Seven Cable Modem Manufacturers Seek DOCSIS Certification

even high-speed cable data modem manufacturers recently participated in the ongoing data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) certification and interoperability process at CableLabs®.

General Instrument and Cisco applied for certification in August. Five other companies, 3Com, Northern Telecom, Samsung, Thomson Consumer Electronics, and Toshiba, filed for certification on September 16.

These modems will be evaluated in the three DOCSIS laboratories located at CableLabs. It is expected that, pending product readiness, certified DOCSIS-compliant modems will be available for purchase this year.

DOCSIS technology provides the cable industry with a key foundation for the deployment of standards-based digital services. The DOCSIS 1.0 product family is not only better than any existing proprietary non-DOCSIS technology, it also carries a lower price tag.

Work is underway on DOCSIS 1.1, the next revision of standard cable modem functionality that will include quality-of-service, fragmentation capability, enhanced baseline privacy, and some multicasting. The DOCSIS 1.1 process is scheduled to provide an interim specification by year end, and 1.1-compliant modems could be anticipated by mid-1999.

DOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1 modems are backward compatible and can be upgraded, via a software download, to the functionality of future generations of DOCSIS products.