Wired
A Jolt of Light: CableLabs Holds First 200G P2P Coherent Optics Interop
July 28, 2022
Anyone remember the jingle for Jolt® Cola? All the sugar and twice the caffeine! Perhaps the phrase dates me, but I still hear it in my head—although I now have new words to set to it: All the distance and twice the capacity! OK, maybe it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. But […]
Release of New FMA Specs Opens Door for Interop Events
January 26, 2022
We are pleased to announce today’s issuance of new versions of the Flexible MAC Architecture (FMA) System and MAC Manager Interface (MMI) specifications. This release denotes the completion of phase one for the FMA specifications and opens the doors for beginning FMA interoperability events. Speaking of such events, we are also pleased to inform you […]
Finishing the P2P Coherent Optics Puzzle
September 9, 2021
This past June, CableLabs publicly released the first issued version of the Coherent Termination Device (CTD) Requirements Specification. The same month, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Standards Association (SA) approved amendment 802.3ct-2021, which defines 100G Ethernet using coherent optics. Combined with previous point-to-point (P2P) coherent optics specifications released by CableLabs, these two […]
Everything You Want to Know About Coherent Optics for Access Networks (But Were Afraid to Ask)
November 19, 2019
The cable industry has been well served by its extensive fiber deployment that took place during the initial hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) buildout. Even though cable operators have answered capacity demand through fiber node-splits in specific high demand scenarios, only recently have operators embarked on deeper-fiber roll-out strategies as part of a comprehensive long-term evolution plan. […]
Cable Network Reliability: ProOps Platform for PNM and More!
July 23, 2019
Cable network reliability has many important dimensions, but operators are all too familiar with the significant cost of maintenance and repair, and some with the advantages of Proactive Network Maintenance (PNM). But not everyone has taken full advantage of PNM. Let’s have a look at some of the reasons for that, and what CableLabs is […]
OFC: A Third of a Mile of Next-Gen Optics
April 23, 2019
0.0000026 seconds. For the more technically inclined, that’s 2.6 microseconds. Which is how long it would take light to travel a third of a mile through fiber optic cable. It was also the length of the show floor at OFC: The Optical Networking and Communications Conference and Exhibition, held in March in San Diego, California. […]
Proactive Network Maintenance (PNM): Cable Modem Validation Application(s)
April 10, 2019
Sometimes, two apps are better than one. We now have two versions of the Cable Modem Validation Application (CMVA) available for download and use: a new lab automation version, and a data exploration version. Thing One and Thing Two Lab automation and certification have unique requirements, but investigation and invention require flexibility. Because the CMVA […]
Forward Error Correction (FEC): A Primer on the Essential Element for Optical Transmission Interoperability
April 4, 2019
Forward error correction (FEC) has been a powerful tool in the cable industry for many years. In fact, perhaps the single biggest performance improvement in the DOCSIS 3.1 specifications was achieved by changing the FEC being used in previous versions – Reed-Soloman (RS) – to a new coding scheme with improved performance: low-density parity check […]
The P2P Coherent Optics Specification of the Future, Available Today
March 12, 2019
Today, CableLabs is announcing another addition to our family of Point-to-Point Coherent Optics specifications: The Physical Layer 2.0 (PHYv2.0) specification. This new specification defines interoperable point-to-point (P2P) coherent optics links running at 200 Gbps (200G) on a single wavelength. Just 9 months ago, in July of 2018, CableLabs announced the release of the P2P Coherent […]
Preparations for Full Duplex DOCSIS® Technology are Marching Along
March 7, 2019
Built on the successful completion of CableLabs’ DOCSIS 3.1 specification, Full Duplex (FDX) DOCSIS® technology (now a part of DOCSIS 4.0 technology) is a key component of the 10G platform that will significantly elevate the level of services available to consumers using existing cable broadband networks. With FDX DOCSIS technology (now a part of DOCSIS 4.0 technology), […]