May 30, 2018

How Cable Operators Leverage DOCSIS 3.1 to Optimize Networks and Infrastructure Investments

In a market driven by white-hot demand for high-speed Internet and over-the-top (OTT) services, the new DOCSIS 3.1 standard is poised to give cable operators the means of satisfying consumer demand for ultra-broadband services.

By: Ashwani Saigal
Vice President Broadband Access Product Development
Technicolor, Connected Home


In today's hyper-connected world, consumers across all geographies and social strata are looking to their cable providers for reliable, affordable, and high-bandwidth Internet connectivity. That trend creates a great opportunity for cable providers, but it comes with a challenge: operators are under tremendous pressure to make necessary investments in their infrastructure.

In a market driven by white-hot demand for high-speed Internet and over-the-top (OTT) services, the new DOCSIS 3.1 standard is poised to give cable operators the means of satisfying consumer demand for ultra-broadband services.

As a consequence of new innovative, value-added solutions that are being introduced in the market, we are seeing an ever-increasing demand for higher speeds and more bandwidth. DOCSIS 3.1, by the inherent nature of the improved technology, is much more efficient than the earlier versions of the DOCSIS technology. DOCSIS 3.1, offers three key improvements over the prior generation DOCSIS technologies by:

  • Offering the ability for cable operators to provide consumers with hundreds of megabits of additional bandwidth on the current spectrum.
  • Allotting service providers much higher capacity over networks that were already 100 percent utilized by enhancing channel bonding technology.
  • Supporting additional innovation on the network’s physical layer, including robust and effective detection and recovery from error conditions.

Given these three key benefits of DOCSIS 3.1 technology, operators today are much better positioned to offer higher speeds and more reliable bandwidth to the end consumer.  This will allow subscribers to access new services and receive a higher quality of experience from existing services.

However, to fully utilize the advantages that DOCSIS 3.1 technology brings to the table, cable operators must ensure that both the network infrastructure -- which includes the cable modem termination system (CMTS), the nodes, as well as the amplifiers -- and the customer premises equipment (CPE) can support the newer technology standards.

Once the necessary investments are made, consumers can benefit from speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second in the downstream and 2 gigabits per second in the upstream.

Technicolor is engaging senior leaders, influencers and decision makers at major cable operators, to not only highlight the value proposition of DOCSIS 3.1 technology, but to also bring to their attention Technicolor's differentiated offerings that can help them achieve their business goals.

Technicolor provides technology, training, and services to help cable operators transition from their existing deployed base of DOCSIS 2.0 and 3.0 to DOCSIS 3.1.  We do this by sharing with them best practices gleaned from MSO projects we have supported throughout the world. 

 

EDITORS NOTE: To listen in on a comprehensive interview with Ashwani Saigal on DOCSIS 3.1, please click on the SoundCloud audio.

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