DOCSIS is probably the best thing the cable industry has ever developed: a high-speed data delivery system that works on current networks and changed the way the public uses the Internet. It's tough to even suggest that DOCSIS is growing some gray hairs, but CableLabs, charged always with looking at the next best thing, is actually looking at a next-generation high-speed data delivery system that doesn't include DOCSIS.
A story in Multichannel News says that the Louisville, Colo. R&D facility is looking to reinvent its data-over-cable delivery method so cable operators can pump up to 5 Gbps speeds over a traditional coaxial transport system while working on a network that eliminates the traditional 6 MHz channel divisions.
Right now DOCSIS 3.0 bonds multiple 6 MHz channels to get higher speeds that are sufficient to drive even the most demanding applications. Thus, the new specification--which isn't even really a specification, but more a streak on a whiteboard--has plenty of time to incubate.
For more:
- see this story
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