TANDBERG Television announces its universal Edge QAM, the EQ8096, has received a 4-Diamond rating in the Broadband Gear Report’s prestigious 2008 Diamond Technology Reviews. BGR’s Diamond Technology Reviews program provides an objective annual technology and product review for the broadband community and recognizes achievements in product innovation. The independent judging panel, which included senior engineering executives from Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable, rated TANDBERG Television’s EQ8096 to be an excellent product with technical features and performance that provide clear and substantial benefits.

The TANDBERG EQ8096 universal Edge QAM offers unprecedented density, high reliability, low power consumption, and designed-in redundancy features. It enables a clear migration to IP through its support of the CableLabs DOCSIS 3.0 and the M-CMTS standards and also supports DVB Common Scrambling Algorithm and SimulCrypt. Additionally, Privacy Mode Encryption provides an added layer of protection and an easy-to-implement content protection system for on-demand services such as VOD. The content protection technologies supported by the EQ8096 benefit both content providers and cable operators by protecting video assets and revenues.

source: tvover.net

This evolutionary specification, developed by the R&D consortium at CableLabs, provides a road map without needing a rebuild, said Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast Corp. during the company’s second-quarter earnings call. “It is going to give us an ability to innovate and add more creative products for video, on the data side and on the communications front.”

DOCSIS 3.0 builds on top of the preceding DOCSIS 2.0 (aka PacketCable) with five major features:

• Channel bonding to mash together multiple channels and create a fat bandwidth pipe.
• IPv6 to provide more IP addresses as IPv4 becomes exhausted.
• Business and operations support systems (B/OSS) enhancements through IP Data Records (IPDR) to mine more in-depth Internet usage information.
• IP multicasting to define an IPTV migration path.
• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to enhance security for key business customers.

Top-level cable execs are leaning on vendors and standards organizations to push through certified DOCSIS 3.0 equipment, which will have immediate and long-term impacts on BSS and OSS.

“There are a whole lot of OSS issues with being able to provision [creative] services, such as how you monitor those services, their fault tolerance, troubleshooting, trouble ticketing,” said Kelly Neiman, head of the cable markets sector for the TM Forum. “It’s a very hardy upgrade to their infrastructure so the MSOs will do it in phases. The issue overall with the OSS is looking at it as a whole and not in iterative steps.”

The Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) was developed by CableLabs as an evolutionary, backward-compatible specification, so it’s logical that DOCSIS 3.0 is “an a la carte thing where MSOs will deploy features on a one-by-one basis,” said Brian Hedstrom, senior OSS engineer at CableLabs. “From a back-office perspective, IPv6 would have the most effect on applications.”

source: billingworld.com

ABI Research’s report addresses CableLabs’ issuance of DOCSIS 3.0 specifications, an overview of some pre-DOCSIS 3.0-standard CMTS products on the market, and analysis of the impact of DOCSIS 3.0 on CMTS and CPE shipments.

Tables and Charts

• DOCSIS 3.0 for CATV Equipment, Units in Use, 2005 to 2011
• DOCSIS 3.0 for CMTS, Units in Use, 2005 to 2011
• DOCSIS 3.0 for CPE, Units in Use, 2005 to 2011
• DOCSIS 3.0 Equipment Shipments and the Timing of CATV IP Video Services
• DOCSIS Characteristics
• DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS Shipments, World Markets: 2005 to 2011
• DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem Shipments, World Markets: 2005 to 2011
• DOCSIS 3.0 Residential Gateway Shipments, World Markets: 2005 to 2011
• DOCSIS 3.0 STB Shipments, World Markets: 2005 to 2011

Executive Summary
Market Update
Section 1
DOCSIS 3.0: Technology Overview and Current Status

1.1 DOCSIS 3.0 Technology

1.1.1 DOCSIS 3.0 Enhancements

1.1.2 Further Explanation of DOCSIS 3.0 Features

1.1.3 Comparison to Previous DOCSIS Standards

1.2 Current Status of DOCSIS 3.0 Specifications

Section 2
DOCSIS 3.0 Product Overview

2.1 Harmonic Narrowcast Services Gateway

2.2 Motorola MediaCipher and Work with StarHub

2.3 Cisco uBR10012 CMTS

Section 3
The Business-Model Impact of DOCSIS 3.0

3.1 What Will IP Video over DOCSIS 3.0 Look Like?

3.2 The Timing of Equipment Development for DOCSIS 3.0

Section 4
DOCSIS 3.0 Equipment Forecast

4.1 DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS Forecast

4.2 DOCSIS 3.0 CPE Forecast

4.2.1 DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem Forecast

4.2.2 DOCSIS 3.0 Residential Gateway Forecast

4.2.3 DOCSIS 3.0 Set-Top Box Forecast

4.2.4 Penetration of DOCSIS 3.0 into CPE

source: abiresearch.com

I’m going to condense a whole lot of history and summarize a lot of detail in only a couple paragraphs, so if I leave out some details you are looking for, please comment on this post and I’ll circle back to try to get answers in future posts.

