CableLabs certifies first DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems

Five New CableLabs certified DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem products usher in a new generation of broadband services

LOUISVILLE, Colo — CableLabs, the research and development lab for the cable industry, today announced that five cable modem vendors have achieved the first DOCSIS 3.1 certifications. Newly certified products from Askey, Castlenet, Netgear, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive provide cable operators with critical components for a new generation of DOCSIS 3.1 services which demand multi-gigabit speeds. Certification verifies compliance to the specifications, interoperability among products and enables competition and choice in the marketplace.

This represents the greatest number of products certified in the first certification wave for any DOCSIS specification, attributable to the highly effective collaboration and support among CableLabs, CableLabs’ members and vendors.

With the technology landscape and consumer expectations evolving at an accelerating pace, market demand for faster broadband networks is critical. Ensuring high-capacity, ubiquitous broadband networks is essential for new high-speed applications including Virtual and Augmented Reality, advanced video technologies such as Ultra High Definition 4K television, tele-existence and medical imaging, and gaming. These exciting new offerings will immediately benefit from the rollout of DOCSIS 3.1-based services.

DOCSIS 3.1 technology is designed to meet the demand for higher speeds cost effectively by improving network efficiency and scalability while operating on existing cable operator networks, maintaining backward compatibility with existing DOCSIS deployments. DOCSIS 3.1 technology also reduces network latency, and so dramatically improves responsiveness for sophisticated applications such as gaming and rich web experiences. Cable operators can deploy multi-gigabit services over their existing Hybrid Fiber Coax networks based on consumer demand leveraging their existing network infrastructure and DOCSIS devices to enable a smooth migration to the new capabilities of the DOCSIS 3.1 technology. This also represents the first set of DOCSIS specifications with world-wide applicability, a key element to delivering rapid scale and cost-effective products.

“Today’s news marks a key milestone for CableLabs in technical leadership and time to market,” said Phil McKinney, President and CEO of CableLabs. “The DOCSIS 3.1 specifications assure the cable industry’s leadership in the delivery of broadband services. This represents the most rapid development and implementation cycle for a broadband technology development program ever delivered by CableLabs. Development of the initial DOCSIS 3.1 specifications to product certification has occurred in half the time of previous DOCSIS specifications.”

The completion of five product certifications illustrates the success of a multi-year effort to bring DOCSIS 3.1 products to market. Over the past 14 months, CableLabs has held 14 DOCSIS 3.1 interoperability and dry run testing events that provided manufacturers the opportunity to work together on interoperability, development and specification compliance supporting recently announced field trials and commercial deployments. This approach is designed to help cable operators rapidly deploy DOCSIS 3.1 products, ushering in a new era of speed and quality of experience for consumers.

Neil Smit, President and CEO of Comcast Cable Communications and Chairman of the CableLabs Board of Directors, stated that “The delivery of certified DOCSIS 3.1 devices is critical to Comcast and the cable industry. This year, Comcast will begin offering our customers new gigabit speed services enabled with DOCSIS 3.1 technology,” he said. “Congratulations to CableLabs for taking DOCSIS 3.1 from laboratory to living room in record time.”