[opendtv] DOCSIS 3.1 Speeds Ahead | Multichannel
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 06:04:26 -0400
http://www.multichannel.com/news/news-articles/docsis-31-speeds-ahead/374179
DOCSIS 3.1 Speeds Ahead
DOCSIS 3.1, the new CableLabs-led platform that promises to deliver
multi-Gigabit speeds without requiring operators to pull fiber all the way to
the home, has made significant progress since its product specifications were
issued last fall.
But don’t be fooled. There’s still a long road ahead before DOCSIS 3.1-based
products will be ready for interoperability testing, a hurdle that will need to
be overcome before real-world deployments can begin.
In fact, most people close to the DOCSIS 3.1 action don’t see large-scale
rollouts starting until 2017.
Still, the project has been moving ahead at an accelerated rate compared to the
industry’s shift from DOCSIS 2.0 to DOCSIS 3.0, a platform capable of getting
cable operators within shouting distance of 1 Gigabit-per-second throughputs
(at least downstream).
ENABLING GBPS
Thanks to the specter of Google Fiber and ongoing pressure from Verizon
Communications’ FiOS, the big initial driver for DOCSIS 3.1 will be enabling
throughputs that extend beyond 1 Gbps. The 3.1 spec is also expected to become
the basis for fullfledged IPTV services.
Even further down the road, DOCSIS 3.1 will usher in cable’s broader all-IP
transition, setting the stage for a platform capable of supporting capacities
of 10 Gbps downstream and up to 2 Gbps upstream.
DOCSIS 3.0 still has plenty of legs left, but it isn’t graced with the data
efficiencies envisioned by D3.1, which will rely on blocks of orthogonal
frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) subcarriers and a bandwidth-saving
forward error correction scheme called Low Density Parity-Check (LDPC).
This pairing should allow cable to use higher orders of quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM) and squeeze more bits into the broadband pipeline. If all
works as promised, D3.1 should boost cable’s spectrum efficiency by about 50%,
giving MSOs even more headroom for advanced services.
So when will DOCSIS 3.1 be ready for primetime?
Estimates vary, but most don’t see DOCSIS 3.1 reaching scale deployments until
2016 or 2017.
Joe Cozzolino, senior vice president and general manager of video
infrastructure at Cisco Systems, expects to see trials underway toward the
second half of 2015, predicting that it’s “likely” that the initial batch of
3.1-based chips will require respins. He’s hopeful there will be trial activity
by the second half of 2015, some initial deployments in 2016, and then a “ramp
up” in 2017.
“Real deployment” of DOCSIS 3.1 could get underway by mid-2016, with mass
deployments getting underway by 2017, Patrick Tierney, senior director of
marketing for MaxLinear’s cable product line, agreed.
Arris will be doing “extensive testing of DOCSIS 3.1 this year and next,”
senior director of CMTS product Jeff Walker said, predicting that 2017 will be
“when things really start to get going.”
PREPPING FOR 3.1 TESTS
CableLabs issued the initial product specs for DOCSIS 3.1 last October,
providing enough guidance for equipment makers and silicon suppliers to spark
development. CableLabs published their “issue two” release on March 20,
documentation that fine-tuned the specs and ironed out some “remainder issues,”
Dan Rice, CableLabs’ senior vice president of network technologies, said.
The latest release bakes in some new features, including an energy-saving mode
for DOCSIS gear and clarifications as to how portions of the specs should be
interpreted, including how to measure power in OFDM channels, something new to
the DOCSIS realm.
Looking ahead, CableLabs is also working on DOCSIS 3.1’s operational support
systems (OSS) specs, which serve as the back-o ce systems for the platform.
D3.1 Those specifications will be released this summer, Rice said.
A big, important project underway is the Acceptance Test Plans (ATPs) for
DOCSIS 3.1, which will be used to verify that cable-modem termination systems
(CMTSs) and modems conform with the specs. The hope is to have a draft version
complete this summer, and to start “plug-fest” testing in the fourth quarter
and possibly full-on interoperability tests, if the CMTS and modem equipment
are found to be mature enough.
“I’m pretty encouraged by the progress we’re seeing out there,” Rice said.
Here’s a progress snapshot from the supplier side of DOCSIS 3.1.
SILICON SPIN
The three known companies that are developing DOCSIS 3.1 silicon — Broadcom,
Intel and STMicroelectronics — have not announced specific roadmaps for the new
specs. Broadcom declined to talk about DOCSIS 3.1 for this story, while
industry sources said STMicro, which was late to the game with DOCSIS 3.0, will
be redoubling its efforts in the hopes of being out in front with DOCSIS 3.1.
MaxLinear, a company with historic ties to Intel, is working on its new RF
front end for DOCSIS 3.1 silicon, and is developing a joint reference design
based on Intel’s next-gen “Puma” chip, Tierney said.
“Silicon development is going well,” Tierney said, noting that MaxLinear
expects to offer samples by the end of this year with initial prototypes
emerging by the first half of 2015.
NUDGING THE NET FORWARD
On the network end, Arris, which completed its acquisition of Motorola Home
about a year ago, will center its DOCSIS 3.1 efforts on the E6000, a super-
dense CMTS that is evolving into a full Converged Cable Access Platform that
will perform the function of the CMTS and the edge QAM and handle cable’s full
slate of voice, video and data services.
