The Benefits of DOCSIS 3.1

Author: Drew Kempen, Consulting Systems Engineer

DOCSIS 3.1 has finally arrived! After years of talk and development, we are finally beginning to see the initial roll-outs of this next-generation technology. A few years have passed since the benefits of DOCSIS 3.1 were touted. 

Are those benefits still relevant today? It's worth revisiting.

In order to fully understand the benefits of DOCSIS 3.1, it is necessary to understand the boundaries of DOCSIS 3.0. DOCSIS 3.0 was a transformational technology in its own right and time. It provides the capacity to provide up to 1 GB of data to a service group, the ability to offer a high class of service, and provides many features and functionality that help operators with managing the customer, reporting, and reliability. 

Over time, the strengths of DOCSIS 3.0 become its weakness. The ability to achieve 1 GB downstream with up to 32 QAM becomes a limitation. Long-term bandwidth projections predict that DOCSIS 3.0 will begin to reach maximum capacities as soon as 2019 (without continuing to scale down service group sizes). In addition, competition driving 1 GB classes of service has accelerated the need for something beyond DOCSIS 3.0. The once high service group capacities of 3.0 platforms are now no longer enough. As service groups migrate to smaller and smaller groups of homes passed to manage bandwidth availability, more and more ports are required. The continual scaling of chassis, optics and other equipment to accommodate this growth becomes unsustainable. 

To put this scale into perspective, some operators have said they will need to split nodes from 4 to 10x what they are today over the next 10 years. And this is with the full capacity used on 3.0 chassis. The result would be 10x the CMTS chassis, 10x the optics, and 10x the nodes. Facilities, rack space and power requirements cannot scale with this growth. 

For a time, these inevitabilities were pushing many operators to consider a wholesale infrastructure transition to FTTH and PON technologies. The challenge with this was the complete overhaul of the entire network from video, to data provisioning, to OSP cabling and equipment to CPE. The cost, technology and knowledge change and disruption to the customers (and roadsides) made this a very unattractive option.

Enter DOCSIS 3.1. The first problem solved is the 32 channel limitation. DOCSIS 3.1 provides the ability to bond much larger groups of spectrum together to provide a true 1 GB Class of service and beyond. This also assists in the scaling problem. Whereas before, node segmentation would often be required when groups meet the 32 QAM limitation; the ability to use the full spectrum for data removes that requirement. 

DOCSIS 3.1 also allows for enhanced spectral efficiency. For math purposes, consider that a 3.0 256 QAM channel provides approximately 40 MB of throughput. DOCSIS 3.1 uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology that allows QAM modulations to reach 1, 2, 4k and beyond. A 1k QAM provides approximately 50 MB of throughput or a 25% increase in the same amount of spectrum. When you combine this capability with distributed access architectures (DAA), we see added improvement resulting in 4k QAM modulation and beyond. Therefore, DOCSIS 3.1 provides the bandwidth with more ‘bang for its buck’. 

High level-comparison features and capabilities of Next-Gen 3.1 platforms vs legacy 3.0. *Numbers may vary slightly by vendor chassis

Originally, the new DOCSIS 3.1 and DAA technologies were designed with smaller and smaller cascades in mind. However, testing has shown that improvements can be made over some of the longer cascades that exist today. For example, it is possible to achieve 1024 QAM where 256 QAM currently exists. This improved performance continues to increase as you get down to smaller and smaller cascades. 

Addressing the Upstream

As data rates increase, the upstream continues to become more and more of a choke point. Studies suggest that the upstream capacity should be 10% of the highest class of service offered. For example, for a 1 GB service to be fully functional, approximately ~100MB of upstream throughput is required. As larger and larger data pipes are brought to each service group, the upstream limits will be pushed. DOCSIS 3.0 allows for a 5-85 upstream, allowing room for growth to handle this change. DOCSIS 3.1 pushes the split to 5-200 which allows for HFC systems to theoretically achieve a GB symmetrical service. 

The Importance of DAA 

DAA architectures such as Remote Phy or Remote Mac/Phy are inseparable from DOCSIS 3.1 when discussing the benefits next-gen DOCSIS platforms. While 3.1 chassis do traditionally offer a higher amount of port density in a chassis, this still becomes a limitation of the box. The next generation of CCAP platforms have more throughput potential than the physical RF output limitations can take advantage of. DAA becomes extremely valuable in that it removes that limitation by providing a digital link to the node itself, eliminating the limitation of physical RF ports. This also provides better link performance which continues to compliment the ability to achieve higher orders of modulation (better throughput performance across the same amount of spectrum). 