When looking at the DOCSIS architecture as defined by CableLabs, it is important to remember that DOCSIS was rooted in the history of broadcast television networks.  Cable networks were originally designed for one thing: distributed television signals in one direction – from the headend (imagine it as a bunch of electronic gear sitting beside a big satellite dish picking up a bunch of television signals) downstream to your house.  Originally, the main reason to have a return (upstream) path at all was to allow network elements to report errors and anomolies back to a network management system, so not a lot of bandwidth was necessary for the upstream direction. 

Since the cable networks were designed to distribute TV signals, they were designed just like over-the-air broadcast television signals, using radio frequency spectrum in 6 MHz channel sizes.  A typical HFC plant is designed around 870 MHz of radio frequency spectrum, with 800 MHz of the spectrum allocated for downstream TV channels.  The bottom of the spectrum is used for upstream capacity, but a lot of the bottom part of the spectrum is allocated for the DOCSIS operating system, and some of the rest is poor quality spectrum and unusable for data services.  In the end, only about 20 MHz is used for the upstream data channel in a DOCSIS 2.0 deployment.   That amounts to about 80 Mbps of upstream bandwidth to be shared across 250 customers per node, or about 320 Kbps per customer.  If there are 500 customers on your node, then your upstream bandwidth is about 160 Kbps.

That’s not a lot of bandwidth in the upstream direction, so you can understand why cable companies are very concerned about applications like BitTorrent that use tons of upstream capacity.  These kinds of peer-to-peer applications work much better when there is a bunch of upstream capacity available.  On an upstream-constrained cable network, peer-to-peer applications have the potential to suck up all of the already-limited upstream capacity. 

DOCSIS 3.0 was supposed to help with this problem by allowing multiple channels to be “bonded”, so that bandwidth can be multiplied.  However, in an effort to accelerate DOCSIS 3.0 certification efforts, the cable industry deferred upstream channel bonding certification til 2009, so that they could provide downstream channel bonded services earlier in 2008.  What that means is that in 2008 the top downstream speed may be able to hit 160 Mbps under ideal conditions, but the upstream speeds are still stuck at DOCSIS 2.0 speeds. 

Also, while DOCSIS 3.0 grabs headlines with numbers like 160 Mbps  or 100 Mbps downstream, it is likely that this capacity will be shared across multiple customers, just like today’s cable Internet services, so a cable customer may not really be able to buy a service as fast as 160 Mbps downstream. 

So, in 2008 at least, while a Verizon FiOS customer is enjoying a 5 Mbps upstream connection, a cable customer is likely to be stuck with a 360 Kbps upstream connection, even on DOCSIS 3.0.  It won’t be til sometime in 2009 that the cable customer really starts to see upstream speeds on par with Verizon FiOS.

As time goes on, even with DOCSIS 3.0, the upstream direction is likely to remain the bottleneck in cable Internet services, and it will remain a serious disadvantage for cable Internet service providers until they finally break the tie with HFC architecture. 

source: ikeelliott.typepad.com

DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems bond up to four channels to provide downstream speeds of up to 160mbps and upstream speeds of up to 120mbps. Motorola also introduced two modems for digital voice services. The vendor didn’t provide pricing.

DOCSIS 3.0 and related specifications are driven by Cable Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs), the non-profit, research and development unit for cable service providers This spec was issue by the organization last summer.

Motorola archrival Cisco Systems Inc.’s Scientific Atlanta company demoed a DOCSIS 3.0-compliant cable modem at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, for availability sometime this spring.

The Motorola cable modem is available now for certification by top cablecos, said a Motorola spokesperson, who did not have a date for when the unit would be available to others.

Regardless, triple-play providers, including Comcast, AT&T and Verizon, have been continually upgrading their Internet access services for the last several months to land new customers and retain current ones.

Top analyst firms such as Infonetics Research, BroadbandTrends.com and In-Stat have all detailed the importance of these offerings.

Cable colossus, and CableLabs’ member, Comcast Corp. has already committed to pass up to 20 percent of customers with DOCSIS services by the end of this year. 

The Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 product line includes the SB6120 SURFboard Cable Modem, which provides operators throughput approximating 160mbps without the need for a hybrid fiber/coax plant upgrade.

The cable modem supports all DOCSIS 3.0 features including channel bonding, both IPv4 and IPv6, and advanced encryption services, according to Motorola.

The Motorola trio also includes the SBV6120 and SBV6220 Digital Voice Modems. The first offers one or two lines of digital voice service, while the other offers Lithium-ion battery backup, which provides power during a power outage.

