As many providers, municipalities, states and nations continue to look to fiber as the future, it is increasingly clear DOCSIS 4.0 also will have a place as cable TV operators looking for more natural, less expensive bandwidth upgrades to existing DOCSIS 3.1 architectures.
While DOCSIS 4.0’s (D4.0) biggest market impact could still be a couple years off, service providers are putting their plans in place. With that in mind, European cable operator Liberty Global this week picked Commscope to develop and deploy a Remote MACPHY Device (RMD) Node platform for DOCSIS 4.0 to support the company’s plan to migrate toward 10 Gbps capabilities.
This project is believed to be the industry’s first D4.0 initiative in Europe, and other providers eyeing D4.0 adoption likely will be watching it closely. Elsewhere in the world, Comcast and other providers have been progressing on their own work with D4.0 plans and different approaches for deploying the technology.
“Our groundbreaking D4.0 project is an important step forward in our 10G vision for the future,” stated Colin Buechner, Managing Director and Chief Network Officer, Liberty Global, in a statement. “We selected CommScope to extend the capabilities of our HFC network into the next decade, because of their proven leadership and expertise in DOCSIS and next-generation networks. Together, we are laying the path to tomorrow’s multi-gigabit services and providing our subscribers across Europe with the world’s most advanced and reliable services.”
Commscope said the RMD Node platform for D4.0 will simplify Liberty Global’s hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) network transformation to cost-effectively deliver multi-gigabit services—eventually 10 Gbps–while also providing its subscribers with seamless access to new high-bandwidth, low-latency services.
“We are excited to partner with Liberty Global once again as we demonstrate our worldwide leadership in DOCSIS,” said Guy Sucharczuk, SVP and President, Access Network Solutions, CommScope. “Our long-standing partnership with Liberty Global uniquely positions us to deliver end-to-end D4.0 solutions specific to its HFC network. This is a showcase for the global transformation of HFC into tomorrow’s 10G networks, and we’re excited to deploy this technology in Europe and beyond.”