Improvement in MB throughput of spectrum by leveraging higher orders of modulation made possible by DOCSIS 3.1 and DAA. 

Perhaps the greatest benefit of DOCSIS 3.1 is that it dramatically extends the life of the HFC network and physical architecture. By extending the life of the physical infrastructure, it extends the life of all the assets of the network—from the video platform, existing CMTS chassis and provisioning systems, optical infrastructure, OSP, and CPE. 

The new urgency of a long-term plan

DOCSIS 3.1 in many ways did swoop in and save the day, but it also brings to light a flaw and errors that cannot be made again. For nearly a decade, many cable operators got trapped in operational mode without a long-term strategy. Had 3.1 not come along, the push to get to FTTH would be exploding at a rate that the supply cannot provide. 3.1 has brought new life to existing infrastructure and has allowed for a more graceful migration to fiber deep, higher bandwidth capacities, system upgrades, service migration and virtualization. All of these solutions need to be executed with an eye on the longer term future, to ensure that the things we do today compliment the needs of tomorrow instead of simply extending the limits of the past.

Bringing Intelligence to the Cable Plant

Written by: Todd Gingrass, Director of Cable and Media Solutions 

As cable operators, for years we have tried to be proactive about plant maintenance to keep services working at optimal levels and our subscribers happy. However, over the years our perception of proactive plant maintenance has mutated. A decade ago, performing 100% plant sweep and leakage detection was the go-to method for preventing outages and impairments. While that thought process was not incorrect, we all know the reality of it. Not enough time, people and resources. Staying on top of the day-to-day problems had been enough to keep us reactive in our maintenance process, making a full proactive sweep a pipe dream.

We know that a marginally well maintained plant will typically only have issues in about 50% of the actual sweep coverage. What if we could get that 50% of time back?  How would that change the bottom line as an operator? 


Getting out from behind

So how do we break that cycle of always being behind? It is easy to say we are too busy to get out and be proactive, but the reality is much more difficult. 

• What if we could be proactive and not have to physically “get out there”? 
• What if we could harness available data from the plant and mix that with decades of good old cable know-how to identify portions of the plant that need the most help? 
• What if that could help me prioritize my day so when time is spent, it produces the most valuable results?

The answer, it’s all possible today!

Cable modems have been able to tell us a lot about plant performance for quite some time. As an industry, we have been slow to realize and take advantage of these technological advancements. While it is by no means “simple” to make all of this work, it is worth it on the backside.  

The new generation of modern intelligence

During the later stages of DOCSIS 3, modems on the market were able to capture the entire forward bandwidth—not just the original “sliding window” of 40 or 80 MHz, but the entire spectrum from around 50 MHz to 1 GHz. If this “capture” sounds familiar, it should. It’s basically a visualization of the frequency response of the forward bandwidth, otherwise known as… you guessed it, a basic sweep response.

 

With the new DOCSIS 3.1 standard out and vendors now going through certification, this and many other maintenance tools have been built into both CMTS and cable modems. Imagine being able to see the sweep response of your entire plant from a computer without ever leaving the office. Add on top of that, the fact that before we would typically sweep amp to amp, but now we are basically sweeping modem to modem. You can now see down to the tap where an impairment might present itself.

Actionable intelligence  

The prior example is only one of the potential tools that is or soon will be available to us as operators. Now imagine automating those steps so that information can be acted upon immediately, rather than having to spend hours analyzing and prioritize large amounts of data. We could really start to affect the days of our plant staff, allowing them to increase their productivity and get back to being preventative. This modification of how we view and handle plant maintenance will have a great impact on our real goals: 

As an operator, CCI understands how hard it is to stay ahead and offer the great services that we promise our subscribers. That’s why we have taken our 60+ years of industry experience and changed the game by building these types of tools. We use them ourselves and have seen first-hand how taking a truly proactive approach positively impacts our business.  

If you’re interested in discussing Managed Services for your network, reach out to CCI or follow us on social media.

