1999
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Key technology panel, moderated by Leslie Ellis.
Voice
June 1999: The first PacketCable interoperability tests are held, with voice products from 11 suppliers. Equipment tested for interoperability included multimedia terminal adaptors (MTAs), call agents, and test equipment. Three interoperability rounds are completed in 1999.
December 1999: PacketCable 1.0 publicly released as a finished suite of specifications.
Video
July 1999: First round of OpenCable interoperability tests are initiated. Participants include General Instrument, Mindport, NDS Electronics, SCM Microsystems, and Scientific Atlanta. The tests focused on removable security cards (then called "PODs," for "Point of Deployment" modules, and subsequently renamed "CableCARD").
September 1999: RFP issued for OpenCable middleware, which would subsequently be called "OCAP," for "OpenCable Application Platform," later to be known as "tru2way™" in its consumer-facing orientation. First applications identified: Electronic program guides. Sixteen companies reply, among them Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, NDS, Liberate, Hewlett-Packard Co., General Instrument, Excite@Home, and the Advanced Television Systems Committee.
September 1999: CableLabs Issues OpenCable software RFP.
October 1999: The first OpenCable specifications are publicly released as part of the suite of OpenCable 1.0 specifications. These build-to specs describe core functional requirements for OpenCable receivers as well as critical interface and security requirements to support the separable security module (POD or CableCARD).
Data
March 1999: CableLabs awards certification status to the first two companies - Toshiba and Thomson - for their DOCSIS modems. A cable modem termination system from Cisco is qualified in the same wave of tests. During the remainder of the year, a number of other cable modem manufacturers are approved and certified throughout the year: Cisco, 3Com, Askey Computer, General Instrument, Arris, Philips, Samsung, and Sony. Additional CMTSs are qualified during the year.
April 1999: Specifications issued for DOCSIS 1.1, the second major chapter in cable modem evolution. The1.1 specification differs from 1.0 in 4 main ways: 1) It lets operators offer guaranteed bandwidth, via QoS; 2) It enables Dynamic QOS ("D-QOS"), to allow the creation of PacketCable VoIP services; 3) It supports packet fragmentation, important for timing-sensitive applications; 4) It provides upstream pre-equalization, for faster reverse band speeds. DOCSIS 1.1 also becomes the foundational specification for PacketCable 1.0.
Early History
1999: Go2Broadband service locator project begins.
June 1999: The first PacketCable interoperability tests are held, with voice products from 11 suppliers. Equipment tested for interoperability included multimedia terminal adaptors (MTAs), call agents, and test equipment. Three interoperability rounds are completed in 1999.
December 1999: PacketCable 1.0 publicly released as a finished suite of specifications.
Video
July 1999: First round of OpenCable interoperability tests are initiated. Participants include General Instrument, Mindport, NDS Electronics, SCM Microsystems, and Scientific Atlanta. The tests focused on removable security cards (then called "PODs," for "Point of Deployment" modules, and subsequently renamed "CableCARD").
September 1999: RFP issued for OpenCable middleware, which would subsequently be called "OCAP," for "OpenCable Application Platform," later to be known as "tru2way™" in its consumer-facing orientation. First applications identified: Electronic program guides. Sixteen companies reply, among them Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, NDS, Liberate, Hewlett-Packard Co., General Instrument, Excite@Home, and the Advanced Television Systems Committee.
September 1999: CableLabs Issues OpenCable software RFP.
October 1999: The first OpenCable specifications are publicly released as part of the suite of OpenCable 1.0 specifications. These build-to specs describe core functional requirements for OpenCable receivers as well as critical interface and security requirements to support the separable security module (POD or CableCARD).
Data
March 1999: CableLabs awards certification status to the first two companies - Toshiba and Thomson - for their DOCSIS modems. A cable modem termination system from Cisco is qualified in the same wave of tests. During the remainder of the year, a number of other cable modem manufacturers are approved and certified throughout the year: Cisco, 3Com, Askey Computer, General Instrument, Arris, Philips, Samsung, and Sony. Additional CMTSs are qualified during the year.
April 1999: Specifications issued for DOCSIS 1.1, the second major chapter in cable modem evolution. The1.1 specification differs from 1.0 in 4 main ways: 1) It lets operators offer guaranteed bandwidth, via QoS; 2) It enables Dynamic QOS ("D-QOS"), to allow the creation of PacketCable VoIP services; 3) It supports packet fragmentation, important for timing-sensitive applications; 4) It provides upstream pre-equalization, for faster reverse band speeds. DOCSIS 1.1 also becomes the foundational specification for PacketCable 1.0.
Early History
1999: Go2Broadband service locator project begins.