DOCSIS 3.1

UK cable operator, Virgin Media has successfully conducted trials of its DOCSIS 3.1 network in Southampton and Manchester.

Australia’s broadband network operator NBN Co has started enabling DOCSIS 3.1 cable technology on its Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) network in a move to increase activations. The incumbent intends to focus on doubling the downstream capacity on the network, which is due for completion in 2020.

CableLabs has published two new specifications to ‘dramatically increase’ capacity of the fibre access network with point-to-point coherent optics technology, allowing for 100Gb/s per wavelength.

Using amplitude, phase, and polarisation to enable much higher fibre capacities, coherent optics can help to improve streaming, video conferencing, file uploads and downloads and future usage needs for technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, and by gaining more capacity from existing fibres, the need to lay more can be eliminated.