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Market Demand Determines Network Technologies

Why the ‘Cable’ Market is Primed for Opportunity

Author: Drew Kempen, Consulting Systems Engineer

Drew Kempen, CSE

Seemingly overnight, there is a major buzz around the cable market.  What is causing this buzz in a technology area that was apparently in serious peril not too long ago?  To understand this, one must understand cable history, the overall market and technology. 

Cable had seen arguably its largest growth period in the late 90’s to mid-2000s. The introduction of two-way internet capable systems in 1996, along with the demand and transition to HD content in the 2000s sparked this growth.  A massive undertaking of pushing fiber deep, building next gen architectures (anything less than N+6), and expanding bandwidth drove the network adaptation.  

Subscribers, all of the sudden, were being thrust into the digital age.  Analog began its slow death—but still played a part as a service.  HD content slowly became the primary customer choice and major differentiator.  Cable could offer much better speeds than the previous dial-up and DSL models.  The future looked bright.  

To account for growth in HSD/Data demand, cable introduced DOCSIS 3.0. This allowed for more than one channel per service group to be bonded together— offering a larger pipe and keeping service group sizes larger.  Most cable operators then sat back, made the necessary changes, went into operational mode, and watched customers roll in.  

But as with any technology industry, ‘promising futures’ arrive and are surpassed very quickly…

Fast forward to 2007 and the financial crisis.  The market crash hit technology and cable operators particularly hard.  Virtually everything regarding investment into the system was put on hold.  The ‘necessity’ to grow HD content from 200 channels to 300 channels began to seem…ridiculous.  The seemingly infinite amount of new channels popping up daily during the HD era disappeared overnight.  Cable went into a defensive mode.  Maintain and recoup.  Innovation stopped, plant investment halted, and growth became stagnant. 

This in turn affected the equipment and partner side.  Vendors scaled back on the big bet investments and R&D.  Contractors slowly disappeared.  As in any economic downturn, only the strong survived.  This trend also applied to cable operators as consolidations of many of the mid to smaller tier companies occurred.  

Then in 2008, everything changed once again, and would never be the same.  Netflix began streaming in November of 2008.  While there were sceptics because of the limited content at the time, Netflix became an instant success.  Particularly for people on a budget.  By this time, internet connectivity had finally overtaken video as the most important communication service required in the home.  Many people in the down economy had to pay for internet, but didn’t want to fork over the extra $50-100 per month for video.  Netflix provided a revolutionary and cost saving idea, and gave subscribers an experience better than anything they ever had in the past.  

It is very important to understand that up to this time, from the introduction of cable internet, one DOCSIS QAM channel per service group had sufficiently accounted for data traffic. Within 2-3 years, Netflix alone accounted for 50% or more of all internet traffic.  The revolution had begun.  Steadily, we began to see the demand for DOCSIS QAM per service group rise from 1-2 by 2010, 2-4 by 2013, 4-8 by 2015, etc.  Now the industry is looking at 32 channels and beyond over the next few years alone, and with smaller and smaller service group sizes.

 

Chart: DOCSIS QAM Growth Trends & Projections for constant service group size.

In addition to Netflix and streaming services, FTTx began to heavily roll out in the 2010s.  The ‘speed war’ had begun.  30 MB, 50 MB, 100 MB, 300 MB, 1 GB tiers!  Not only was keeping up with real customer demands a concern, but now a marketing war based on subscriber perception had begun.  

The problem many cable operators faced, was that cable technology at the time, would not be able to keep up with those speed requirements.  It was also apparent as they viewed the demand/impact hockey stick of QAM channel requirements, they were going to have significant issues keeping up with consumer demand—unless they continued to split nodes; over and over and over again.  This would cause rapid expansion in CMTS chassis requirements, optics, fiber, nodes, etc.  Not a viable option for any long term strategy or business model.

Major MSOs began to question whether they should abandon growing HFC at all and move directly to a FTTH architecture.  There seemed to be no good answer.  Moving to a FTTH architecture was a massive cost, change in technology, new HE’s, changing set-tops, re-educating maintenance crews, changing operating procedures, …new vendors, partners, contractors, etc.  In addition, the transitional process would be a nightmare.  On the flip side, investing in HFC to keep up with demand and competition appeared okay for a while; but seemed a lost cause in the long run. 

