| 800 Megabit Cable Modems are Coming |
| Thursday, 20 January 2011 19:33 |
 John Chapman in 2005 provided a road map to gigabit cable modems and now we're getting close. 24M subscriber SK Telecom has now tested 16 channel bonded EuroDOCSIS modems that can go to 800 megabits (shared.) Kabel Deutscheland tested speeds over a gigabit. In practice, that should enable 100 megabits 95+% of the time and even 500 megabits 90+% of the time. The additional cost of the higher speed modems will be only a few tens of dollars and even less in a few years. I don't see any technical reason these couldn't be widely available in 2-4 years. The channel bonding principle is simple: 4, 8, 16 or more 6-8 MHz channels are joined. Each channel carries 30-50 megabits of data. 16 channels can carry 800 megabits. A few years ago, cable modem termination systems would be strained to handle speeds like that. Around 2007, CableLabs CEO Dick Green looked closely at whether cable could meet Singapore's RFP for a gigabit network. His conclusion was that it was possible but impractically expensive. Two generations of Moore's Law later, the necessary processing power is affordable. The Korean trials were done with a production model ARRIS C4 CMTS.
Knowing this technology was coming, the cable companies promised the FCC Broadband Plan they would reach 100M homes with 100 megabits in 2020. They set an interim goal of 50 meg for 2015, although it certainly would be practical to reach 100 meg in most of the country by 2015 with modest capex.
Speed thrills.
NOVEMBER 12, 2010 Kabel Deutschland successfully tests 1 Gbit/s
Kabel Deutschland (KD) successfully achieved a download speed of 1,170 Mbit/s (1,17 Gbit/s) with the television cable network as the first cable operator world-wide. In conjunction with technological leader Cisco, a field trial conducted in Hamburg demonstrated the performance capability and techno-logical advantage of the cable network. Internet access via TV cable is optimally prepared for all future developments in the broadband market, especially with regard to bandwidth-intensive internet applications. Technological advantage of the modern cable network "It will take a few more years until internet applications and content exists that actually allow our customers to fully utilise as much as 1 Gbit/s. But if you recall that the average demand for bandwidth of a household in the KD net-work has increased by 500 percent (1) from 2006 to 2010 alone, then the ques-tion is not if, but when this time will come. In any case, the cable network is already prepared today", says Lorenz Glatz, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Kabel Deutschland. "On the one hand, this bandwidth growth is increasingly driven by the continuously rising number of devices with internet connections in customer households. On the other hand the growing number of video offerings in the internet are also a strong factor in demand for quantity as well as in picture quality, such as for high-resolution HD videos", Glatz adds. Speed record with technological leader Cisco The field test was carried out at in a multi-dwelling unit in the Hamburg cable network of KD. The bandwidth tests were conducted both on an individual computer as well as in the course of a multi-room solution on several com-puters, corresponding more realistically to actual utilisation in a multi-person household. In the test, large files from German university servers and DVDs were downloaded. Interesting test parameters were the maximum speeds achieved, the size of the files, and the duration of the download – once more a demonstration how the cable technology enriches the German broadband internet supply. Another recently conducted Kabel Deutschland field test documented that the new signal transfer standard DVB-C2 will be able to provide significantly more TV channels and still faster internet in the same spectrum in the future. “The field trial presented today with the transfer rate of 1 Gbit/s once again under-scores the positioning of the cable network as clear bandwidth and technology leader in the German broadband market”, Glatz summarises. (1) Source: Internal data by Kabel Deutschland on bandwidth development in KD’s cable network
ARRIS and Korean ISP SK Broadband Bond 16 Downstream Channels in One Bonding Group on a Single Modem, Reaching 800 Mbps Data Speeds SUWANEE, Ga., Jan. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ARRIS (Nasdaq: ARRS) today announced that in conjunction with SK Broadband Inc., South Korea's leading integrated telecommunications company, it has successfully bonded 16 Downstream channels to deliver data throughput speeds of up to 800 Mbps in SK Broadband's labs, using an ARRIS C4® CMTS with Software Release 7.4 and an SK Broadband 16x4 modem. "The ability to deliver 800 Mbps will enable cable operators to offer service that is competitive with operators using Fiber to the Premises and Passive Optical Networks," said ARRIS CTO Ken Wright. "By delivering this service over existing Hybrid Fiber Coaxial infrastructure, cable operators will be able to deliver a competitive service offering without making substantial investments in network upgrades." The Korean telecommunications market is one of the world's most demanding environments for service providers. Continuing increases in Over the Top video consumption are driving the need for an ever-expanding supply of bandwidth, both residentially as well as for business customers. Telco providers continue to offer increased bandwidth tiers, and cable operators like SK Broadband and the vendors who supply them, like ARRIS, must not only meet but exceed the pace of competition. "This is a very exciting technical milestone to have reached," said ARRIS VP Product Management Todd Kessler. "Data speeds about which we only once dreamed are becoming available to consumers and SK Broadband is leading the way. ARRIS has a long history of technological innovation as well as a commitment to open standards and multi-vendor interoperability, and this is a natural extension of our previous channel bonding deployments and a direct example of our commitment to the fast-developing broadband markets of Asia." |