Comcast said it has successfully tested the final component need to begin trials of its next-generation cable network. 

The No. 1 U.S. cable operator will now begin formal trials of its “10G” Full Duplex DOCSIS 4.0 network tech, with the aim of starting deployment late next year. Comcast hopes to have the technology distributed into 50 million customer homes and businesses by the end of 2025.

The announcement was made coinciding with the cable industry’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo trade show, which resumed a live format this week in Comcast's hometown of Philadelphia. (Our own Mike Farrell is on the ground covering the event for Multichannel News.)

With Full Duplex (FDX) DOCSIS 4.0, Comcast said it can now deliver symmetrical speeds of 4 gigabits per second, vastly improving the performance of latency-sensitive applications including gaming, videoconferencing and telehealth.

The tech falls into a catchall marketing umbrella that the cable industry has been calling “10G” — a kind of Nigel Tufnel-esque response to the wireless business' 5G push.  

Also: SCTE Cable-Tec Expo: Home Networks Are the New Industry Battleground, Panel Says

For the final test, Comcast said it used FDX amplifiers built on a reference design developed by Broadcom. The test successfully demonstrated the ability to conduct download speeds of 6 Gbps and upload speeds of 4 Gbps across a configuration that places six amps between the home and the node, otherwise known as a “N+6” setup.

This is quite improvement over FDX iterations a few years back that required N+0 configurations to work effectively. Cable operators largely balked at the feasibility of dense node configurations extending so far out into the network. 

“With this test, we’ve gone beyond proof of concept. We know we can use this technology to deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical services throughout our network and, in fact, we’re confident we have the potential to go even faster,” said Elad Nafshi, executive VP and chief network officer at Comcast Cable. “With the key components of 10G tested and proven — and our digital, virtualized network architecture ready to support them — we turn our attention to extending the full benefit of 10G directly to our customers, including lower latency, greater reliability, and enhanced security.”

At Cable-Tec Expo this week, Comcast has also been touting advanced progress with virtual “Distributed Access Architecture” (DAA) network tech, as it builds its FDX DOCSIS 4.0 apparatus over a largely software-driven infrastructure. 

Comcast said it has recently accelerated deployment of configurations that turn its network’s bulky CMTS backbone appliances into software running on generic x86 servers. ■

CableLabs has published the anticipated specifications for DOCSIS 4.0, the next technology standard for moving data across the cable industry’s hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) networks.

The new specification, which is an upgrade over the cable industry’s current DOCSIS 3.1 standard, will enable operators to deliver download speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. Upstream speeds can approach speeds of 6 Gbps.

Importantly, DOCSIS 4.0 provides a unification of two competing technologies for moving HFC networks to 10-gig speeds. Explained here in detail in a 2017 CableLabs blog post, Full Duplex DOCSIS would combine downstream and upstream signals on a single frequency, delivering symmetrical speeds up to 10 Gbps. Full Duplex is favored by the leading U.S. cable operator, Comcast, but its stringent network technology requirements made it economically infeasible for many operators.

Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (blogged about by CableLabs in September here) keeps upstream and downstream traffic separate. But it would increase the spectrum of HFC networks to 1.8Ghz from a current level of 1.2Ghz found on the fastest networks.

CableLabs is the technology consortium for the major U.S. cable companies. And it’s serving a broader cable industry initiative called “10G,” an effort to migrate cable networks to a future in which 10 Gbps speeds power increased cloud applications, video conferencing, smart homes and distance learning—a future that is, well, here to today for many of us.

But don’t look for commercial deployments of DOCSIS 4.0 networks by operators in the months to come. Cable operators still have a glut of network capacity from huge investments made over the last five years in DOCSIS 3.1 infrastructure. These buildups enabled them to offer customers the 1 Gbps speeds, the ceiling for which consumers are no where near bumping into just yet.

But DOCSIS 4.0 does give cable industry engineers in purchasing roles clarity on how to move forward in a network technology realm being disrupted by virtualization and Distributed Access Architecture (DAA).

“With the DOCSIS 4.0 specification establishing a clear path forward, giving cable operators the flexibility to pursue either Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD) or Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX), operators can move ahead with their remote PHY and remote MACPHY deployments to solve immediate head-end and power consumption issues,” wrote Dell’Oro Group analyst Jeff Heynen, in a blog post published two weeks ago. 

