According to CableLabs, Taiwan-based Hitron Technologies has received DOCSIS 3.0 certification for its cable modem.
Hitron’s BRG-35503 cable modem received certification in CableLabs’ Wave 61. Hitron’s Web site did not list the BRG-35503, but it said the company’s BRG-35502 “is a very-high-speed data cable modem that complies with DOCSIS 3.0” and also comes in a EuroDOCSIS 3.0 version.”
After none of the cable modem vendors made it through a December certification wave, Ambit, Arris, Cisco, Motorola and SMC received DOCSIS 3.0 status for their cable modems in CableLabs’ Wave 58 in May (story here). Motorola received certification for two of its modems.
DOCSIS 3.0 can achieve downstream broadband speeds of up to 160 Mbps by bonding 6 MHz – or in the case of Europe and some parts of Asia and Latin America, 8 MHz – channels together. DOCSIS upstream channel bonding, which will be deployed after downstream channel bonding, can provide up to 120 Mbps of shared throughput for cable operators.
Current requirements for DOCSIS 3.0 call for equipment to support channel bonding on at least four upstream and four downstream channels, although the platform gives operators the flexibility to bond as few as two channels to meet market needs and competition. DOCSIS 3.0’s speeds are limited only by the number of bonded channels, so as DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem technology continues to evolve, the ability to support more and more bonded channels will be the result. Channels used for bonding don’t need to be adjacent.
While the new DOCSIS 3.0-certified modems will cost more, cable operators can now start phasing them in to their inventories. Cable operators could offer a premium broadband tier as one method of getting the more expensive boxes into customers’ homes.
Large cable operators such as Comcast and Time Warner Cable are expected to rollout the faster DOCSIS 3.0 channel-bonded services in areas where they’re competing head-to-head with Verizon’s FiOS service.
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