CABLE CONGRESS 2013 – LONDON. Although talk about DOCSIS 3.1 began only late last year, circumstances will require initial deployments to be made as soon as 2015/16.
According to Ralph Brown, CTO Cablelabs, 1 Gbps downstream premium offers are likely to be available in the US as soon as 2016 and “we would be foolish not to start DOCSIS 3.1 before then.”
He added that the roadmap now envisages specs being issued this year and the first products coming onto the market in 2014 ahead of initial deployments in the following one to two years.
John Chapman, CTO CABU, Cisco Systems, meanwhile said that the specs are currently being developed by experts from Canada, Germany, the UK, France, Israel and US, meeting regularly in Denver.
He emphasised that DOCSIS was developed by the cable industry and 3.1 “can be anything we need it to be.”
3.1 will indeed be able to spectrum share with 3.0, allowing for the blending of new and existing services.
A lot of existing 3.0 software will still be used for 3.1 and only necessary changes will be made, with 3.1 being able to compete effectively with FTTH.
Once up and running, DOCSIS 3.1 will allow for downloads and uploads of up to 10 Gbps and 1 Gbps respectively.
