I’m still on vacation here, but of course that doesn’t mean the news stops. Motorola racked up another DOCSIS 3.0 win today with Japan’s largest broadband operator, Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM). The deal includes both Motorola CMTSs (the BSR 64000) and cable modems (the SB6120s). For some reason the press release isn’t showing up on the Motorola media center, so I thought it worth drawing attention to the announcement. Even as CableLabs certification waves roll on, channel-bonding deployments continue around the world for those who don’t want to wait. Particularly in parts of Asia where the 100 Mb home is expected, waiting for channel bonding isn’t really an option.
source: connectedhome2go.com
In a serendipitous moment, I had a call this morning to talk about DOCSIS 3.0 CPE updates, and I learned that J:COM in Japan has completed trials and is starting to install Motorola’s channel-bonding modems in subscriber homes TODAY. The latest status reports from the lab have found no issues with the SB6120 modems, and J:COM is apparently eager to fulfill subscriber orders coming in. Word is that thousands of users have already signed up for the DOCSIS 3.0 service.
The SB6120 modems are the same ones awaiting certification from CableLabs, but interestingly, they are meeting far more difficult requirements in J:COM’s deployment than they’re likely to see in the Cert Wave process. Cable operators almost always need enhancements to CableLabs-certified devices to make them work with their unique networks. For example: specific user interface customizations, technical reporting capabilities and redundancy support. I guess a standard can only go so far.
There was other thing I had confirmed on my call this morning. Motorola has a DOCSIS 3.0 voice platform (i.e. not just data-only CPE) that is ready for lab testing at customer sites.
source: connectedhome2go.com
The Certification Wave 58 results are out! Motorola received DOCSIS 3.0 certification for its SB6120 and SBV6220 cable modems and DOCSIS 3.0 bronze qualification for the Motorola BSR 64000 cable modem termination system (CMTS). I had a chance to sit down quickly with Motorola’s Chris Kohler to discuss the modem certifications and recorded the conversation/interview in a podcast. The recording runs a bit longer than eight minutes: the first 2-3 minutes are specifically on the certification and first deployment of these DOCSIS 3.0 modems; the next section is on worldwide DOCSIS 3.0 trends, including the US; and the final section after about five minutes is on the future of Motorola’s modem and gateway products. (Think media servers.)
source: connectedhome2go.com
After interviewing Chris Kohler about the modems that passed CableLabs Cert Wave 58, it seemed only fair to talk with Motorola’s Mike Cookish as well about the bronze DOCSIS 3.0 qualification of Motorola’s cable modem termination system (CMTS). The interview is about 16 minutes long and fairly technical, so for those of you not interested in listening to the whole thing, there are a few choice quotes below the audio link.
On DOCSIS 3.0 speeds:
“Our customer J:COM in Japan on April 25th just launched a 160-megabit service.”
On DOCSIS 3.0 in the US:
“My expectation is that by the end of 2008, the top major operators [in the US]… will be in some form of deployment stage for channel bonding in most parts of their network.”
On the need for both greater overall upstream capacity and peak upstream bandwidth capacity
“The reality is that when operators really want to begin to deploy full-scale, widely-available, production-ready upstream channel bonding they’re going to need two things: they’re going to need to increase the capacity of the number of upstreams for fiber node or neighborhood, and then number two, they’re naturally going to need the DOCSIS 3.0 upstream channel bonding solution.
So in Motorola’s case, we’re working on the upstream portion of our decoupled I-CMTS solution called the RX32 that will provide 32 upstream channels per single card as well as upstream channel bonding, and it’s the two of these that we believe will give the operator the optimum mix of increased average capacity as well as increased peak bandwidth for channel bonding.”
source: connectedhome2go.com
I’m not out at the ANGA Cable Show in Germany, but I am getting reports back. Yesterday I had a chance to talk with Motorola’s David Whitehead, a director of engineering for the Home and Networks Mobility business. He has been running DOCSIS 3.0 clinics on the show floor and reported some of what he’s heard from European cable operators.
The big focus for a lot of cable operators is how to migrate from a DOCSIS 2.0 environment to DOCSIS 3.0 now that the technology is available. (See Cable Digital News write-up on Dell’Oro Group report about increases in network equipment sales in the wake of DOCSIS 3.0 developments) There are a few options. Some CMTS units allow software upgrades to add DOCSIS 3.0 capabilities. Where that’s not a possibility, operators either have to rip and replace hardware or create an overlay. An overlay means keeping an original DOCSIS 2.0 set-up in place and then adding some customers to a new DOCSIS 3.0 platform. Which option operators choose can depend a great deal on rack space. As in, is there enough rack space available to fit a second platform in for an overlay?
Meanwhile, as anxious as European operators are for more downstream capacity provided by DOCSIS 3.0 equipment today, there’s still very little concern for upstream capacity. From a marketing perspective, these operators need to be able to advertise 30-Mbps or 50-Mbps broadband tiers, but on the upstream side they’re still comfortable with one or two Mbps.
