300M HFC: Delivering Gigabit Broadband

Ignitionnet · 25-07-2016, 13:25

Ovum have produced a report for NBN in Australia regarding the future of the HFC networks nearly all Virgin Media customers receive their services on.

Hat-tip ISPReview.

I'm aware of a few things VM are doing along these lines, and their evolution towards the standards put forward is in progress.

Pierre · 25-07-2016, 13:51

Mike Fries at a recent internal Q&A advised that we were heading to 1Gb

Ignitionnet · 25-07-2016, 15:55

Indeed. You guys aren't overbuilding the 750 MHz networks with 1.2 GHz kit for fun.

Kushan · 25-07-2016, 16:07

1Gbit seems to be the milestone everyone wants. I feel as though that's the point where most people (certainly residents) will just go "Yeah that's good enough for me", at least until some critical application gets invented that somehow makes use of it. Even 4K streaming wouldn't put a dent in 1gbit.

General Maximus · 25-07-2016, 21:11

it is still a way off. I imagine 500mbits will come out next year with docsis 3.1 with 750mbits in 2018 and 1gbit in 2019.

Ignitionnet · 25-07-2016, 23:41

I would go a bit further and expect a gigabit DOCSIS 3.1 service with the price tag and contract to cover the new modem to match.

Those modems can draw all the DOCSIS 3.0 capacity being used for the existing services along with at least one 96 MHz OFDM block all for them.

I see no value in DOCSIS 3.1 modems with tiers that are a half-way house. As long as uptake isn't high 750Mb can be done with 24 channels via DOCSIS 3.0. It would feel like a bit of a disappointment, a damp squib, to deploy 3.1 for anything less than a gig.

Although as a disclaimer people may really, really not like the upstream speed that will initially come with such a service. The current DOCSIS 3.1 deployments are using DOCSIS 3.0 upstreams, so 1000Mb down, 35 - 50Mb up ahoy.

General Maximus · 26-07-2016, 08:28

hopefully that will only be in the short term and something they will work in improving asap

Kushan · 26-07-2016, 08:49

A lot of the literature I've read seems to indicate that the 3.1 rollout will come first, with a push for gigabit+ on the downstream, but after that the focus will be on symmetrical connections to bring upstream in line. That's a good 5 year+ plan, though.

Ignitionnet · 26-07-2016, 09:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kushan

A lot of the literature I've read seems to indicate that the 3.1 rollout will come first, with a push for gigabit+ on the downstream, but after that the focus will be on symmetrical connections to bring upstream in line. That's a good 5 year+ plan, though.

Comcast are leading the way, and due to the hardware restrictions their product uses 24+ 6MHz DOCSIS 3.0 SC-QAMs and a single 3.1 96 MHz OFDM block downstream.

Upstream it uses the same 4 SC-QAM upstreams as DOCSIS 3.0.

This shouldn't be a shock to anyone, for example VM's DOCSIS 3.0 product used a single DOCSIS 1.1 upstream originally, no upstream bonding for a while.

Kushan · 26-07-2016, 09:25

Yeah, upstream speeds have never really been headline grabbers but I suspect once people start seeing what is effectively download speeds they'll never (Rarely) max out, upload speeds will be next.

Ignitionnet · 26-07-2016, 09:36

The early DOCSIS 3.0 kit that VM and Comcast, among others, used was downstream bonding only. Very few vendors supported upstream and downstream bonding straight away.

Kinda simliar story here. The line cards VM have in their Cisco cBR-8 are ready to deliver DOCSIS 3.1 on the downstream. Upstream, however, a different story.

Kushan · 26-07-2016, 10:29

Yeah, I am not surprised at all. There's not much incentive to spend the extra money on the upstream side of things. I think people would be thrilled at 10:1 alone, never mind anything higher.