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Broadband Access
Cable Industry Looking for DSL Killer
DOCSIS Bonding Technology a Focus at Show
by Jim Barthold
Recognizing that advanced forms of DSL and, especially fiber-to-the-home deployments are a threat, the cable industry is buzzing about next generation DOCSIS 3.0 technology that will bond four or more 6 MHz channels into a behemoth data pipe capable of delivering 160 Mbps of data to an individual user.
Also known as channel bonding or channel mapping, DOCSIS 3.0 will see CableLabs certification waves later this year and early next and be deployed in 2007 and will “allow the cable industry to survive and thrive” in competition with bandwidth-rich telephone companies, said Tom Cloonan, CTO of Arris Broadband, speaking at a breakfast briefing yesterday during the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Cable-Tec Expo in San Antonio.
The speed DOCSIS 3.0 promises - up to 2.5 Gbps downstream to a 20,000-home hub - is really somewhat ridiculous, nearly everyone at the cable gathering concedes, but that’s a reality of a newly competitive space.
“MSOs (multiple system operators) have to deal with marketing from the DSL guys right now” and “channel mapping is the answer to that,” said Cloonan.
Arris, in fact, has developed its own semi-proprietary technology to fit into the market in advance of certified DOCSIS 3.0 specifications. The plan, if all goes correctly, is to keep that gear as close to the emerging specifications as possible and then offer a software patch when final specs are completed. The product has been demonstrated with speeds up to 100 Mbps and is in lab and field trials “predominantly taking place in Asia” where MSOs are “under extreme pressure” from DSL and FTTH providers, said Cloonan.
The idea of bonding channels to increase bandwidth is “as old as direct, actually,” Cloonan said. While software upgradeable into the Arris DOCSIS network, the technology does require a new modem with four DOCSIS chips. That new modem, obviously not for everyone, will cost about $200, Arris execs said - compared to the $35 retail price the company has to its existing DOCSIS modems.
The need for speed, as has been emphasized repeatedly among the technologists at the engineering show, is “more of a marketing battle against DSL and fiber-to-the-home” than it is a real consumer need.
That changes, though, as cable moves into the commercial space in direct competition with ILECs.
“There it’s real; it’s not marketing,” Cloonan concluded.
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