Fortunately, the few remaining thought leaders in the industry came together.  The result of this is DOCSIS 3.1, higher density chassis, remote Phy, 1.2 GHz gear, larger US splits, etc.  The foundations of this all arising in the 2012-2014 time frames.  The possibilities that these technologies would provide, modeled cable systems well beyond a 10-year time frame at a fraction of the cost of a full FTTx overbuild.  Adopting a hybrid New Next Gen HFC architecture with targeted PON not only extends that even further, but helps the longer term migration to fiber deeper becomes manageable and cost effective. 

These technologies help solve the bandwidth issue, speed requirements, scaling issue at the HE, and provide spectrum for next gen services such as managed IP, Cloud VOD, Cloud DVR, etc.   At this point, it was all a matter of the vendors and partners executing on that solution, equipment and software.  

Opportunities in Cable are back, and in a big way.  Major players in cable such as Comcast and Time Warner continuing to investment in HFC technologies.  These changes include Node splits, upgrades, CMTS replacement and scaling, D3.1, Remote Phy, IP video, Targeted PON growth, new build PON integration, etc.  

Over the next 10 years, the majority of cable operators will have:

• Upgraded most if not all of their node and active components
• Enhanced tap and passive networks
• Migrated to node only
• Growing CMTS capacity multiple times over
• Introduced DOCSIS 3.1 and Remote Phy
• Migrated services away from broadcast and traditional QAM to IP delivered services
• Migrated portions of their network to true virtualization
• Began process of migrating to full FTTX/PON

Vendors will be releasing new platforms and technologies at a rapid pace over the next few years.  The scale of changes in the network will rival, if not exceed the changes that took place in the late 90s to mid-2000s.  To achieve success during this transition, operators, vendors and partners need to work together—leveraging the strengths of each entity.  

CCI has the ‘across the network’ experience and expertise to help cable operators build a strategic migration solution for both the physical network and service strategy.  From strategy to design, installation, implementation, and Managed NOC & Call Center services, CCI is the ideal partner to help cable operators with transitioning their traditional video and HFC systems to the IP capable network of the future.

CCI Systems Adds Drew Kempen to Technology Team

Consulting Systems Engineer brings extensive cable architecture knowledge to CCI

  

Drew Kempen, CSE 

IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich., September 21, 2015- CCI Systems recently announced technology expert, Drew Kempen, has joined the team to offer additional expertise with HFC and FTTx end-to-end architecture, solution and consulting services.

“Drew’s years of experience, business acumen, and technical vision are vital components to providing thought leadership to our customers and guiding them to success,” said CCI CTO, Matt Reath.

As Cable Architecture and Strategy CSE, Kempen will play a role in developing and implementing CCI’s cable strategy, with emphasis on Tier 2-4 service providers (SP). He has worked with cable operators around the world in developing a planned strategy that migrates the network based on customer and service requirements. This includes technology, service and architecture migrations that help operators effectively transition toward a Next-Gen IP video platform. His specializations include solution architecture, service and bandwidth modeling and migration, service & technology transition strategy, cost analysis and construction/operational impact analysis, with experience in developing Optical, HFC, X-PON and FTTx solutions.

"CCI has been doing great things for services provider networks for a long time. Customers know they can come to CCI to get the job done right.” Kempen noted. “The cable operator market is about to go through a major transformation which presents an enormous opportunity for CCI. I am excited to help CCI become not only a leader in implementation, but a thought leader in the industry, where customers come to CCI to figure out ‘what to do’. As we engage customers at the strategic level on developing solutions and a long term plan, the value of CCI to the customer will vault to the top of the value pyramid; and will entrench us as a partner and solution provider to the customer for years to come.”

Kempen joins CCI after 16 years with Cisco as an Architecture Specialist and Consultant, where he worked with customers at the operational layer, as well as the strategic level, giving him a unique perspective and understanding of the requirements cable operators have when looking for solutions.

While holding a Bachelor’s degree in Business Science and Management, Kempen has also earned multiple Cisco certifications, including Cisco Certified PM, Cisco certification in networking and the Advanced Sales Masters Certification. 

Stop by and say hello to Drew at the upcoming SCTE Cable Tec Expo. CCI will be in booth #2721 and will be  available to have candid planning discussions with Service Providers regarding present and future network needs.