Kabel Deutschland (KDG) has become the first cable operator in the world to successfully run speeds of 1 Gbps over a cable TV network. The Hamburg field trial, conducted in partnership with Cisco, was designed to demonstrate the performance capability and technological advantage of the cable network.
Customers on the KDG network in Hamburg can already enjoy broadband speeds of 100 Mbps, run alongside over 100 digital and 32 analogue TV channels. The field trial demonstrated that it is also possible to transmit speeds of 1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps) in addition to these services.
“It will take a few more years until internet applications and content exists that actually allow our customers to fully utilise as much as 1 Gbit/s. But if you recall that the average demand for bandwidth of a household in the KDG network has increased by 500% from 2006 to 2010 alone, then the question is not if, but when this time will come,” says Lorenz Glatz, CTO, Kabel Deutschland.
The 1,000 Mbps field test is based on the DOCSIS 3.0 standard and was run using a standard commercial CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) from Cisco, which also supplied EuroDOCSIS 3.0 based equipment for the customer premises. To test the network several large files and DVDs were downloaded from German university servers.
One of the leaders in European cable technology, Kabel Deutschland has also run successful tests of the new DVB-C2 transmission standard.
