DOCSIS 3.0 - The Upside and Downside for the Access Network

Authored by:
Bob Loveless, Director Advanced Planning and Technology
Transmission Network Systems
Scientific Atlanta, A Cisco Company

Ron Hranac, Technical Leader
Broadband Marketing
Cisco Systems, Inc.

Abstract
The opportunities for cable operators provided by DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) have been pretty much by the numbers: as in DOCSIS 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 and now DOCSIS 3.0. Version 1.0 got the data ball rolling; 1.1 added a number of features, including quality of service (QoS), more robust scheduling, packet classification and other enhancements that facilitate voice services; 2.0 increased upstream throughput; and, now, 3.0 is here with significant jumps in both upstream and downstream speeds.

While those increases in upstream and downstream speeds from DOCSIS 3.0 are very attractive, they don’t come without a price in terms of how they impact the cable access network.

From an access standpoint, the early DOCSIS environment has focused on deployment and maintenance of only one channel to the modem, and one channel coming back from the modem. Operators had to be aware of how many subscribers they had and the size of the service area, but bottom line was they had to worry about one channel in each direction. In the reverse path the big problems were traffic, ingress, node size: you couldn’t make the node size too big or things wouldn’t work reliably.

Download instructions
Thank you for your interest. Please take a few moments to fill in the fields below to receive your downloadable copy.

Please input valid information to ensure proper delivery. Highlighted fields are required information.