Cisco has confirmed major changes to its cable access supply business.

One is personnel related. John Holobinko, Cisco’s director of cable access strategy, quietly exited the company over the spring. According to the North Carolina native’s LinkedIn profile, he departed his Charlotte-based position at Cisco in April and is now working nearby as president and CEO of the Pineville Chamber of Commerce.

Separately, Cisco has confirmed that it has stopped investment of time and money into Full Duplex DOCSIS. (This news was first reported by Light Reading.)

“Cisco has internally communicated that we are suspending further investment in Full Duplex DOCSIS (FDX) until the market timing, ecosystem development and size of the opportunity can be quantified,” Cisco said in a statement provided to MCN. “We remain confident that FDX will play a critical role in realizing 10G symmetrical cable services in the future and are committed to continuing the pioneering work with our customers to transition from centralized to distributed architectures. Cisco continues to lead innovation in the cable industry, exploring many ways to help cable operators modernize their access networks with our unparalleled end-to-end portfolio."

A Cisco rep said Holobinko left to "pursue other interests" and that his departure was unrelated to the company's shift in cable access strategy.

Holobinko was the top strategy executive for Cisco’s cable access division. When MCN last spoke to him during October's SCTE Cable-Tec Expo in Atlanta, he was in the process of leading his division’s transformation from a supplier of proprietary hardware, such as the CBR8 Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), to becoming a vendor of software that virtualize cable access technologies. Cisco was also moving into Distributed Access Architecture and Full Duplex DOCSIS under Holobinko’s watch.

As for the suspension of FDX activities, the tech was first introduced in 2016 by cable industry research consortium CableLabs. Full Duplex DOCSIS promises to deliver symmetrical 10 Gbps speeds over hybrid fiber coaxial wiring.

Comcast has publicly stated that FDX is part of its future network development planning. However, the technology requires an “N+0” configuration, meaning fiber has to be pushed out much closer to the customer. Amid a broader “10G” marketing push that’s designed to match the wireless industry’s 5G hype, CableLabs is now hoisting myriad next-generation broadband technologies on the cable industry, including Extended Spectrum DOCSIS, which many believe is competing technology to FDX.

Adding DAA and virtualized Cable Converged Access Platform (CCAP) to an increasingly complex decision making mix, operators are pausing their orders and contemplating a lot of complexity in terms of designing their network of the future.

Research company Dell’Oro Group said cable access vendor revenue was down 38% in the first quarter to $275 million. According to Dell’Oro analyst Jeff Heynen, the slowdown came as “cable operators push off new capacity purchases while they determine how to move forward with distributed access architectures.”

Cisco is one of the three incumbent companies, along with CommScope’s recently acquired Arris, and Casa Systems, which have controlled the cable access technology business. However, boosted by recent deals with Comcast and Liberty Global for its CableOS virtual CCAP product, Harmonic is having a disruptive presence in the market.

Last week, CommScope announced the departure of Bruce McClelland, the former Arris CEO, who had been propped up as COO of the combined company, overseeing the integrated Arris brand. This came amid slowing overall business for Arris, punctuated by slow cable access sales.

For its part, Cisco reports its own earnings, for its fiscal fourth quarter, on Wednesday. 

CableLabs, which has outlined a multi-decade plan to one day evolve HFC networks to 10 Gbps transoms, thinks it has a way for the home Wi-Fi network to keep up, too.

The cable industry technology consortium today is introducing what it calls Dual Channel Wi-Fi to its members.

Outlined in a CableLabs blog post, the technology adds a secondary downstream channel in the home network, allowing bandwidth hogging applications like video to be taken off the primary upstream/downstream channel and alleviating congestion.

According to Belai Hamzeh, senior chief technology officer for CableLabs, on both the router and the device need to be enabled with Dual Channel Wi-Fi technology to fully use the technology. But legacy devices benefit in being able to connect to an overall less congested Wi-Fi network.

Hamzeh said that a “significant number” of cable operator-supplied access equipment in U.S. homes can be enabled with Dual Channel Wi-Fi via a simple software upgrade.