At this week’s event, Arris will demonstrate the E6000 supporting a 192
MHz-wide OFDM channel (again, the kind that will be used by DOCSIS 3.1), as
well as 32 single-channel QAMs — with 24 of those QAMs carrying DOCSIS 3.0 tra
c and eight used for video delivery. Arris will show all of that being served
from a single RF port.
Cisco Systems, meanwhile, is placing a big D3.1 bet with the cBR-8, an
integrated CCAP.
“When we come out with the cBR-8, it will be truly 3.1-ready at the line-card
level,” Cozzolino predicted, noting that Cisco is developing a D3.1 RF module
that can be swapped in for the existing DOCSIS 3.0 RF board. “It makes for an
easy upgrade … for 3.1.”
The cBR-8, currently in customer lab testing, is slated for a commercial
release by the first quarter of 2015, according to Cozzolino.
Among other recent vendor activity, Casa Systems introduced a DOCSIS 3.1-based
upstream module for its C100G and C10G CCAPs that supports a wider upstream
block — from 5Mhz to 100 MHz.
MAKING MODEMS
DOCSIS 3.1 modem makers can’t move forward until they have new silicon in hand,
but some companies are planning to be more aggressive than others.
Netgear, which has developed D3.0 modem and gateway models that can bond 24
downstream channels and 8 upstream channels, will focus efforts on new D3.1
products and will spend fewer resources on developing products that can bond up
to 32 downstream channels — the new channel-bonding benchmark for 3.0-based
modems.
“We’re being very aggressive on DOCSIS 3.1,” Naveen Chhangani, director of
product management for Netgear’s service-provider business, said. He expects
32-by-8 channel configuration for D3.0 modems to have a “very short life.”
“The industry doesn’t want another transition, unless DOCSIS 3.1 has some major
challenges,” Chhangani said, noting that Netgear is working with three chip
suppliers — Broadcom, Intel and STMicroelectronics.
Not all modem vendors share Netgear’s near-term enthusiasm for DOCSIS 3.1.
Hitron Technologies Americas, one of the first vendors to develop DOCSIS 3.0
modems capable of bonding 24 downstream channels and eight upstream channels,
will be “hardpressed to justify the resources to be first to market [with
DOCSIS 3.1], if there’s limited opportunities in the near-term,” chief
technology officer Greg Fisher said.
“We don’t see a super-clear path here,” Todd Babic, Hitron’s chief sales and
marketing o cer, added. “It’s heavily up for debate.”
Hitron may hold off and let other vendors with both DOCSIS CMTS and modems work
out the technical and interoperability kinks and then jump in as a “fast
follower” as the market ripens, Fisher said.
Another challenge will be hitting the price targets desired by operators.
The first D3.1 modems on the market will be hybrids that can support DOCSIS 3.0
tra c as well as OFDMbased channels for D3.1.
Fisher suggested that MSOs are urging vendors to develop these combo products
and sell them for the same price as a DOCSIS 3.0-only device, a tall task (and
perhaps an unrealistic target, particularly in the short term), when factoring
in the development costs and the addition of new hardware, power requirements
and silicon.
It could take two years “at the least” for a hybrid product to meet the same
cost of a current 3.1 modem, in Fisher’s view, and that’s only after those
products go through a full silicon cycle.
MaxLinear’s Tierney agreed that DOCSIS 3.1 modems “does add a little bit of
cost. But we’re trying to integrate [components] to reduce those costs so that
the difference will be minor.”
This Date in DOCSIS 3.1: Milestone Moments
May 14, 2012: During a webcast aimed at teeing up its plans for The Cable Show,
Cisco Systems executives hint that CableLabs is working on a successor to
DOCSIS 3.0 that will push the boundaries of cable’s upstream and downstream
capabilities. At the time, CableLabs declines to confirm any such efforts are
underway, though industry chatter is all about the coming of a “DOCSIS 3.x”
spec.
Oct. 18, 2012: At a standing-room only event at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in
Orlando, Fla., CableLabs and top MSO engineers formally unveil DOCSIS 3.1 as
its next-gen specification effort for data-over-cable services, targeting the
potential to support 10 Gbps downstream and at least 1 Gbps in the upstream.
CableLabs also announces an accelerated plan to complete the core DOCSIS 3.1
specs in 2013.
June 10, 2013: Speaking at The Cable Show in Washington, D.C., top
cable-engineering executives claim that the efficiencies of DOCSIS 3.1 could
delay tricky “mid-splits” of the upstream. D3.1’s use of OFDM “is a godsend in
the upstream,” Tony Werner, Comcast executive vice president and chief
technology officer, said on a tech panel.
Oct. 24, 2013: At SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, CableLabs officials said the first
generation of DOCSIS 3.1 modems will carry a minimum confi guration that will
support max downstream throughputs of 4 Gbps to 5 Gbps downstream, and 1.5 Gbps
upstream via a minimum-channel bonding configuration of 24-by-8 on the D3.0
side, and the ability to tie together two channels/blocks of OFDM spectrum at
192MHz-wide each, and two 96MHz-wide upstream channels.
Oct. 30, 2013: CableLabs releases the product specs for DOCSIS 3.1, beating its
year-end deadline by two months, and announces plans to complete the
networking-management specs for D3.1 by sometime in 2014.
March 20: CableLabs issues a new version of the specs, with minor tweaks and
refi nements. Further refinements are expected this summer.
Regards
Craig
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