The new units also support DOCSIS 1.X and 2.0 feature sets. Motorola said its DOCSIS 3.0 SURFboard CPE can be self-installed through the products’ rear panel icon and color coding connection guide. Troubleshooting is done via the units’ front-panel operational status LEDs

The MT2170 is a 1.1 GHz single-chip tuner that offers the equivalent functionality of at least four DOCSIS 2.0 narrowband tuners in a highly integrated miniature package. It supports DOCSIS 3.0 channel bonding technology and can accept bonded channels within an IF bandwidth range of 96 MHz. The MT2170 is able to process wideband bonded channels in the presence of multiple interfering signals, while at the same time meeting stringent DOCSIS 3.0 sensitivity and adjacent channel interference requirements.

Last year, Microtune introduced the industry’s first wideband TV tuner (MicroTuner(TM) MT2170), and today it is the only cable tuner that has been deployed by OEM manufacturers in DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems and Embedded Multimedia Terminal Adapters (E-MTAs) certified by CableLabs(R).

source: corporate-ir.net

“We have now achieved successful certification testing for a system of very high-speed cable data products,” said Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corp., and Chairman of the CableLabs Board of Directors. “This is a great accomplishment, ensuring that cable customers will continue to have access to the fastest Internet service available, along with access to more advanced service offerings,” he added.

“Congratulations to the successful vendors and to the CableLabs staff who have worked so hard to help our industry bring the goals and objectives of the DOCSIS 3.0 project to fruition,” said CableLabs President and CEO Dr. Richard R. Green. “This is a great success for our industry and demonstrates how adopting a flexible program can speed solutions to our industry.”

DOCSIS 3.0 achieves the higher data rates through channel bonding in both the upstream and downstream directions. In addition, DOCSIS 3.0 is backward compatible with all existing DOCSIS products. Another key element of DOCSIS 3.0 is Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). IPv6 also will allow cable operators to effectively manage the proliferation of devices that are capturing consumer interest, including portable media players, cellular phones, gaming consoles, PDAs and others.

The headends were tested under a tiered program that was created as a way to encourage CMTS makers to submit gear for testing earlier than they otherwise might have done. CableLabs also offered suppliers numerous informal interoperability events where vendors worked together in CableLabs’ facilities to test and evaluate their implementations of the specifications.

The three-tiered program for CMTS qualification—bronze, silver and full—progressively scales compliance with some of the more long term DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS requirements. DOCSIS 3.0 modem testing allows only one level of certification that evaluates compliance with the complete DOCSIS modem specification.

source: cablelabs.com

Yoshida, speaking here Thursday on a Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT)-sponsored panel discussion, said the technology was deployed in about 15 of its 42 systems as of March 2008. J:COM is using the platform to power a high-end “NET Ultra” service that caps shared downstream speeds at 160 Mbit/s via the bonding of four 6MHz channels. The non-bonded upstream bandwidth for the product is capped at 10 Mbit/s.

Yoshida said his company has been very keen to get Docsis 3.0 equipment rolled out, citing heavy competition from telcos that are using either fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) or advanced VDSL to deliver speeds in excess of 100 Mbit/s.

J:COM’s Docsis 3.0 deployment is still in the early stages, but 25 percent of all new Internet subscribers signed up for the 160 Mbit/s service in the first quarter of 2008. J:COM ended the first quarter with about 27,000 Ultra customers, and has about 30,000 today, most of them coming on board since mid-April. “That figure is bigger than we expected,” Yoshida said.

Although J:COM started some pre-Docsis 3.0 work last year with Arris Group Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRS), the operator has since centered its Docsis 3.0 cable modem termination system (CMTS) deployment strategy on the Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) BSR 64000 model. J:COM is also deploying 3.0-certified modems from Motorola, but just signed up Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) as a second source for Wideband modems. (See J:COM Bonds With Motorola and J:COM Picks Cisco Modems .)

All three of those vendors have won Docsis 3.0 modem certifications from CableLabs , and received “Bronze” qualification for their respective CMTSs. (See Docsis 3.0 Gear Tracker II.)

J:COM is “such a major focus for us and the industry, in general,” said Kevin Keefe, VP of global marketing and product management for Motorola’s Access Networks Solution unit. He said video streaming and downloading will drive Docsis 3.0 and channel bonding, citing research from ABI Research that consumers will view 70 billion videos via the Internet annually by 2012.

source: lightreading.com

Why the name change?

The tru2way brand was developed by the global brand consulting firm Siegel + Gale, in consultation with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), and marketing and technology representatives of a variety of major cable providers.

Which basically means that, based on talking with consumers, it was felt that a new name would help with branding. Manufacturers can then make products under that name.

For example: Panasonic and Comcast Announce Products With Tru2way(TM) Technology. Specifically, this means that you’ll be able to soon be able to get a portable DVR which you can take on the road, watching those TV shows you recorded.

source: cabletechtalk.com