He added that 15% of customer service calls for U.S. cable operators are Wi-Fi related, resulting in $600 million of annual costs.

CableLabs said it’s working with Edgewater Wireless, a participant in the inaugural UpRamp Fiterator cohort, to develop Dual Channel implementation for OpenWRT platforms. CableLabs has also developed the code for RDK-B and RDK-V platforms.

CableLabs is positioning Dual Channel Wi-Fi as a compliment to what it calls “10G-ready technology”—a set of tools that also includes Full Duplex DOCSiS, PNH, x-Haul and vRAN, PON, DOCSiS 3.1, P2P Coherent Optics and Los Latency DOCSIS.

ATLANTA -- Cisco used the opening of the SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo show in Atlanta to announce two key operator initiatives, as well as a new network node upgradeable to Full Duplex DOCSIS.

First, the tech vendor announced, Sioux Falls, S.D. cable operator Midco has put Cisco’s Cloud Native Broadband (cnBR) CCAP solution into trials, delivering 1-gigabit services to Mobridge, S.D.

Secondly, Cisco said that Canada’s Cogeco has become the first operator to deploy its Infinite Broadband Unlocked licensing plan, which restructures DOCSIS software licensing across the operator’s entire footprint and not service groups.

Lastly, Cisco announced the GS7000 FDXi, a smart Remote PHY node billed as “FDX-ready.” The smart device is remotely programmable.

Moving CCAP to the cloud

John Holobinko, director of access networks strategy at Cisco, said the tech company’s programmers spent 24 months moving the “monolithic” DOCSIS 3.1 program found on traditional Converged Cable Access Platforms (CCAP), reprogramming it as a series of many “micro-services” that can run in cloud-based services.

Traditionally, implementing new iterations of DOCSIS to, say, enable new features required an arduous process—it was very difficult to alter one line of a “giant piece of code” without “unintended consequences” somewhere else, Holobinko explained.

That limited the ability of operators to create flexible, evolving network technology environments.

However, using the compartmental abilities of the cnBR solution lets operators make changes to only one micro-services portion at a time, without impacting the rest of the network if something goes wrong.

“The velocity of [network upgrades] goes from once a year to once every two weeks,” Holobinko said.

Like competitors Arris and Casa Systems, Cisco’s introduction of virtualized services is essentially disrupting its own product line. In this case, Cisco is replacing its cBR-8 CCAP business with a cloud-based solution.

Of course, as Holobinko noted, Cisco is also in the server business.

“If you need additional capacity, instead of deploying more of these giant cBR-8s, everything is elastic and scales across the network,” he added.

Disrupting software licensing

As operators rethink their networks and move to Distributed Access Architectures delivering 1 gig services, the traditional means of accounting for software licensing fees has become untenable for some, Holobinko contended.

Traditionally, he explained, technology vendors like Cisco “lowered the price of the hardware, sold it close to cost, then gained our revenue from the software.”

Further, he said, traditional schemes such as basing fees based on the number of users served by a line card don’t work in a virtualized system … with no line cards.

Thus the introduction of Infinite Broadband Unlocked (IBU), which bases fees on users across the entire footprint, letting operators pay DOCSIS software licensing fees only for subscribers they have.

According to Michel Blais, VP of engineering and operations for Cogeco Connexion, the system allows Cogeco to “upgrade our current broadband network to enable the majority of Cogeco Connexion’s footprint to be 1 Gig ready.”

Make it FDX ready while you’re at it

Earlier this year, Comcast's VP of network architecture, Rob Howald, made news, indicating a desire to see a DAA node hit the market that had the ability to be easily upgraded to Full Duplex DOCSIS at a later time. Howald said he’d like to see such a product hit trials in the second half of 2018.

The logic seems simple enough—why upgrade nodes twice amid the transition to DAA?

For its part, Cisco seems on schedule, with the vendor declaring that its GS7000 FDXi will be available in 2019.

Holobinko said the nodes can be made FDX-capable with a simple modular addition—a “two-minute procedure,” he explained.

Further, with some operators complaining that up to 90% of their nodes are operating “sub-optimally,” the smart devices allow network operators to make adjustments at the head end and limit the amount of time they spend “sending a guy out with a screwdriver.”