Cisco releases full duplex DOCSIS reference design

Speaking at the CableLabs Summer Conference, Cisco has revealed its latest work into full duplex DOCSIS technology, which it claims will enable fibre optic capacity over coaxial cable.

The news will come as a welcomed advancement for the industry as it has the potential to offset the costly process of pulling fibre all the way to the home. The company claims business and residential customers will now have multi-gigabit speeds without having to wait for fibre roll outs in their area. While new access deployments are currently utilizing fibre, there are still numerous customers who receive services over hybrid fibre-coax technology. The Cisco reference design could enable cable operators to deliver more efficient services without the need for costly upgrades.

The reference design also includes a digital echo canceler design that maximizes the use of HFC capacity, to combat interference. The team has defined a multi-slice scalable echo canceler for the Full Duplex DOCSIS specification which integrates with the Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) architecture.

“By making this royalty-free design available to the industry, we can help our cable customers evolve to more rapidly deploy virtualized, fibre-deep, and all-IP infrastructures,” said John Chapman, CTO for the Cable Access Business. “We hope to accelerate the transformation of the cable industry to deliver multi-gigabit speeds and new high bandwidth services and products, and in the near future, customers can begin to enjoy the benefits of Full Duplex DOCSIS technology.”

The drive towards full duplex has been witnessed in various corners of the industry, as Nokia’s Bell Labs claimed in May it was the first to lab-test XG-CABLE. The technology itself promises 10 Gbps symmetrical data speeds over Hybrid Fiber Coax cables using full duplex DOCSIS 3.1 technology.