By downloading, copying, distributing, and/or referencing the documents contained herein, you hereby agree as a condition of being permitted to do any of the foregoing acts to use the documents only for the purposes of developing products or services in accordance with such documents and educational activities. Except as permitted by CableLabs in its sole discretion in a separate written agreement, no permission is granted to modify the documents herein (except via the Engineering Change process), or to download, use, copy, modify and/or distribute any of the documents contained herein for any other purpose, including any litigation purpose.
Technical specifications publicly available for vendors to reference are provided in PDF format only. Issued specifications undergo changes through an open Engineering Change Process. When an Engineering Change has been approved as an Engineering Change Notice (ECN), it is publicly posted on the webpage of the specific specification version against which it was written. Once ECNs are incorporated into the specification and the next version of the specification has been published, those incorporated ECNs will remain on the specification public webpage and also archived in InfoZone. If there are no ECNs against a specification, then the “Attached Documents” will be marked “No”.
To submit an Engineering Change Request (ECR) against a CableLabs specification, please complete and submit the appropriate CableLabs Engineering Change Request Form. Sign in to your CableLabs account. If you do not have a CableLabs account, complete the form; under “select a topic”, choose Specifications / Engineering Changes to request the form.
ECNs
Engineering Change Notices (ECNs) have been approved for many of CableLabs®-issued specifications. The ECNs are considered part of the set of specifications—the ECNs and the issued specifications must be examined in order to fully understand specific requirements.
Consistent with current practice, Engineering Change Notices (ECNs) are Minor Changes considered to be part of the applicable specification, even though they may not yet be included in a published version of that specification. Therefore, for the purpose of compliance testing, CableLabs considers the current version of the specification to consist of the most recent, published version of the specification as it appears on CableLabs’ Web site, and any ECNs approved since the specification publication but not yet incorporated into the specification. Note that ECNs are considered mandatory for Certification/Qualification in the Certification Wave or effective date as indicated in the ECN.
As capacity demands increase, the need to efficiently use constrained fiber resources efficiently becomes increasingly important. Coherent Optics technology applies the types of modulation techniques used in RF to transmit multiple bits simultaneously, resulting in orders of magnitude more capacity in the fiber network. CableLabs Coherent Optics specifications have been developed to help drive down the cost of this technology by increasing market scale and competition through simplification and common, interoperable interfaces.
Cable television operators have transitioned from a traditional core business of entertainment programming to a position as full-service providers of video, voice, and data telecommunications services. Cable modems based on Data-over-Cable Service Interface Specifications (DOCSIS®) are among the fundamental devices making this transition possible.
Specifications create an architecture and serve as necessary specifications for enabling Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) equipment to be provisioned using existing DOCSIS-based provisioning systems and policies, and to provide network services over EPON access networks to business customers.
The DPoE Specifications have three primary goals to:
- Facilitate multi-vendor interoperability—the DPoE specifications will provide a common foundation for vendors to build products that will not only interoperate with the DOCSIS back office servers, but with other vendor’s equipment. As a result, DPoE Optical Network Unit (ONU) vendors can expect their product to interoperate with others who provide DPoE Systems.
- Allow for use of DOCSIS provisioning—DOCSIS provisioning systems provide configuration information for millions of DOCSIS devices. The DPoE specifications provide requirements for EPON equipment to be provisioned using the same DOCSIS servers.
- Provide Metro Ethernet services as defined by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)—the DPoE specifications provide an architecture and requirements to support the Ethernet Private Line (EPL) service.
Specifications create an architecture and serve as necessary specifications for enabling provisioning of Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) equipment using existing DOCSIS-based systems and policies. DPoG supports both GPON per ITU-T G.984 and XG-PON per ITU-T G.987 specification suites. The DPoG Specifications have three primary goals to:
- Facilitate multi-vendor interoperability—the DPoG specifications will provide a common foundation for vendors to build products that will not only interoperate with the DOCSIS back office servers, but with other vendor’s equipment. As a result, DPoG Optical Network Unit (ONU) vendors can expect their product to interoperate with others who provide DPoG Systems.
- Allow for use of existing DOCSIS BSS/OSS systems—DOCSIS provisioning systems provide scalable configuration tools and methods for provisioning millions of DOCSIS devices.
- Expand Cable Industry access network technologies—GPON and EPON fiber-based offerings for residential services providing customers with up to 10 gigabit transmission rates.
Metadata is descriptive data associated with a content asset package. It may vary in depth from merely identifying the content package title or information to populate an Electronic Programming Guide, to providing a complete index of different scenes in a movie or establishing business rules detailing how the content package may be displayed, copied, or sold.
Built on top of the industry’s highly successful DOCSIS® cable modem infrastructure, PacketCable™ networks use Internet protocol (IP) technology to enable a wide range of multimedia services, such as IP telephony, multimedia conferencing, interactive gaming, and general multimedia applications.
The CableLabs Video specifications, formerly known as OpenCable, cover hardware, software, and middleware used to deliver video content on a cable system. This includes linear, VOD, interactive advertising, IP delivery, home networking, and related applications. The CableLabs Video Specifications are governed by the OpenCable Contribution Agreement, which provides a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) intellectual property (IP) policy.
The CableLabs Wi-Fi specifications are designed to help bring cable operator broadband services to mobile data subscribers. Subscribers are able to enjoy broadband services on cable operator and partner operator Wi-Fi networks. The specifications identify essential requirements to support Wi-Fi roaming, and define vendor requirements for the provisioning and management of Wi-Fi Gateways on cable networks.
CableLabs’ security documents can include requirements, best practices, guidelines and other similar documents covering a wide spectrum of domains – such as Customer Premises Equipment, Service Delivery Network, Cybersecurity, Identity Management and Internet of Things. Note that Security documents in this category do not include security requirements related to other project-specific specifications (e.g., DOCSIS). Please use the links to the project categories on the left side of this page for such documents.
These technical specifications are not specific to any one particular CableLabs project but can provide information on multiple CableLabs’ projects/technologies. They are provided in PDF format only and available for reference.
Issued specifications undergo changes through an open Engineering Change Process. To submit an Engineering Change Request (ECR) against a CableLabs specification, please complete and submit the appropriate CableLabs Engineering Change Request Form.
Sign into your CableLabs Account, to obtain the Engineering Change Request Form.
If you do not have a CableLabs account, complete the form; under “select a topic”, choose Specifications / Engineering Changes to request the form.
Cloud-based technologies Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) have been maturing and are now finding application outside the data centers. Cable operators are beginning to leverage SDN and NFV to provide a more personalized customer experience, accelerate time-to-market of new services and optimize cost controls. NFV & SDN are the catalysts towards less compute-intensive network elements (particularly CPE), virtualization of features and services deeper into the network, and more software programmability in the device and network configuration. These evolutions in technology accelerate innovation in subscriber services and dramatic improvements in the delivery of these services across the cable operator’s networks.
CableLabs is engaged with key industry-wide Standardization and Open Source efforts to align the evolving architecture with our Members’ needs. Through these engagements the goal is to enable our industry to advance SDN and NFV related technology, their applications and promote broad adoption. At CableLabs, we have brought all this together in a comprehensive Virtualization and Network Evolution (VNE) program spanning multiple projects addressing different areas. These projects are in direct collaboration with our Members and their technology supplier partners.