And there was one other extremely interesting thing I learned from David Whitehead, which is how important lessons from real field deployments are. For example, people forget about the capabilities of subscriber PCs when they deploy DOCSIS 3.0 technology and promise 30-Mbps service. It turns out that a default configuration of Windows limits subscribers to around 23 or 24 Mbps. There were a lot of complaints in early deployments that were eventually solved when someone figured out that a quick reconfiguration of Windows would get rid of that limitation. Voila! The promised 30-Mbps service arrived. Happy consumers. Happy operators.
source: connectedhome2go.com
Time Warner is testing 40GB caps on broadband service, but it’s hardly the only operator moving forward with caps. Rogers in Canada is starting to charge users for going over their monthly maximums. Broadband tiers start at “Ultra Lite” with a 2 GB cap and go up to “Extreme Plus” service with a 95 GB cap.
Also from Broadband Reports, Comcast is promising a 100 Mbps service by 2010. No word on upstream speed, but that’s still an impressive jump from the downstream speed tiers offered today.
And from CableLabs, the first digital voice modems have now been DOCSIS 3.0 certified. Among them, the Motorola SBV6220, which was initially certified for its data component in Certification Wave 58.
source: connectedhome2go.com
Motorola announced its third DOCSIS 3.0 customer in Korea this week. Cable operator Qrix Communications is deploying both the Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem termination system (CMTS) platform and Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems, joining the likes of Korean operators C&M and CJ CableNet.
Basic info:
Qrix will use the Motorola BSR 64000 CMTS with TX32 decoupled downstream module and the Motorola SB6120 cable modems
The DOCSIS 3.0 equipment for Qrix provides up to 160 Mbps of throughput
The Motorola gear is backwards compatible, supporting legacy DOCSIS 1.x and 2.0 modems
source: connectedhome2go.com
Reference the trade publication Light Reading pretty frequently on this blog, but it’s rare that I get access to paid reports from the companion analyst firm Heavy Reading. Luckily someone thought to send me a copy of a report that Motorola commissioned recently on DOCSIS 3.0. I then got in touch with the author, Senior Analyst Alan Breznick, and pried a direct quote out of him as well. (Okay, he was perfectly willing. No prying required.) According to Breznick:
Cable operators in North America, Europe and Asia are now stepping up the pace of Docsis 3.0 rollouts in response to stiffer telco competition. In North America alone, we predict that Docsis 3.0-enabled plant will pass 14 million homes by the end of this year and 35 million homes by the close of 2009.
Despite grumblings that Internet speeds aren’t increasing fast enough, the cable industry is making progress. And it’s not just one or two operators. The large majority of operators surveyed in the Heavy Reading study are upgrading now or in the very near future to support DOCSIS 3.0. The study encompassed more than 50 cable providers, half based in the US, and half spread across the rest of the globe. Here are some noteworthy excerpts from the report:
Slightly more than two thirds of cable operators have either started upgrading their plant for DOCSIS 3.0 or plan to start doing so over the next 12 to 15 months.
Although most MSOs are firmly committed to deploying DOCSIS 3.0 on their existing HFC networks, they have also considered several alternative technologies and architectures. Nearly half, 48% of respondents have looked at GPON, an FTTH technology.
An overwhelming 69% of survey participants ranked broadband data modems highest on the importance scale of DOCSIS 3.0 CPE. Cable set-tops ranked second.
Top five reasons for deploying DOCSIS 3.0:
Faster residential broadband service
More broadband speed tiers
Business services
New broadband services, such as home security
Cellular backhaul
Not only that, but there’s a quote worth noting from a Multichannel News article that ran last weekend:
Motorola has started shipping production volumes of DOCSIS 3.0 modems to a large North American MSO that is planning to turn on service before the end of the month, said Chris Kohler director of engineering for Motorola’s broadband solutions group.
There’s a post on Broadband Reports today about pre-DOCSIS 3.0 technology suggesting that certified DOCSIS 3.0 technology is not available. It is! In fact, Motorola has already deployed DOCSIS 3.0 modems and CMTS gear. The first commercial DOCSIS 3.0 deployment came through J:COM in Japan, and Motorola has since deployed with Korean customers as well.
While the DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts have felt like slow going, there is momentum building, not least because cable operators see revenue opportunities in data services. Sure, traditional video is the historical bread and butter of the cable industry, but it’s not where the margins are today. Cable operators have a lot to gain by investing in higher data speeds.
source: connectedhome2go.com
This was a big week for broadband. The combined news of growth in HD, FTTH, Multimedia-over-Coax (MoCA) technology and DOCSIS 3.0 deployments shows just how important broadband infrastructure has become. Sure, the financial markets may knock things back a bit, but our growing dependence on broadband suggests that the industry isn’t likely to slow to a crawl. We have too much riding – literally – on our broadband pipes.
More DOCSIS 3.0
Comcast made a big splash this week by extending its DOCSIS 3.0 deployments into Boston and Philadelphia. With the technology comes a new tier of service: 50 Mbps downstream and 10 Mbps upstream.
More HD
According to research firm iSuppli, shipments of HDTVs shot past shipments of standard-def televisions in 2008. The forecast is for HDTV shipments to increase to 241.2 million by 2012.
More MoCA
Broadcom is getting in on the MoCA game with integration of the technology into its latest modem, router and set-top chipsets. Verizon currently uses MoCA for its multi-room DVR service. Will more operators finally start offering in-home TV networking? Broadcom seems to be betting on it.
More Fiber
Fiber is growing as a share of broadband access technologies around the world, according to the latest report from the OECD (via GigaOM). Both Japan and Korea have more fiber-based broadband connections than anything else, 45% and 39% respectively. In the US, 3% of connections are fiber-to-the-home.
source: connectedhome2go.com