for lifeline services.
Cable operators and some suppliers have been working on DOCSIS 2.0 since late 1998.
Specifically, DOCSIS 2.0 will include two modulation techniques: S-CDMA (synchronous
code division multiple access) and A-TDMA (advanced frequency agile time division
multiple access).
In addition to more upstream channel capacity, DOCSIS 2.0 will be compatible with
DOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1 cable modems (CMs) and cable modem termination systems (CMTSs),
will increase protection against electronic impairments that occur in cable systems,
and will further enhance and augment the international DOCSIS standard (ITU J-112),
which has been adopted world-wide and provides international interoperability of
data signals.
About CableLabs
About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in
1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development
consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the
providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are
members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org, www.ebif.tv
and www.tru2way.com.
CableLabs® is a registered trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Other
CableLabs marks are listed at http://www.cablelabs.com/certqual/trademarks. All
other marks are the property of their respective owners.